Fight Back 5K 1/10/15
Happy New Year of
Sheep! My first race was 5K in McKinney. When I saw the event notice, I
thought I would like this one. It was
close and looks like established enough to draw just enough crowds and I don’t
have to worry about traffic nor parking.
One of my 2015 goals is to
break 30 minutes in 5K, so this was my first attempt. After getting into running, maybe I became
good at one thing. After small amount of
fried rice for breakfast with coffee, I ran around the neighborhood and had a
good bathroom visit. But I knew I needed
one more good visit, so I chucked down Starbucks instant iced coffee and hopped
on Tony the Chauffeur’s vehicle. All
club rides were cancelled this morning, so he was able to accompany. The start was at a church on a street that
sounded familiar. After seeing it on the
map, I realized we used to ride on the street with a bike shop ride. We arrived
at the church about an hour before the start, just about when on-site
registration started. The booths were
all set up and moderate volume of music was already going. I visited the church bathroom and that took
care of all the stress. I started my warm
up around the parking lot with a few people. I made another visit to the bathroom, luckily
still empty and changed my pad. Now I am
golden.
I heard an announcement and
headed to where the voice is from. Lesan
and Carlo noticed me and I was surprised that they were there. They are a couple of elite athletes in our
cycling club. They both went to 70.3
World Championship and they are racing and making results all the time. Tony joined while getting ready for his partial
walk/run. The event started with
speeches and Mayor Brian
Loughmiller had a few words and asked for a moment of silence for people who
passed because of cancer. I have known
him for a while; he used to show up the bike shop ride on Saturday (we frequented
on Sunday) and he hosts Mayor’s race in Circuit road race and we went to watch
one year. But this was my first time
actually seeing him in person. City of
McKinney has an office to organize recreational events now and it has increased
the number of quality athletic events in the city. National anthem followed and
it was done by a cappella with four men.
I enjoyed it very much. But even
more fun was the warm up. The video
below starts with me having a lot of fun.
The race started on time at
9am with Mayor’s air horn. A lot of
people passed me and I was just focusing on my cadence. The course was easy to figure out and we
quickly turned into quiet residential neighborhood. On the course map, there was not any
indication of water station, so I brought my bottle belt. I was glad to see water station maybe less
than a mile in. Nobody was taking on the
way in, but it is my way of taking a quick break. We made a few more turns and I started to
thinking maybe I can pass certain people on the way back. I checked my Garmin once in a while and
checked my cadence was kept high and was surprised that my heart rate stayed
very high around 190-200 bpm. On most
runs, they will settle down after 15 minutes or so, but there was not sign of
going down. I kept my breathing steady
pace. I thought I was running well and
maybe I can break 30 minutes today. Once
I saw the water station, I knew it was pretty close. I started to pick up the pace a little and
when I saw the last turn to the church, I really picked up the pace and I
looked at the finish clock. It didn’t
look like PR, but I was glad to finish.
I quickly found Tony and he
was with Carlo and Lesan. Carlo ended 2nd
and he was excitedly describing how the race went. They both took their AG with nice medal and
some reward. I didn’t make PR nor break
30 minutes, but this means I am just as good as last running season. AG 5th out of 24. I will get my
first 10K race done for confidence about the distance and will keep working on
speed and technique towards the A race in fall.
THANK YOU, Tigre for being a great Sherpa and faithful Spinervals
teammates for cheering! Keep on keeping
on!
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