After the milestone of completing my first 5K road course, I ran for a few more days until I could not anymore. My left knee was not doing well and so I figured some rest would be the best thing for it, and it looks like I was right. Today’s run was great, equaling my time from the Army Run. I forgot how nice it was to have two healthy legs under me to run with, something that hasn’t happened in quite a while.

However, my week layoff was not all fun and games – I did manage to get something healthy involved. The cold weather is coming quickly, much too quickly, and so soon it will be time to abandon these runs outside for some indoor training at the gym. The goal with the running was an initial weight loss, which I am glad to say is working (29 pounds lighter as of today). The next goal was to start weight training to build some core strength, as well as to start converting some fat into muscle. With that in mind, I have started a nightly push-up routine so that I have a bit of a base for when I do make it to the weights. Combined with the push-ups, I stumbled upon the exercise called The Plank. Now, it may not be new to you but it is to me, and I rather like it. I can really feel the core ab muscles having to work to hold the position, even just seconds into it. I am using it as a substitute for sit-ups as I don’t really have anywhere to do them and they can put strain on the back and neck. Maybe I will be able to follow my progress using the 100 Push Ups application for the iPhone.

What was that? Oh, ya. It looks like the iPhone cult has a better marketing strategy than I initially thought. They have gotten their claws in me and I am looking to swap my Blackberry Curve out for an iPhone 3G. More on that to come in a following post.

Anyways, enough with the rambling you say? How did the Army Run 5K race go, you ask? AWESOME!

It was 5:50am when the alarm went off but I was already awake for 10-20 minutes as I had a full night’s sleep and was anxious to get the morning on the go. It was unusual to wake up and have to turn a light on as it was still dark out – a combination of autumn arriving and me not having had to get up at such an early hour in a while. I got out of bed and had my usual pre-run breakfast of toast with Nutella and a banana, as well as starting to hydrate with the H2O. Having everything else ready the night before, it was a simple matter of donning my race outfit, making sure I looked pretty, and then I was heading out the door to meet Brent, Breanna, Lanny & Susan (Breanna’s folks) so we could all head downtown together. The early morning drive at 6:20 was quite interesting as it was pea-soup foggy out and I could barely see anything 20 feet in front of me. Not only that, but the car was reading 3 degrees out and so it wasn’t looking too great for a run. I guess it was a suburban fog because as soon as I reached town the fog was gone and it was a bright crisp day, with the car reading 6 degrees in the Westboro sun even. It still wasn’t warm though. Once everyone was ready we hopped on the bus and headed to the race downtown. We got off one stop early and once we rounded the corner we were met by the start line and the mass of people – 12,000 total participants, 5500 of which were for the 5K. There was some time to kill as we were early and so we walked around to keep warm, made post-race meeting plans and found John & Julie who were also running (Julie the 5K and John the half-marathon). Next thing I knew there was 10 minutes till the gun and it was time to take our places.

Brent and I had roughly the same target time, me wanting sub 26 minutes and him wanting to be with the 25 minute pace bunny, and so we headed to the appropriate corral. We were a little late getting there, but we squeezed our way through the fence and pushed our way into the crowd. The nice part was that it was a couple of degrees warmer in the crowd due to all the body heat, which was much appreciated as we listened to all the opening instructions and ramblings of the MC. Then the huge army gun went off behind us (getting your heart rate up a few beats on its own) and we were off… sort of. We were about mid-pack and so had to wait for everyone else in front of us to get going, and then we were off… sort of. The MC came on telling everyone to stop as some people at the front had fallen and were getting stepped on… not good! A few seconds later it appeared that everyone was back up and on their way and so we were finally running the race.

I had read that it was easy to get excited at the beginning of the race, with the adrenalin pumping, and start out too fast trying to keep pace with everyone around you. Sure enough, a couple of minutes from the start line I looked down at my watch and I was doing 12.8km/h when my normal pace is about 11.5-12.0km/h. Eek, I better slow down to make sure I finish the race without walking. However, there is one piece of motivation to keep a faster pace that I was not warned about on all the sites I visited – young, fit women in tight running shorts, and there were a lot of them! Not surprisingly, I would find that I was adjusting my pace according to what the scenery around me was running and every now and then I would glance down at my watch and realize that I had to either slow down or pick up the pace. The other thing I had to get used to, having run only by myself up until now, was dodging traffic. People would be 2-3 abreast and in the middle of the road and then would suddenly slow, causing me to have to shoulder check and then jump to the left or right just so I didn’t run into them. It was like I was driving a car. However, as the third and fourth kilometers came around, the crowd really started to thin and you didn’t have to worry about it as much. What I did have to worry about around kilometer four was twisting my ankle as a hole in the road escaped my detection and I almost went down.

Hey wait a second, the fourth kilometer and I am feeling great? Woohoo! Next thing I know there are people lined up along the sides of the road cheering everyone on, gates started to appear and there was the finish line! Holy crap! I am almost done. I kicked it into high gear for the last sprint, putting on a good show for the spectators of course, and crossed the finish line with the clock reading 26:30 I believe, which was race time (since the gun went off) and not my chip time (measured from when I crossed the start line). In all the excitement of finishing my first road race I had forgetting to stop my watch and so I really didn’t know what my personal time was, but I estimated that it was under 26 minutes. I lost track of the distance while on the run and actually had some more in the tank to give at the end and wished I had run a bit faster, but being my first race it was a learning process.

So what did I learn? I learned that I enjoy running, especially the camaraderie of running in such a large crowd. I learned that I am a better runner than I thought, having placed much better than I thought possible when I started this whole running thing a few months back. I learned that I can push myself even further than I have been. I learned that I want to do more road races and greater distances. I learned that women running in running shorts is motivation enough to get up early on a Sunday morning.

And finally, my official results…
Time: 25:44, 882 out of 5502 overall, 675 out of 2447 males, 134 out of 477 males 30-39 years old.

Not bad for my first time out! It looks like my next race will be in a couple of weeks on the Thanksgiving weekend – the Ottawa Fall Colours race in Cumberland on Oct 11th. I will decide this week if I am going to run it. If it is anything like this race was, it is going to be a blast!

Next up, let me tell you about the absolute hate I have for road racing bibs! After today’s experience with my first one I absolutely abhor them at the moment. Perhaps it is just lack of sleep, my rookie-ness showing or me being a perfectionist, but I am willing to bet that all three issues co-ordinated to cause me a mini-nightmare this afternoon. Who knew that a shirt, four safety pins and a piece of paper could break my spirit, but man did they. That being said, the damned thing is on my new long-sleeved running shirt and it isn’t coming off! I will simply stack them on top of each other and when I have too many bibs and they are weighing me down then I will just retire the shirt.

With the bib hurdle completely run into and tripped over, I moved on to getting everything else ready for my first organized road race tomorrow – the Army Run 5K. I have read about people getting all anxious before a race and didn’t think it would happen to me, but I think it has. Well, actually, I don’t think it is anxiousness as much as me just liking to plan and make sure everything is in order, which can lead to some anxiety I suppose. Before even tackling the bib application I had to decide what I was going to wear – you have to look good for your first race of course! It is probably going to be 6 or 7 degrees max at race time and so a new long-sleeved shirt was needed. Even with that I don’t know if it will be sufficient as I usually run once the thermometer hits at least 12 or 13 degrees, so I have decided to go with a short-sleeved tech shirt underneath as well. Together, they should provide me enough warmth for the chilly morning, and any breeze, while still keeping me cool and dry if I start to warm up.

Now that the attire situation was settled it was just a matter of making sure I have all my other running paraphernalia ready for the early morning departure:

shirts with bib – check!
shorts – check!
running socks – check!
running shoes – check!
wrist band – check!
Garmin Forerunner – check!
heart rate monitor – check!
shades – check!

I think I am good to go! All I need to do now is get some carbs in me for dinner (my famous spaghetti sauce is already on the go!), get a good night’s sleep and then wake up in the morning. After that it is grabbing some breakfast, water and hit the road to meet up with Brent, Breanna and her parents so we can all head downtown and run our little asses off. It is going to be so much fun!