Running with Jack

I spent most of Saturday morning standing on the hard concrete floor in my workshop at home, fooling with my second hobby, woodworking. But after lunch I stretched out on the couch and let the legs rest.

At about 16:30 we piled in the car and headed over to Stutensee-Buechig, about 20 minutes from us. The 1000m kids run, 5K and 10K runs were sponsored by the local sports club in Buechig. They had a tent set up with fest tables and benches and were selling the normal steaks, bratwurst, cake, coffee, and other liquid refreshments that are typical of these local festivals.

The 1000m kids run was just starting as I picked up my start number (#7). I sat with my wife a while, until about a half hour before the start of the 10K race. I than made my way to the toilet, than watched the 5K racers cross the finish for a few minutes. After a bit of stretching I ran around the block a couple times, then headed for the Start line. My wife met me over there and took a couple pictures.



After a couple minutes I took my place in the middle of the runners and waited for the start. I was pretty relaxed, I guess I’ve done so many 10K runs now, that I don’t get nervous like I used to.

I remember thinking about whether to go for a new record or not. The weather was perfect, sunny, but not too warm, relatively low humidity, no wind. I felt good, not having run since Wednesday.



My thoughts were interrupted with the final countdown, 3, 2, 1…GO!

I got off to a surprising fast start despite the masses of people (over 400). For some reason 3 or 4 people fell after about 10 meters, I saw at least one clutching her leg after someone stepped on her, I bet that hurt. I managed to weave around another one that tripped in front of me, a couple people caught her at the same time, she was able to continue.

We did a quick loop around town, I crossed the 1K marker with a time of 4:48 (7:43/M), not bad. We passed near the Start again, than headed out of town over the open fields. It was pretty warm along this stretch. At the edge of the fields was the 2K marker, my time 9:20 (pace = 4:40/K, 7:31/M). I was starting to breath pretty hard so tried to slow down just a little to conserve my energy. A minute later we entered the cool forest, this was a relief. I was following a couple that looked like the same pair that I followed during one of my half-marathons this spring. Small world! I passed the 3K marker with a time of 14:20 (pace = 4:47/K, 7:41/M). I pretty much maintained this pace through the 4K, 5K and 6K markers.

The packed dirt forest trails were narrow, about three people could run abreast. By the 7K marker I could feel myself slowing down a little, I concentrated on maintaining my pace. I passed the 8K marker at about 39 minutes, still under 5:00/K (8:00/M). By now I knew I could break my PR if I could just maintain this pace. A couple minutes later we popped out of the wood line, went around a curve and crossed the 9K marker. Ignoring my watch I tried to pick up the pace, passing a few that were running out of steam. A minute or two later, as we neared the edge of the town, I broke into a full run, passing people right and left.

I knew exactly where the finish was, having checked it out before the race. I sprinted around the last corner and spotted the crowd at the finish. I flew over the finish line so fast that I almost ran over a small woman that came to a quick stop to have her barcode scanned. Two guys at the finish actually grabbed my arms to slow me down. I would have squashed her for sure;) Hitting my stopwatch as my barcode was scanned, I walked forward trying to catch my breath, whew what a run!!

I sneaked a peek at my watch 49:15, all right, a new PR!

I walked up and down the street a couple minutes until I loosened up, than grabbed a few cups of water that was being offered at the finish. Once I felt relaxed again I made my way over to the fest tent to meet my wife.

I was hoping that my wife had taken a few pictures, but apparently the battery was low, so she only got a couple at the start. I was hungry after my run so ordered a steak sandwich and a beer. About that time some friends of ours that live in the race town arrived so they sat with us for a few hours. This was totally cool!

Anyway my official time was 49:12, a new PR, 39 seconds faster than my previous record. I was 205th out of 458 runners, 34th in my age group.

What is really cool is that I really improved over my time last year, which was 51:08.

So how was your weekend?