Running with Jack

I was kind of out to the world today when I showed up for the 10K Unicef Oberwald Forest Run. Lots of things going on at work that require a lot of time and concentration before the end of the year. I have to come up with a plan this week how I’m going to get it all done.

Anyway I was only about half-hearted about racing today, a first for me I think. I collected my start number from the colleague that arrived early and picked them all up for our group. I stood around talking with some of my colleagues, this perked me up a bit. Several of the runners ran the Baden Mile in May so we had some experienced runners among the group.

This morning was 7C/44F when I woke up, but right before the race it had warmed up to at least 21C/70F. I ditched my long sleeve shirt in the car and warmed up a little. Anyway about 5 minutes before the race the 22 people from my company (1 didn’t show up) lined up at the Start. Someone said there were about 400 people racing today. So we’re standing around gossiping when all of a sudden the Start pistol went off. We eased forward and were on our way.

The trail was kind of small for 400 runner’s, there was a lot of pushing and shoving the first kilometer or so. I lost my colleagues in the crowd. I passed the 1K marker in 4:55 (7:54/M), which was kind of fast considering the crowd. The route headed almost immediately into the forest after the start and pretty much stayed that way the entire route. The path was mostly dirt and crushed stone with occasional asphalt patches. The leaves are changing in our area so it was really pretty to run.

Actually I didn’t see too many leaves, after fighting the crowd for 5-10 minutes my adrenalin was flowing and I was beating the path at a pretty good pace (for me). I averaged 4:55/K (7:54/M) almost to the second for the first 6 kilometers. By the 7K marker I had lost 5 seconds, so tried to pick it up again. I saw a couple people from my company about 2 minutes in front of me so set a goal on catching them before the finish line. This helped me pick up the pace again and maintain it for at least another kilometer when I passed both of them.

By the 8th kilometer I was really starting to feel the faster pace, but fought to keep the pace going. By this time I new that if I kept the pace up I would come really close to my personal best. I only couldn’t remember what my personal best was as I ran. So I just ran as hard as I could hoping for the best.

By kilometer 9 my heart was pumping like crazy, I thought I was going to start hyperventilating at any moment. Luckily I heard the loud speaker from the finish line so knew I was getting close. I tried to get my legs to move faster but they just weren’t interested in going any faster. I guess all the swimming in the last couple days didn’t help.

Finally I popped out of the forest, ran across the edge of a soccer and onto a running track, 400 meters to go! I tried to break into a sprint but somehow I just didn’t have anything left today, I did manage to speed up the last 100 meters at least, but not like usual. I think that I even forgot to smile today, not that I saw anyone taking pictures today. I stopped my watch at 49:41, but this was quite a few seconds after finishing so I really wasn’t sure what I ran. I couldn’t remember my personal best anyway so I guess it didn’t matter. I had to wait until I got home to look it up.

In any case I ran a lot better than I had expected. Somehow once I got over the start and the adrenalin kicked in I was fine. After standing around chatting for a little while with a few of the colleguesI was getting kind of chilly so grabbed my sports bag out of the car and took a shower and changed in the sports center from the club that held the run today. By the time I was done I couldn’t find hardly anyone from my company anymore, I guess they all had things to do. I did sit with a few for a little while and had some cake and coffee. All in all it was a nice time, I feel pretty good now.

I was 203 out of 414 runners. I was 80th in my age group (M40) out of 126. Today the age groups had a ten year span instead of the normal 5. Typically I’m in the M45 group. My average pace 4:55/K (7:54/M).

The fastest male runner: 33:01
The fastest female: An incredible 37:06!
The fastest male runner from my company: 39:40 (M30)
The fastest female runner from my company: 53:54 (F40)
I was the 7th fastest runner from my company (from 23 runners).

Oh I guess you’re curious about my time? I ran in 49:07, a new personal best by 5 seconds!