Eric in Seattle

Last weekend I did my first 5k (3.1 miles). It's the longest that I've run at one time. I was pretty nervous going into it because my performance on the treadmill has been rather dismal lately. Before the Thanksgiving Day Duathlon I did with my brother, I was eeking out a 20 minute 2 mile workout. My times of late have been in the 11 minute mile range. This is due to my changing running styles to incorporate the Pose Method (or some perversion of it). It's feeling a lot better overall, but I now have to build up some of the calf muscles that I'm lacking.

The day of the run was wet and rainy. Bobbie and I decided to ride our bikes down to the start, since it was only a few miles from her house. She took one of her mountain bikes and I rode my Bike Friday, since it was green. By the time we got to the start, my feet were completely soaked. She had a cheap green feather boa wrapped around her waist that was leaving feathers everywhere. She had given one to me, but I decided I was going to have enough to worry about without feathers flying everywhere. Right before the start, I took off my shoes and wrung out my socks as best I could. It helped a little but my feet were still pretty damp.

We positioned ourselves in the middle of the 700+ pack of runners and when the gun went off it took a minute for us to get past the start. I felt pretty good as we jogged along in the pack and I was suprised to see the 1 mile mark come up as quickly as it did. Shortly after that, we saw the leaders already heading back. That's about the time that I started hurting. I knew it was only going to get worse from there, but I absolutely did not want to walk at all. I pushed on through the midway point to the second mile mark. By that time, my calves were really burning. I knew I was going to be limping for a few days. I pushed on through the pain and eventually the finish line came into sight. I summoned up all my energy for one last 50 yard dash and sprinted across the finish line.

Once I stopped, the pain from my calves became much more noticable. I hobbled over the fence and tried to stretch them out. When I turned around to get some water, my eye caught the race clock. It read 31:35. I knew I had been across the finish line for more about two minutes and I was floored! I had wanted to try and do the run in under 30 minutes, but I never expected that to happen. Later in the day, I checked the times and I had done it in 29:44 averaging a 9:35 minute mile.

Sure enough, I was limping for quite a few days this week. It's been four days so far and my calves are now getting to the point where I don't limp so much. I've been trying to walk as much as I can to speed the recovery process. This weekend I'm going to do the Mercer Island 5k. Hopefully, I can improve on my time. After that, I'm going to start moving up the distance. It shouldn't be too long before I'm doing half marathons and marathons. Maybe I'll even beat my brother in this years Thanksgiving Day Triathlon.