AHA 5K Run at Yankee Candle

Today was a really good day for me, not just because of how my race turned out, but because I proved to myself how much running truly is a mental game. I’ll explain. Ever since last Sunday’s race, I have this annoying little ache in my right knee. I’m not super concerned about it, because I honestly think that it’s just a bump or a bruise, and not a serious ligament or articulating surface problem, but nonetheless, whenever I bend it past 90 degree it says, “Hey, knock it off!”

So yesterday with my twisted logic I decided to ride for 17 miles, theorizing that knee problems get better with a little quads exercise. My ride went great, but no change in my knee. Nonetheless, I told my wife last night that I was feeling good and that I was going to try for a new PR in this morning’s race.

Then I woke up this morning. More correctly, my mind woke up, but my body was still in bed. My legs felt heavy and sapped of all energy and I must have slept funny, because my shoulder and trapezius felt as tight as piano wire. Overall, not a good way to feel on race morning. We loaded up the kids in the car and headed off to Yankee Candle in South Deerfield, MA. We met my friend Kathy there and chilled out until race time.

Now, I decided somewhere in the 40 minute drive that my body could go scr&# itself. I was going to run hard and fast and just suck it up until I crossed the finish line. Part of me thought that I was full of $h!t, but I did that positive self-talk thing that I’ll do when I’m running hills.

The race started when Santa (yes, Yankee Candle employs a year-round Santa) banged on the gong (I’ve always associated Santa and gongs, you too?). We set off on a meandering course through Yankee village and crossed Route 5 and the railroad tracks into South Deerfield. I went out WAY TOO FAST and I knew it, but I was committed to the plan. The volunteers set up a watering station at mile 1 and when I looked at my watch I was shocked to see 5:37. 5:37?!?! How the hell did I do that? Moreover, why didn’t I feel worse? By this point in the race, I knew that I was slowing a tad, but I was also finding my breathing pattern and settling in to a comfortable pace. When I got to the second mile marker my watch read 11:56. How the hell did I average the first two miles at under a 6 min/mile?

My third mile sucked, but I just pushed myself to run as fast as I could sustain. Long story short, I set a new PR today (21:27) and blew my previous PR away by 1 minute and 43 seconds! My average pace was 6:56. I took 2nd place in my age group. This is the first time ever that I’ve broken my 7 minute barrier. Obviously, I have lots more work to do. My third mile was a joke. The reason I’m happy though is that today’s race proved to me that I CAN run fast. I’ll start incorporating longer sprints into my training runs and see how far I can go with this 5K thing. That being said, I told my wife after the race today that as I start to run longer and longer distances, I’m realizing how much I prefer them over these short races. As my friend Justin put it last week, I’d rather hurt in the legs, than in the chest. It might also have something to do with the fact that I’m reading Born to Run right now and I’m imagining myself someday running an ultra.

Kathy did well today too. She was battling back and forth with a runner for most of the course. They kept leap frogging each other, but Kathy really showed her competitive side today and blasted past her in the final 200 meters. She had a big smile on her face and it was cool to see that she still had some gas in the tank at the end of the race.

After the race, we ate some fattening baked goodies in Yankee Candle and then my own Mrs. Claus dropped more money than I care to admit on assorted fragrant schtuff, making this the most expensive 5K that I’ve run yet.

Anyway, here are the pics from the race.

Kathy and I before the race

Santa's Gong Start

Aubrey

McKenna

My finishing strides

Kathy putting the pedal down