23 replies to this topic

[Randy Reed]

This was too long to bore someone with in a single thread so I figured I'd bore
everyone with it.

Ghosts and Goblins 5K report

Very long, more of a story than report.

As i've told a few times I really messed up by getting lost trail running Sunday. The plan was a
3 mile run and rest the legs to be fresh for this, my first, race. Instead they were aching, sore
and lifeless. A lesson learned.

Anyway, the race started at 6:30 in downtown Dayton. We got there about 45 minutes early
and there was a ight rain coming down about 50 degrees but dropping and with the wind
and clouds it felt alot colder. I orginally dressed in a long sleeve running shirt and shorts but
as the temperature dropped I switched to some thin running pants and added a light wind jacket.
Deb safety pinned my paper number to the wind jacket and we attached an electronic tab to
my shoe with the plastic tie. All ready to run my first race (at age 49).

They had a costume contest at 6 and there were a couple hundred people dressed up. Nothing
spectacular but still pretty cool that they did it. I kept trying to loosen up my legs to no avail
and decided the best way would be to just run them loose and hope for the best.

It was pretty crowded and over 2100 runners of all ages showed up. 2800 registered and paid
but I assume most no-showed due to the weather. They called about 15 minutes before race
time for everyone to line up, "slower to the back please". I headed to the back.

The gun cracked and it was a minute before the people in front of me started moving. The time
doesn't start until you cross a pad at the starting line. As the crowd started moving I noticed they
had signs posted for every minute e.g. 7, 8 , 9, 10. It dawned on me that if I was a 10 minute miler
that was were I should have started. As soon as I crossed the pad I realized it was my first "race"
mistake being stuck behind a ton of walkers. It's not that I wanted to run fast, but my steady jog
wasn't going anywhere so I jumped up on a curb and dashed through around people trying to get to
clearing which took a quarter mile or so.

I actually had no idea where the course went and in retrospect this was a second mistake. I was
a little familiar with where I was but i'm used to running my own miles in the morning on familiar
territory and know how far along I am. Another thing that had hit me was that I always run with
headphones and music. The race instructions strictly frowned upon anyone doing this so I was
amazed to see hundreds of people donning their ipods before the race. Well, dismayed that I
wasn't one of them. In retrospect I realize with the crowd it is smart to not where them so that
you can hear people coming from behind and move out of the way. As slow as I am that probably
a smart thing and I was moving out of the way often.

The issue with not having something to listen to is that I "could" hear myself, ugh. Damn I was
sucking wind and it wasn't even a half mile. It sounded like I was in scuba gear. I know that it
takes me a while to get in the groove and I was immediately wondering if I was starting to fast or
if this was normal? I seemed to be going at my regular pace albeit with legs that felt like they
had weights attached around the ankles. My fastest 5K time in the less than 3 months since I
started this adventure was about 30 minutes and this was my "goal" I suppose. As soon as we
made the first turn and headed uphill over a bridge that goal went out the window as I could barely
breathe and finishing became the new one, laugh out loud. ( I wish I could have laughed out loud!)
Breathing was way too important!

I have a thing about hills. When I first started running I had read about a lady ultra-marathoner
named Ann Trasen that makes Lance Armstrong seem like a pansy. She routinely beats men
in 50, 75 and 100 miles races thorugh deserts and mountains. She started off hating hills but
decided to get a new attitude and attack the hills and made it one of her strong points. I have
tried to adapt this attitude routinely looking for all the biggest hills where I live and running them.
This wasn't a bad hill and though I tried to keep my pace quick with short steps,
like running on logs in water and made it up fine, though I was really breathing hard still and hating life.

The plus side to going uphill is the down run. The key I have learned is to keep your feet behind
you and let your body or weight give you momentum for speed. It just takes trust that your
feet will be there and to keep your hips behind your center, all the while keeping that same
quick pitter-patter motion of quick steps. The down side of the bridge was that it was crowded and all
runners seem to have this step type run they do, well, like running down steps. I never let
my heels hit the ground or at least barely, running on my forefeet so I am doing this completely
different. I moved to the closed oncoming lane of the bridge and got a nice flow going down and
passed a bunch of people. The down side of this is that I expended way more energy
than I wanted that early and already had a cramp in my side to go with the aching legs. Damn, I
just want to breathe and i'm less than a mile in. Ugh.

This is where I found running with people really disconcerting. Here I am gasping for breath,
wondering how in the hell I am going to actually make it as young girls come trotting past
jibber jabbering away. I hate the emotion of envy so I quickly turned it into hatred. I hated
the people especially the old and heavy ones that were flying past me now as my chest began
to feel like it was on fire.

Despite what some might think, I am really not an angry person. I quickly had to laugh at myself
and say "good for them". I am obviously mad at myself for being a chain smoking idiot the
past 35 years. I knew I needed to relax and not panic and get in the flow. No ipod? Time to
get a tune going in the head. I quickly turn to my favorite running tune, Marathon by Rush.

From first last, the peak is never past
Something always fires that light
that gets in your eyes.

Ahh, somewhat better and then the first marker appeared showing we had only gone a mile.
Oh crap. I was somewhat getting in a rhythm though and concentrating on form, constantly.
One of these days the evolution style of running will become more natural. Probably around the
time I can actually run and breathe I suppose.

A note here about why I am running. I am fully convinced that if you want to be healthy, lose
weight and live longer. Run. Reduce anxiety. Run. Live better. Run. I think we have evolved
over millions of years to do just this. Why else would millions of people across the world gather
together in runs like this every weekend? It's in our genes and our jeans.

So despite my aching lungs and sore legs I got in a slow rhythm and convinced myself to just
finish. I went slow and steady and just tried my best to enjoy it. I have worked myself into
shape where I do this 3 times a week at least and it should be nothing. I wasn't sure if
it was the ipod missing, running at night for the first time or just the tiredness of my Sunday
trail adventure but damn it was hard. Maybe I was putting pressure on myself since it was
a race? The people? Probably all of it. Most assuredly it's no fun to have Dorothy and the
Tin man pass you on one side and the Lion and Scarecrow zoom past on the other.

My wife hates when people talk to her when she's walking. (Exercise walking) Apparently she
isn't alone in this as I came across three sets of people where one was yacking away as the
other was in a deep silence despite the hundred questions their partner kept asking. One guy
repeatedly asked, "Do you care if I am talking?" and the girl, gasping, finally said, "Shut the **** up."

It was now dark and the only way to get around the people that were running slow was to go on
the side of road. Unfortunately this is where all the rain water was laying and my shoes were
getting soaked. I was dying of heat realizing that the jacket was too much and yanked it off and
tied it around my waist. Yeah, like a girl, so what!

I hit mile marker 2 and was just praying not to stop and walk so I hit the hill going back over the bridge
with a steady pace and kept that slow steady pace going back down and trying to keep the tunes going.

You can make the most of the distance
First you need the guts
Then you have to last.

I have never had my chest hurt like this running at any time over the last 10 weeks since I started
so I had to repeat my mantras. Stay calm. Relax. Quick short steps. Relax. Hips foward.
Relax. Body straight. Relax. Scream, no I mean Relax.

And finally someone yelled 800 meters left! Great! What's 800 meters? I tried to speed up but
couldn't. Well, maybe just a little. Hmm, my chest isn't hurting and i'm actually relaxed now.
My legs were numb but not hurting. I am finally in my groove even if it is way too late. I put
the guns on actually got close to a run for the last few hundred yards and passed the finish line!

Weird, but now that it's done I feel like I could keep going but once I stopped that was it. The
exhaustion and lack of air plus a dire need of water overcame me. I glanced around and saw
the wife on the curb snapping the camera to take pics. I would be remiss if I didn't mention here
that I am the luckiest man on the planet to have found and married her. Despite my ability to
turn every thing I do into an obsession she's alway their to support me. I can never tell if she does
this to get kicks out of laughing at me or if she likes watching train wrecks, but she's there an
for that I am forever thankful. She brought me a water and asked how I was and I said, "that's the
toughest thing i've ever done in my life." She was surprised but I think she understood. She said,
"Hey you did great. You got first!" I looked at her confused and she, "The chain smoker division!"

Epilogue. (Oh hell why not? It's a novel at this point.)

Out of 930 males I came in 630th. A rough estimate is that at 49 year of age,
there were 730 men younger than me. I ran it in a little over 31 minutes which was dissapointing at
10:15 minutes per mile. Out of a little over 2300 total I was around 1100. In the 90 men in my age
group (45-49) I was 60 out of 90. A couple minute improvement would have jumped up quite a bit.
I like to comfort myself in thinking the rain made only the serious runners show up not that it would
have improved my personal time. And their will be a next time.

The fact I finished was a major achievement given a year ago I couldn't have run a block and now I'm
looking forward to my next run and some major improvements. I'd love to eventually do a marathon
but first things first, the 8K Turkey trot next month.

[brvheart]

This was too long to bore someone with in a single thread so I figured I'd bore
everyone with it.

Ghosts and Goblins 5K report

Very long, more of a story than report.

As i've told a few times I really messed up by getting lost trail running Sunday. The plan was a
3 mile run and rest the legs to be fresh for this, my first, race. Instead they were aching, sore
and lifeless. A lesson learned.

Anyway, the race started at 6:30 in downtown Dayton. We got there about 45 minutes early
and there was a ight rain coming down about 50 degrees but dropping and with the wind
and clouds it felt alot colder. I orginally dressed in a long sleeve running shirt and shorts but
as the temperature dropped I switched to some thin running pants and added a light wind jacket.
Deb safety pinned my paper number to the wind jacket and we attached an electronic tab to
my shoe with the plastic tie. All ready to run my first race (at age 49).

They had a costume contest at 6 and there were a couple hundred people dressed up. Nothing
spectacular but still pretty cool that they did it. I kept trying to loosen up my legs to no avail
and decided the best way would be to just run them loose and hope for the best.

It was pretty crowded and over 2100 runners of all ages showed up. 2800 registered and paid
but I assume most no-showed due to the weather. They called about 15 minutes before race
time for everyone to line up, "slower to the back please". I headed to the back.

The gun cracked and it was a minute before the people in front of me started moving. The time
doesn't start until you cross a pad at the starting line. As the crowd started moving I noticed they
had signs posted for every minute e.g. 7, 8 , 9, 10. It dawned on me that if I was a 10 minute miler
that was were I should have started. As soon as I crossed the pad I realized it was my first "race"
mistake being stuck behind a ton of walkers. It's not that I wanted to run fast, but my steady jog
wasn't going anywhere so I jumped up on a curb and dashed through around people trying to get to
clearing which took a quarter mile or so.

I actually had no idea where the course went and in retrospect this was a second mistake. I was
a little familiar with where I was but i'm used to running my own miles in the morning on familiar
territory and know how far along I am. Another thing that had hit me was that I always run with
headphones and music. The race instructions strictly frowned upon anyone doing this so I was
amazed to see hundreds of people donning their ipods before the race. Well, dismayed that I
wasn't one of them. In retrospect I realize with the crowd it is smart to not where them so that
you can hear people coming from behind and move out of the way. As slow as I am that probably
a smart thing and I was moving out of the way often.

The issue with not having something to listen to is that I "could" hear myself, ugh. Damn I was
sucking wind and it wasn't even a half mile. It sounded like I was in scuba gear. I know that it
takes me a while to get in the groove and I was immediately wondering if I was starting to fast or
if this was normal? I seemed to be going at my regular pace albeit with legs that felt like they
had weights attached around the ankles. My fastest 5K time in the less than 3 months since I
started this adventure was about 30 minutes and this was my "goal" I suppose. As soon as we
made the first turn and headed uphill over a bridge that goal went out the window as I could barely
breathe and finishing became the new one, laugh out loud. ( I wish I could have laughed out loud!)
Breathing was way too important!

I have a thing about hills. When I first started running I had read about a lady ultra-marathoner
named Ann Trasen that makes Lance Armstrong seem like a pansy. She routinely beats men
in 50, 75 and 100 miles races thorugh deserts and mountains. She started off hating hills but
decided to get a new attitude and attack the hills and made it one of her strong points. I have
tried to adapt this attitude routinely looking for all the biggest hills where I live and running them.
This wasn't a bad hill and though I tried to keep my pace quick with short steps,
like running on logs in water and made it up fine, though I was really breathing hard still and hating life.

The plus side to going uphill is the down run. The key I have learned is to keep your feet behind
you and let your body or weight give you momentum for speed. It just takes trust that your
feet will be there and to keep your hips behind your center, all the while keeping that same
quick pitter-patter motion of quick steps. The down side of the bridge was that it was crowded and all
runners seem to have this step type run they do, well, like running down steps. I never let
my heels hit the ground or at least barely, running on my forefeet so I am doing this completely
different. I moved to the closed oncoming lane of the bridge and got a nice flow going down and
passed a bunch of people. The down side of this is that I expended way more energy
than I wanted that early and already had a cramp in my side to go with the aching legs. Damn, I
just want to breathe and i'm less than a mile in. Ugh.

This is where I found running with people really disconcerting. Here I am gasping for breath,
wondering how in the hell I am going to actually make it as young girls come trotting past
jibber jabbering away. I hate the emotion of envy so I quickly turned it into hatred. I hated
the people especially the old and heavy ones that were flying past me now as my chest began
to feel like it was on fire.

Despite what some might think, I am really not an angry person. I quickly had to laugh at myself
and say "good for them". I am obviously mad at myself for being a chain smoking idiot the
past 35 years. I knew I needed to relax and not panic and get in the flow. No ipod? Time to
get a tune going in the head. I quickly turn to my favorite running tune, Marathon by Rush.

From first last, the peak is never past
Something always fires that light
that gets in your eyes.

Ahh, somewhat better and then the first marker appeared showing we had only gone a mile.
Oh crap. I was somewhat getting in a rhythm though and concentrating on form, constantly.
One of these days the evolution style of running will become more natural. Probably around the
time I can actually run and breathe I suppose.

A note here about why I am running. I am fully convinced that if you want to be healthy, lose
weight and live longer. Run. Reduce anxiety. Run. Live better. Run. I think we have evolved
over millions of years to do just this. Why else would millions of people across the world gather
together in runs like this every weekend? It's in our genes and our jeans.

So despite my aching lungs and sore legs I got in a slow rhythm and convinced myself to just
finish. I went slow and steady and just tried my best to enjoy it. I have worked myself into
shape where I do this 3 times a week at least and it should be nothing. I wasn't sure if
it was the ipod missing, running at night for the first time or just the tiredness of my Sunday
trail adventure but damn it was hard. Maybe I was putting pressure on myself since it was
a race? The people? Probably all of it. Most assuredly it's no fun to have Dorothy and the
Tin man pass you on one side and the Lion and Scarecrow zoom past on the other.

My wife hates when people talk to her when she's walking. (Exercise walking) Apparently she
isn't alone in this as I came across three sets of people where one was yacking away as the
other was in a deep silence despite the hundred questions their partner kept asking. One guy
repeatedly asked, "Do you care if I am talking?" and the girl, gasping, finally said, "Shut the **** up."

It was now dark and the only way to get around the people that were running slow was to go on
the side of road. Unfortunately this is where all the rain water was laying and my shoes were
getting soaked. I was dying of heat realizing that the jacket was too much and yanked it off and
tied it around my waist. Yeah, like a girl, so what!

I hit mile marker 2 and was just praying not to stop and walk so I hit the hill going back over the bridge
with a steady pace and kept that slow steady pace going back down and trying to keep the tunes going.

You can make the most of the distance
First you need the guts
Then you have to last.

I have never had my chest hurt like this running at any time over the last 10 weeks since I started
so I had to repeat my mantras. Stay calm. Relax. Quick short steps. Relax. Hips foward.
Relax. Body straight. Relax. Scream, no I mean Relax.

And finally someone yelled 800 meters left! Great! What's 800 meters? I tried to speed up but
couldn't. Well, maybe just a little. Hmm, my chest isn't hurting and i'm actually relaxed now.
My legs were numb but not hurting. I am finally in my groove even if it is way too late. I put
the guns on actually got close to a run for the last few hundred yards and passed the finish line!

Weird, but now that it's done I feel like I could keep going but once I stopped that was it. The
exhaustion and lack of air plus a dire need of water overcame me. I glanced around and saw
the wife on the curb snapping the camera to take pics. I would be remiss if I didn't mention here
that I am the luckiest man on the planet to have found and married her. Despite my ability to
turn every thing I do into an obsession she's alway their to support me. I can never tell if she does
this to get kicks out of laughing at me or if she likes watching train wrecks, but she's there an
for that I am forever thankful. She brought me a water and asked how I was and I said, "that's the
toughest thing i've ever done in my life." She was surprised but I think she understood. She said,
"Hey you did great. You got first!" I looked at her confused and she, "The chain smoker division!"

Epilogue. (Oh hell why not? It's a novel at this point.)

Out of 930 males I came in 630th. A rough estimate is that at 49 year of age,
there were 730 men younger than me. I ran it in a little over 31 minutes which was dissapointing at
10:15 minutes per mile. Out of a little over 2300 total I was around 1100. In the 90 men in my age
group (45-49) I was 60 out of 90. A couple minute improvement would have jumped up quite a bit.
I like to comfort myself in thinking the rain made only the serious runners show up not that it would
have improved my personal time. And their will be a next time.

The fact I finished was a major achievement given a year ago I couldn't have run a block and now I'm
looking forward to my next run and some major improvements. I'd love to eventually do a marathon
but first things first, the 8K Turkey trot next month.

I have a feeling that this was a very good story.

[ajs510]

Good stuff Rando, congrats!

[Sal Paradise]

man, first thing that came into my mind when I opened this was "hoooooly crap, this whole thing's about running?"



but yeah, congrats, I'd imagine it'd be a lot tougher to run with other people. makes it near impossible to find your regular pace quickly I'd think, which is enough to throw you off for a good little while.

[LadyGrey]

Well done, Randy!



And, no, I didn't read it.

[gobears]

Nice job Randy!

[rocksquid]

You didn't finish last, well done.

And kudos on the good story.

[Nikki_N]

I read every word.


Good on ya, Randy.



I run/walk a 43 minute 5K because I hate running a lot. I'm impressed you ran the whole way.


My son runs a 21 minute 5K (he's a freshman and it's his first year in XC). The best kid on varsity (fastest in the state, afaik) runs about a 15:30 5K and he doesn't even make it look hard. He's amazing.



I get tired running bases in softball.


Running is fricken hard.

[JoeyJoJo]

I would be remiss if I didn't mention here that I am the luckiest man on the planet to have found and married her.

Aww.

[LadyGrey]

Alright, I read it. Very good story Randy, I enjoyed it and you wrote it well. I really think some people are just runners at heart. I've tried running and it just doesn't feel comfortable for me, but I know it works for a lot of people.

p.s. I have the picture you and Deb sent me in my bedroom at home. It's one of the few gifts from FCP members that didn't go to Goodwill the day before I flew home

[SBriand]

Good read Rando! I am jealous. I go the the ortho surgeon next week to look at my foot and knee to figure out what is wrong.

[Dratj]

good job randy, i read every word. proud of you man.

[brvheart]

It's one of the few gifts from FCP members that didn't go to Goodwill the day before I flew home

Someday, when I get to heaven, an ex-homeless man will approach me and thank me for sending you that Bible. I'm so happy that I could help him! THANKS LG!

[vvganeshavv]

Nice story!!!

I've been running a lot lately and have come to the realization that some people were meant to be runners and others weren't....i for 1 will never be a runner...i just can't get the hang of it and I hate it terribly..After my first mile i just want to shoot someone in the face I'm so bored...Music doesn't even help...

But like you said if you want to stay healthy and stuff running is the best way to do it...

[Leaves]

BLOW ME!

[sandwedge]

Excellent read, and congrats. I hope your training/running continues.


and now a shameless self-brag: As a collegiate runner, my best 5k was 15:05.


and a self-loathe: As a 44 year old, I get winded walking up a couple of flights of stairs.

[Dratj]

Excellent read, and congrats. I hope your training/running continues.


and now a shameless self-brag: As a collegiate runner, my best 5k was 15:05.


and a self-loathe: As a 44 year old, I get winded walking up a couple of flights of stairs.

that's awesome. holy crap.

[Pot Odds RAC]

Nice read.

Congrats on setting and achieving a goal (and having a supportive spouse).

I hate running, but love biking/swimming.

Nit alert: One thing that always surprises me is when someone who is apparently reasonably literate and able to write a couple thousand words coherently still messes up basic grammar such as their vs. there, wear vs. where.

[Randy Reed]

Alright, I read it. Very good story Randy, I enjoyed it and you wrote it well. I really think some people are just runners at heart. I've tried running and it just doesn't feel comfortable for me, but I know it works for a lot of people.

p.s. I have the picture you and Deb sent me in my bedroom at home. It's one of the few gifts from FCP members that didn't go to Goodwill the day before I flew home

Thanks, I told Deb what you said and we both think that's awesome.

Nice story!!!

I've been running a lot lately and have come to the realization that some people were meant to be runners and others weren't....i for 1 will never be a runner...i just can't get the hang of it and I hate it terribly..After my first mile i just want to shoot someone in the face I'm so bored...Music doesn't even help...

But like you said if you want to stay healthy and stuff running is the best way to do it...

Actually we are all runners. The human body evolved running over millions of years. It's our brains that tell us not to. If I don't
listen to music I find thinking of other people helps out alot. I'm finding it just takes time and patience and staying at my pace, being
relaxed and trying to enjoy it. Like I said, I don't think there's anything i've ever done that I can love and hate so much at the same time,

BLOW ME!

This weekend you scrangy mutt.

[Randy Reed]

Good read Rando! I am jealous. I go the the ortho surgeon next week to look at my foot and knee to figure out what is wrong.

Seeing the doc is a good idea but just because he's a surgeon don't let him go cutting without alot of other opinions. I know some
people that ended up worse. There are alot of newer running techniques people are saying helps out alot, Chi running, Pose running
and Evolution running. There is a huge groundswell of support for barefoot running as well.