Smasher.com

Sat May 24th, 2008 - I ran the Weston Memorial Day 5K, in Weston CT (about 30 minutes northeast of Norwalk.)

Results are posted online - but you’d have to search for me. I placed 265th out of 456 overall (pretty average;) 34 out of 41 in my age group (ouch!) Time of 28:30 , which is a pace of 9:11 per mile.

So I finished 15 seconds faster than my time from the last race - which surprised me, I thought I might do worse. This was a very hilly course, and I was not well rested. I got a killer stomach cramp on the last 400 meters, on my way up a hill (did I mention the hills?) right before the finish line. I managed to haul myself over the finish line, but my stomach was burning and I had to sit down immediately to catch my breath.

Also, some nice folks who lived along the route were offering water in paper cups, like you typically see in marathons. It was a nice gesture, and I took one, but when I tried to drink it I choked and died. I should have waited for the finish line to rehydrate.

Timing on this race was done with “chips” that you tied to the front of your shoelaces. Each chip has a number corresponding to your bib number, and when you run over a sensor plate at the finish line your time is automagically recorded. Results of the race were available almost immediately after the last finisher crossed the line. Nice system, but expensive I’m sure. At the end of the day, they were looking for some runners that had not returned their chips, and

Drama: Apparently 5 runners were disqualified for wearing performance-enhancing headphones during the race. There were signs at registration stating that headphones could not be worn during the race, put apparently plenty of people ignore the rule, and some were spotted. I do wear headphones during my morning runs, but I don’t mind being “alone with my thoughts” during a race. It’s only about 30 minutes, you know?

My reward: Large T-shirt, a swag bag contaning some coupons, goldfish crackers, teabags, and a shampoo travel kit. Also,going out for falafel afterwards.

I ran my first 5K run last weekend - May 17 2008. It was the “Bound Around the Sound” at Sherwood Island park in Westport. I entered almost on a whim - I’ve been running 3x a week for months, but not training hard - but I did well! 28 minutes, 45 seconds; roughly 9:15 per mile (a 5 kilometers is just over 3 miles.)

My goal was to finish non-stop, without resting or walking - and I did. I even passed quite a few people on the hills, since my daily route has a lot of hills.
I placed 31st out of 71 finishers (15th out of 19 finishers among Men 30 - 39). The first three finishers in each class get trophies, but I wasn’t even close (the fastest 30 something finished in 17:10.) I did win a cookbook in the raffle though.

My official time was a little longer than what I saw on the clock when I crossed the finish, probably due to the timekeeping method - at the finish line the volunteers take a tag with your bib # from your racing bib and put it on kind of a keyring. They then either mark the tags with the current clock time, or put markers on the keyring corresponding to the time - not sure, I was too tired to be interested when I crossed the finish line. But a traffic jam at the finish line could affect the timekeeping.

Drama: The first runners across the finish line were not the winners. Apparently they took a wrong turn, and cut some distance off the course. Their times were adjusted to make up for the accidental shortcut. (I’m not sure if they were asked to re-run the missed distance, or if a single runner’s time on that distance was used.)

The race results are posted online: http://www.clubct.org/Results/08Results/08BoundRes.html#9

So I had a great time, wasn’t even too sore the next day - this is definitely something I want to do again, and I know I can improve my time a lot. My reward for finishing is a Fresca Burrito from the diner (Beans, eggs, cheese, and potatoes in a wrap.)