Saturday, July 4, 2009 marked the beginning of a great weekend for me! The day's agenda included lots of food, family and fun. I was torn between spending time with family and friends and running in the 2009 Homewood Run for Freedom 5K. A few days earlier I decided I had nothing to lose, so I signed up for the race which is held not far from home. Hey, I thought might even run fast enough to win a medal.
When I arrived at the Lions Club on race day, it was wet and rainy. I didn't feel that explosive feeling I had the weekend before when I ran my fastest 10 mile run. Hence, my expectations for winning a medal went awry. I thought perhaps I'd do average for my age group (40-49 year olds) which would be good enough.
After attaching bib #313 to my chest, I began preparing myself with some sounds from the Jacksons (it worked last weekend, so why not now). I ran into a friend Joe Butler, whose son plays ball with my oldest son. He's been running a lot longer than me and I knew he was faster too. I figured I'd try to keep up with him as long as I could and then just cruise to the end of the race. Joe had me convinced I could keep pace with him. I don't blame him for thinking he would run slower than expected because he didn't do any practice 5k runs prior to the race.
When the gun sounded, I sprinted off the line like I was running a 200m race. What the heck was I thinking? I couldn't keep up a 6 minute/mile pace...no way, no how! I stayed with Joe for about 1/3 mile and watched my son's 13-year-old team mate pass me by too before I shifted into overdrive. A 7-7:30 minute/mile pace was much more reasonable. The high school'ers and 14 & under runners were long gone. My strategy was to keep my current space and speed up only if someone who looked my age was approaching.
The next thing I know, a guy who looks like he's in his 40's or 50's is running side-by-side with me. When I speed up a little, he speeds up too. I look at my HRM and it says my heart rate is about 165 bpm, so I figure I'm okay. The guy speeds up a little about a half mile later. I'm thinking, "Shoot. I can't go faster than my current pace." But somehow, I'm able to stay with the guy for about 2.5 miles. It wasn't until the last 1/3 mile that he and a female runner took off. By that time, I'm thinking, "That's right. It's time for my kick. What do you have left, Will?"
I began to life my legs and push as hard as I could. To me I was running faster. But, the HRM said, "No, dude. You are agoing about the same pace you were on the last mile!" Oh well, maybe I'd be average as I thought earlier.
I'm now entering the park where the race started and I can see the clock. "If I keep running hard," I thought, "I can finish with a sub-24 minute 5k." Cool, I'll just keep running even though my lungs were starting to burn. I just ignored the pain and cross the finish line at 23:25...pretty good for a guy who started running a little over a year ago. Of course, I wanted to collapse on the grass for just a few. There were volunteers at the finish line who were waiting to recover the timing devices we'd tied to our running shoes. "Cool," I thought, "I'll get my breath back while I take my time trying to figure out how to remove this little piece of plastic."
After the race, I grabed a drink and some pizza. I didn't think I was hungry and the pizza was slightly burnt and bland, but I ate it anyway. A few minutes later, I saw another familiar face: Pastor A, as we call her, one of our church's co-pastors. She's happy just to finish which reminds me I should feel the same way. I give her a hug and a "You go gurl" as I walk towards the equipment tent to see my time.
Man, Joe got 2nd place in our division. He finished about 90 seconds ahead of me. I tell Joe, "Great run, bro" then I scroll down a bit farther and see my name: "William Daniels 23:25.8 3rd". A third place finish and a personal record: a 7:33 minute/mile 5k. I'm all choked up. I finished 36th out of 120 runners; 11 were in my division. When they called my name to get the medal, I ran to the Race Director (yup, I still had some pep in my step). I took a good look at the medal which was also my first top 3 finish in a race.
This was already a great weekend and Saturday was just getting started.
Summary
Last week @WillRunzForFun ran 18.2 miles in 2:25:52. I averaged 4.6 miles per run and held an 7:57 minute/mile average - my fastest week on record. Since I didn't do a Long Run, I burned only 2300 Kcal which is ok because I thoroughly enjoyed the 2009 HF Run for Freedom 5k.
| Total Time | Avg Time | Max BPM | Avg BPM | Avg BMI | Dist. (miles) | Avg Dist. (miles) |
| 2:25:52 | 0:36:28 | 169.8 | 156.0 | 25.0 | 18.2 | 4.6 |
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| Total Kcal Burned | Avg Kcal Burned | Max Pace | Avg Pace | Max Speed (mph) | Avg Speed (mph) | Total Workouts |
| 2305.0 | 576.2 | 6:43 | 7:57 | 9.0 | 7.6 | 4.0 |
Week 28 RunsI'm going to try something a little different this week. I've added a short, 3 mile Interval Run on Tuesdays that I'll do alone (without Isis). Isis will be limited to 3 runs per week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Here's the schedule for next week:
| Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| REST | Easy | Interval | Maint. | Fartlek | REST | Long |
Friday and Sunday will be running rest days. Baseball & softball tournaments start on Wednesday, so it will be another busy week or two!
I'm shooting for 100 miles in July. I've run 14.2 miles this month. Since I've added a fifth run to my schedule, my goal seems reachable.
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