The race, part deux

The horn sounded and we were off...or not. Because of the large number of people and our decision to be in the middle of the 1000 person pack, the horn sounded and we got to stand for a while until there was enough space for us to move. The fact that nobody was moving around us yet and there was no space didn't stop the nice lady behind me from starting her race; she somewhat plowed into me before realizing that the race had started, but we hadn't. Then some space opened up, and we were off.
Starting a race like this is fun: there's lots of energy, people are cheering, you feel fresh, and it's fun. Most of this went away after about half a mile. We had set a very realistic goal for our first real race: to finish without walking. Thus we set a nice, easy pace; we didn't so much run this race as we did jog it out. Still, we managed to finish it without stopping and I ran -voluntarily, mind you- farther than I ever had in my life before.

Some of the notable sites and sounds of the 3.1 loop:

-The many kids around us, most of who copied a puppy's two speeds: all out and stop. These kids would sprint for 40 yards, stop, run back towards their mothers and then just stop in the middle of the course. Then they did it over and over again [lather, rinse, repeat]. Kinda fun to watch what a sugar high looks like in a 7 year old.

-There was this awful, and I mean awful, high school garage band at the one mile point. They were bad musicians to begin with, but they also sounded liked they looked: garage band meets ridiculously early wake up call on a Saturday morning. These guys ruined such notable hits as Steve Miller's "The Joker;" as we approached them I heard those famous opening lines: "Some people call me the Joker, some people call me the Space Cowboy, others call me the gansta of love...". Yep, the 'gansta of love.' The nice thing about it was that they were distracting enough that they kept us focused on them instead of the pavement for a good 6 or 7 minutes.

-We never did catch this annoyingly fit mom in front of us. She was about 20 yards ahead of us and she was pushing a baby in one of those yuppie stroller-runner things. No matter how hard we tried, she always remained just out of our reach. Nothing humbles you more than chasing someone like that and never being able to catch up, especially when you realize that she a) recently gave birth, and b) is pushing something in front of her and you're not. I felt like a greyhound chasing the mechanical rabbit around the track, except much, much slower. I even passed on water just to get an edge over her, but to no avail. I even thought of sprinting past her, but then realized that that would mean I'd end up walking at some point and she'd probably run me over with her stroller.

-I was feeling pretty good about our pace until the race leaders passed us during the loop. Those guys [and girl] were humming along. They would have lapped us if the race had been long enough.

-The last hundred yards or so were fun, especially since we had conserved enough energy to finish strong. We double timed it through the gates, and we crossed the finish line together at just over 30 minutes. Even though we finished at the same time, the race results had me ahead of the Mrs Colonel [not true].

-After the race we met up with some of the Mrs C's friends from L-burg, and I ran into [pun intended] an old friend from H-SC. During the post-race pep rally and award ceremony, we found out that a local high school had partnered with the race directors and had fund raised over $70, 000 for the Autism Society of Central Virginia. During this same ceremony, the dorky MC [some anchor from CBS 6 in Richmond] yelled out "pork chops!" while he was announcing. Since we were talking and not paying attention, we don't know the context of the comment, but it was pretty random and did follow the trend of yelling "pork chops!" at races that we've run this year; for those of you playing along at home, that's two for two and counting.

-According to the official race results, we finished in the mid 300's out of ~900 people who ran/walked the race. Not too shabby, though it leaves plenty of room for improvement. By the way, we both finished in the top half of our age groups.

-I call BS on one of the race results. According to the age breakdowns, there were six people who finished the race who were "90 years +." Not a chance. And even worse, three of those six allegedly had times that were faster than ours; one finished the 5K in 24 minutes. Again, no way. I didn't see anybody who looked over 70 either walking or running [or standing around, for that matter]. There's absolutely no way that anyone who remembered the Great Depression outran me or the Mrs C. I hereby declare the race results null and void, and ask that they be stricken from the record.

-After the race we had a completely average breakfast at Panera with friends of the Mrs. C. FYI: Panera is not the best choice for your post-race breakfast. While quiche is nice, it wasn't the breakfast burrito with a side order of swine that I deserved.

There are no current plans for any future races this summer, though we need to get one lined up soon. I think that 1 a month for a while would be a good pace. There is talk of running in the Clark Elementary Super Achiever 5k in the fall. All in all we had a great time and a great first real race, and we were able to support a good cause at the same time. It was a great beginning for what could be a fun hobby.