How Not to Run a 5K 101

It only took a week for my body to tell me it was ready to go again.  I found myself navigating local sites for a sprint tri, a 5k…anything to let me go fast after having to race conservatively during the longer events.  Busy weekends and a busy schedule conspired to make a race with space remaining hard to find.  Finally, I stumbled onto an evening mid-week summer 5k series put on by the local running store.  Jerry from work was up for it, so that locked me in.

I’ve never had an event start later than 9:00 a.m., so the 7:00 p.m. start was sure to be an adjustment.  But, I do a lot of my runs after work, so there would be no excuses about being tired.  After an easy mile and three-quarter warm-up around the quaint neighborhood park, it was time to begin.

Local races have taught me to set-up closer to the front, less out of pride and more out of safety.  Despite my efforts, I managed to nearly tackle a small child (responsible parenting not included) and in turn trip the guy behind me…great start.  Whether due to adrenaline or fight-or-flight, I hit the gas early to get away from the crowds and settled in with a small pack for lap 1 of 3.  We were pushing the pace, but that’s what this race was all about for me.

Coming up on mile 1 I heard the chatter of coaches??? giving tips (stay with this pack, keep your head up, relax your arms) and instantly knew I was with a bunch of PR-seekers with quite a bit more training than the measly miles I had put in during July and early August.  As we hit the marker, they had a guy calling out times, and as he said “5:50!”, I knew I was in for a world of hurt for the next 2 miles and change.

Whether due to fatigue or out of sheer “I went how $*&#$*@ fast on that mile!” my body began to slowly give in to the lack of speed work and long runs.  A few stragglers passing me turned into a flood and mile two was through in about 6:30…quite a drop off.  As I hobbled into the final mile, all expectations were out the window, and I just hoped to finish on my feet, not my back. 

As I hit the closing stretch, I saw that by sheer luck or a slow clock, I still had a shot to keep it under 20:00.  Mustering what little strength I had remaining, I trotted through the finish in 19:49.  Drenched in the fruits of my 3.1 miles of labor, I cheered on Jerry and a few other friends as they came down the finishing chute.  The final results weren’t pretty, but I came in around 30th of 165. 

I was pretty happy to break 20 again, and it definitely rekindled a desire to keep working on speed and shoot for a sub-19 race as the temperatures begin to cool.  Nothing is on the schedule yet, but keep your eye out for a long-winded race report once it is!

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This Old Trunk

A few months ago, after a long search, I bought a large wooden trunk for the end of my bed.  Happy to have found the style and price range I was shooting for, I wasn’t too picky about the yellow/green paint it had on it.  However, this past weekend was my chance to channel my inner wood worker and refinish/repaint it to my liking.

It all began with a Friday evening trip to Lowe’s, and ended with primer, velvet brown paint, a paintbrush, various grades of sand paper, a sanding block, and the looming feeling that this was definitely going to take longer than anticipated.

I headed home to view my canvas one last time and take it to my makeshift workshop/garage.


Now began the long and arduous task of sanding down the old paint and any imperfections.  I opted to do it by hand, but by hour 2 I was kicking myself for not taking up Billy on his offer to use his electric sander…

 

  

Finally, whether through hard effort or by taking stock of how long I’d been sanding, it was time to apply primer.

  

 

After giving it a few hours to dry I rushed home just as the sun was dropping behind the trees in hopes of putting on a first coat and giving it the chance to dry overnight.  Painting was challenging enough, but doing so at dusk presented a rather unique hurdle…

 

 

The next morning I found that the humidity had severely hindered the drying process, and with huge storms threatening, I decided to bring the final stages into the apartment where I could do touch-ups and plug in a few fans.

 

After “drying” all day (the quotes are necessary because the humidity dragged the process out forever) I finally put it all back together to yield a finished product that I’m pretty happy with.  I probably should have done a second coat of velvet brown, but that sounds like a project for another weekend.

 

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