My First 5K...why didn't I read the story of the tortoise and the hare one more time?!

FAIR WARNING - this post has more pictures than usual and ends with perhaps the video of the CHEESIEST song to ever come out of the 80's - read on:

5AM dawned early today after my two and half day jaunt across the country. While on that trip I was determined to A) eat at In-n-Out (did so - see proof below) and B) get at least one more training run, a two-miler, in (did so in Alexandria, VA on Friday morning).

So Shari, Sarah, Parker, and I left the house at about 630AM to head to Batavia (Courtney is at a three day Stake Youth Conference so wasn't with us this morning) for the race. I checked in and got my race t-shirt and then just mulled around with my family, listening to the playlist I had compiled for the race, getting ready to run. I'm not sure how many runners there were in total but I was #178 and I saw numbers into the 300's. Here's how things looked pre-race:

At about 7:50AM, the race organizers had us pile up at the start line, and I do mean pile. I am still amazed that when the start gun was fired that no one got mowed over.

The starter gun was fired and we were, collectively, off. And this is where I should have read and reread the story of the tortoise and the hare. I would have remembered that slow and steady wins the race...I would have remembered that the tortoise left that stupid hare eating the proverbial dust. I would have remembered to keep a different pace. I was really caught up in the excitement of my first race and was amazed at the pace of my first mile. It was faster than anything I had done in training. My second, while a little slower, was still beating my training pace. And just past Mile Two, the hare in me gave up the ghost. The last mile became something akin to my personal version of the Bataan Death March. Suddenly my body announced it was done and it was all I could do to force it along. As I am fighting those demons, all I am recalling is the most recent issue of "Runner's World" magazine, which had a whole section on improving your 5K and a warning about getting caught up in the rush of your first race and realizing that is exactly what I had done. My buddy Jeff, who just ran a 100K(!) warned me that it would happen. And it did. So accepting my fate, I plodded on and managed to round the corner to the finish line. What was so heartening was to see my wife and two of my three kids at the end of the line. They were holding a poster and cheering me on. That really was awesome. And Courtney had called, leaving me a voicemail on my phone and then calling Shari's phone to track me down. I was so touched by that sweet girl remembering me. Here are a couple of shots post-race:


After greeting my family and complaining more than I should have to them about my disappointment about my performance, it was off to get a bunch o'water and the most awesome orange slices ever. We didn't hang around for the rest of post-race festivities, as Shari and I had to attend a memorial service for a colleague of mine from work.

I'm still ruminating about my performance and realize that training is just a tad different from a real race and that I need to remember pacing and its importance. And I can't let the excitement of the race climate affect my pace either. I have another 5K in two weeks, so I'll be working on that as I train for that one. One thing that did make me laugh was one of the songs that was played before the race. the afore-mentioned issue of "Runner's World" had an article about race music and what people run to and it noted that there isn't a race where the CHEESIEST song to come out of a movie ever is played. And if you are a child of the 80's, you may have already guessed the schlock I am referring to but if not here it is - Survivor and "Eye of the Tiger":