Sunday, July 09, 2006

Chasing My Inner Kenyan or I'm a Rhino, Not a Cheetah

Trying to run fast on pavement just isn't something I do often anymore. Most of my long miles are on trails, but I admit my shorter weekday runs are on streets around town. My last 5k was year ago at 8,000 feet with a group of Hopi Indians in Flagstaff, AZ. (http://dirttrailrunner.blogspot.com/2005/07/desert-solitaire.html)--that is to say, it was more of adventure run than an inquiry into foot speed. My last 5k before that was in 2003. Training for the long trail runs has taken me away from the short stuff.

In recognition that three years is a fair chunk of time, I thought it time to go back and run the Dog Days 5k at Lake Bloomington again. Dog Days is an evening race, starting at 6:00 pm, thus avoiding the peak heat of the day. Got there at 5:30 to find that the RD hadn't ordered XL shirts, and these are really great coolmax shirts; he was astounded by my good humor at not bitching about the snafu and taking the 2 XL, of course with the obligatory, "I'm sure I can gain the weight comment."

Went out at a conservative pace (come to think of it, I finished at a conservative pace, too) chatting with and cheering on other runners. In the last mile I struck up a conversation with a nice young man, maybe 12 or 13, whom I promised to race the last half mile with at 5:00/mile pace; we pushed each other to the finish and into the chute. My time: an extremely pedestrian 25:30, 8:15/mi. pace. Not bad for being overweight and not training for speed, save for a few fartlek workouts, and not running for four days previous due to knee tendonitis. By the way, I ran a 22:47 at this race in 2002 and 21:58 in '03. But, I'm happy with the time, considering everything. I had a blast doing this race, proving that even slow 5k's can sometimes be fun. Variety is a spice.

The knee is a bit of a concern. Howl at the Moon 8 Hour is in a month and I need a few more long runs. Hopefully it will improve and allow them. Stay tuned.

Well, Dave encountered trouble with the heat and aborted his run across the state on Friday. It was an exceedingly tough goal to pull of in July, and I credit him for even starting it.

Soundtrack: Monobloco "Ao Vivo" Unbelievably good Brazilian music. Thanks, Snyd!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

5k in Flagstaff, nice! My first trail run was up in Flag (we live four hours south, in Tucson).

I'd kill for 8:15/minute miles!

: )

Now that my gallbladder is out, maybe I can train for it!

dirt_trail_runner said...

hey angie. that race was awesome. this elder did a prayer ceremony at the start. really rad. i just happened to see a flyer on it while i was on vacation there. it would be worth the drive.

dirt_trail_runner said...

oh, and good luck with your recovery!

Anonymous said...

thanks!

my hubby's looking at doing the race on the Hopi res this Sept (possibly). there's just some awesome scenery and culture in northern az.