Middle of the Pack

  For the first time since the 1978 USF Bull Run, I ran a road race. While it was only 5km it was a start. I've gotten back in to running recently and decided to enter the Winter Garden 5K race with our friends Ryan Kelly.

  I felt a little intimidated as the Santurris have run marathons previously and I ended up chickening out of my second race, the 1979 Gasparilla 5K (Hey I was 5 and it was cold, loud and scary. Sorry Dad for making you take me back to find Mom.).

  So I made Cathy and Benjamin my personal cheering section and gave them a map of where to get pictures of me to document my deterioration along the route. I joke about that as I felt I kept a solid pace throughout the race. Heck my usual runs at home are around 10km.

  The horn sounded and everybody around me just stood there mildly walking. "Get out of my way people," I thought to myself. I wanted to run this race in under 30 minutes and they weren't helping me.

  The first mile of the race (for the metrically challenged that would be about 2km) I had a great pace going. It also didn't hurt that we were running downhill but hey I'll take my breaks where I can.

  Then my left shoelace started giving way. "Dang it! I thought I double-knotted." So a quick 5-second break to tie it and I was back in the race.

  This is the point where the hill went from down to up. I gradually rolled back my pace and tried to get my breathing in check. Meanwhile kids were passing me. Stupid kids.

  I got to the second "shooting" spot and Benjamin was looking at the trees and didn't have a clue that Daddy was running past him. Cathy got some shots of me as I dramatically (for the pictures of course) grabbed a cup of water and threw it over my head. (Hey I needed blog material people it was a slow week.)

  Now the road was leveling out and it gave me a chance to keep my pace low to start a second wind for the end of the race. The route meandered through the surrounding neighborhoods of Winter Garden. There were some residents cheering from lawn chairs and then there was this one guy. 

  There he stood. Wearing a bath robe, t-shirt and ratty shorts. Drinking his coffee and picking up the morning paper. As if we were an impromptu parade to gawk at for a little while. Dang it I wanted that coffee.

  As we turned back towards the direction of downtown and the finish line I felt good. That was until I saw one of the top runners from the front of the pack now cheering me and the rest of the hacks on and running in the opposite direction. 

  "OK either we were getting close or he's taunting me," is what I thought as I hit fast forward on the iPod shuffle. (BTW, for some reason my iTunes that it would be humorous and shuffle in some Harry Connick Jr., Bob Marley and other mellow tunes for my run. Not funny!)

  The course took a right turn and in the distance I could see the finish line. I started ramping up my pace. Big Audio Dynamite was playing in my ears and gave me some added energy to finish strong. I felt like I had some stuff left in the tank to pass a large group of runners ahead (Stupid kids. I'll get you back.).

  "Uh oh Maybe I didn't have THAT much left in the tank," I thought to myself with around 2/10th of a mile left.

  I quickly hit the volume up button on the iPod and gave it my all. I ended up having something in the tank for a good kick and crossed the line with the clock reading 28:49. Not bad. I did better than my goal and didn't embarrass myself.

  The final result was that I was 81st out of 300 and 11th in my age division. Ryan was first in his age division and was awarded a first place medal. Kind of cool. Then I heard my name called for the award of "Middle of the Pack" for the 35-39 division. I received a $10 gift certificate to Tri & Run. Ryan was jealous. VERY COOL!

  So it's been 30 years since my last race. A lot has changed since then but it's still putting one foot in front of another. But I gotta say I don't remember it being that stressful when I was 5.