I Stormed

Last night I ran a 5k that kicked off this weekend’s downtown festivities, Bastille Days. It was called Storm the Bastille, and dudes, I stormed the shit out of that Bastille. I haven’t done this run in a couple years, but it’s a pretty easy route that winds through the city streets of downtown. I always had a fond remembrance of this race, but had forgotten that it’s actually pretty annoying. Here’s the sitch.

It’s a fun run, so it’s not chip-timed, and if you want to know your time you have to just keep it yourself. They do have a clock, but it’s so ridiculously crowded that the time you see when you cross the finish line is nowhere near accurate unless you were the very first person to start the race. (side note – of course my watch was dead when i pulled it out to wear last night, as was my old sport watch, as well as ryan’s sport watch. awesome. so i ended up wearing his clunky gps watch. very stylish) Everyone is crammed into a 1 block space at the beginning, so by the time I finally made it up to the starting line the clock already read 3:18. Then for I’d say the first solid half mile you’re barely able to keep a jog going, since most of your time is dodging people and jockeying for any clear pavement. The runners and walkers are all mixed in together, so each time you think you’re going to be able to get moving, you practically slam right into the back of a walker you didn’t see as someone else narrowly missed knocking them over too. Yeah, fun run.

They also had a ton of beach balls flying around and over everyone’s heads the whole time, which I could have done without, too. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for them at, say, a Jimmy Buffett concert, but not while I’m trying to run. I know, I know, stop taking it so seriously, it’s a fun run. But I wanted to try to make it a real run.

I was hoping to get a good run in and try to beat the time of my last 5k, so this logjam beginning kind of got on my nerves. Fortunately I was able to weave a pretty good path through the sea of bodies, didn’t run into anyone, did spend more time going sideways and around for a while instead of forward, but was finally able to pick up the pace by the middle of the route. And pick it up I did. I realized that the majority of the mid-section of the race was downhill, so I took full advantage of gravity and tried to just go as fast as I could. I never do this in races – go balls out that early – and now I remember why. By the last couple blocks it took all my steam to keep going just to make it to the finish line. And you couldn’t even cross that line, it was so crowded again. So I stopped my watch within just a couple feet; I figured that was close enough.

So my time was 27:20. Not the sub-27:00 I was hoping for, but it did take me 17-18 seconds to get to the actual starting line/clock after I started my watch, so that puts me close to 27:00 right there. Then with all the sidestepping and non-race-pace running I did for a while there in the beginning, I think I could easily have broken 27:00 again had I had a clear course the whole time. So I wasn’t too disappointed. Plus it felt like I’d gotten a good run by the end, and I was able to get right out of the parking lot in which I’d parked with no delay on the way home. In my run mapping program, it was a total of 3.22 miles in 27:02 (i just went ahead and took the liberty of knocking off that 18 second lag at the start), for a 8:23 pace. Decent.

I was also pleased with this time because I haven’t been getting much running in lately in preparation for it. I ran once in Canada a week ago, but no runs the week before that, so that’s pretty slacking. I did get out Tuesday this week, though – I ran 3.45 miles in 30:57, for a 8:59 pace. Getting better. I still feel like I just need to knock the cobwebs out and really get into good shape.

I’m doing another race on Sunday – an urban adventure type race with my trainer and another girl. The description of it says part 5k, part “Amazing Race”, so it should be fun. You go all around the city trying to solve clues, and you can only travel on foot or by public transportation. Great, the bus, my favorite. It sounds like it takes about 2 hours to complete, and it begins and ends at Rock Bottom. At least we know the beer will be good.