KCCC 5K

Today I ran my first 5K.

I didn’t train.

Well, that isn’t precisely true.  I didn’t do any RUNNING to train for running a 5K.

I have been doing weights and working on my swimming to prepare for the Kansas City Corporate Challenge swim meet. So I was getting my strength, and more importantly, my cardio in.

Since I am signed up for one event for the KCCC, that means I have signed the waiver, that makes me eligible for any other event. Earlier in the week (or was it the end of last week), they sent out an e-mail saying the 5K team had some age slots open that still needed a competitor.  Lo and behold, Men age 45-49 was open.

Since I knew the coordinator from the Bible Study Group at work, and since I am also a coordinator for the swim team, I knew what it was like trying to get people, so I knew (a lot of knowing here) I needed to volunteer.

“Mike,” I wrote back, ” I am available. How is it possible for me to compete and get disqualified?”

He wrote back that you needed to complete the race in under 75 minutes.  Since I know I walk at least 3 mph, I knew I could do a 5k in under an hour, since 5K is 3.1 miles. So I said yes.

That is why I was up at 5:50 a.m. this morning, bringing Betsy along with me, to drive down to 9400 Ward Parkway (the Burns and McDonnell campus — very nice campus) to be ready for a 7 a.m. team picture and 7:30 a.m. start. We were there by 6:30. Plenty of time.

So I stretched, and we milled around, and I stretched some more, and we milled around. And I stretched some more while talking to other teammates about what the race would be like.

I pinned on my number — 678 — and used the twist-tie to tie the electronic chip that would confirm when I started and finished the race, and would give me my official time.

I learned that they start the race in waves based on your estimated finishing time. The first wave was under 24 minutes, the second was 25-28 minutes, the third was 29-36 minutes, and the fourth wave was 37-75 minutes.

Since I hadn’t practiced, I had only my own brain and guessing for deciding my wave. I didn’t even know the times for the waves until I walked along the course where people were lining up to see the times on the signs. I was walking with David from my team, and he was stopping at the back of the third wave.  I was tempted to try the fourth wave, but decided to join the third wave with him.

The first wave launched, and the second wave moved up to the start, then launched. The third wave moved up, and then launched. We walked to the start, and then started running as we stepped over the pads that I assumed triggered our chips and let them know when they had crossed the line to start the race. I saw a clock ticking there, but don’t remember what time it said. If they were releasing each wave every two minutes, it should have said something after 4 minutes.

I jogged lightly with David beside me, trying to find my own pace. The course started at 94th St., took us one block south and then turned to run north to 83rd street. As we went around the turn I started feeling a slightly faster pace and took off ahead of my teammate.

For that first block a lot of people passed me, even though I was at the back of my wave, but after I came around the corner I started a steady trend of passing people, I was almost always in the process of passing someone from then throughout the rest of the race.  Periodically a person or two would also pass me, but I passed many more people than passed me for the rest of the race.

The course was level for several blocks, then started a slow climb, before reaching a peak about 2 blocks before the turnaround. It descended to 83rd street and turned.  There were volunteers along the course at various points to cheer folks on, and after the turn there were volunteers with half-filled cups of water. Several of those volunteers were from my company, even my own floor, so they cheered me on by name as I came by and grabbed my water. It was great to hear my name. After drinking the water we all pitched our cups gently to the sides of the road.  Apparently for the race we were allowed to litter. I assume those same volunteers would be helping to clean up the water cups. (The KCCC events run on a lot of great volunteers.)

I wondered whether it was better for me to take the drink or not. I took it in small gulps, because trying to drink interrupted my breathing pattern if I wasn’t careful. As in my swimming, for my running, it is really finding a pace that keeps by breathing from getting overworked that is more important than finding a pace that outperforms my muscles. When my breathing goes, my swimming falls apart.

Turning the corner also meant we had a two-block climb after going around the corner to reach the peak again. Putting additional strain on the breathing while trying to drink.

But once over the hill it was a descent the rest of the way, until the last two blocks to the finish line. In fact, during the entire race my concern wasn’t that I would let my pace flag, but that I had to resist the temptation to keep speeding up. I was slowly speeding up during the entire race, even on the hills, until I got to the last flat stretch.

Right at the end the course went from lending you momentum from a gentle descent, to a flat stretch to the finish line. Remembering the military adage “move through the objective” I felt the load hit me near the end just as I was attempting to pull out the extra energy to accelerate through the finish line.  I had more energy than I used, and could have opened a better sprint at the end. But I also felt the raggedness hit my breath the moment I hit the level stretch — which told me I had regulated my pace fairly well.

So it was across the line, to one of the people removing and collecting our electronic chips, pick up a bottle of water, and off to the food tents.

I picked up chocolate milk, an orange slice, a banana, and some chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A.

Members of our team found each other, talked about how it went, exchanged stories. We stretched out, went back to the cars, and went home.

And thus my first 5K ended.  Hopefully tomorrow or Monday I will be able to see the results online at the KCCC website, and see how I really did. I know the clock was about 38 minutes when I crossed the finish line, so I feel confident I made the 36 minutes I was hoping to do when I joined the back of wave 3. When I have the results I will do a parenthetical update at the end of the blog.

 

(Update: My time was 28:57.6 and our company team came in first in its division)