Winter Distance Series: Rudolph's Revenge 5K Results

Just a quick race update. The race was Saturday, and it went surprisingly well for someone who has barely run in the last few months. The weather was, as expected, a nice balmy 25 degrees (what doesn't kill you...). My toes weren't present for any of the run, having decided to take a quick jaunt to somewhere lacking any and all sensation. But it turns out, I didn't really need them. I didn't anticipate the competitive streak that erupted at the sounding gun (LIES!) and did my first mile in about 7:20.The one thing that you'll see in a 5K that you won't see in longer races is drunken frat-boy types who started imbibing early in the a.m. so as to be plenty fueled for the run. There were three on this particular day. They shouted and skipped around like mentally challenged, er, frat boys, for awhile, making asses of themselves and probably irritating the hell out of many of the other runners.I settled in behind them at the beginning of mile two in order to take advantage of the free entertainment but then passed by when they started to flag. A blue-shirted woman went by me at about a mile and a half, which set off teeth-gritting frustration. So after going around the frat boys, I held onto her footsteps for the last mile. She and I hit the last hill at the same time and I kicked into high gear, completely leaving her behind. Yes, I enjoyed it.I finished 77th overall out of 661 runners; 21st of 396 in my gender; and 7th out of 76 in my division. My compadres, the Torpedo and the Cruiser, seemed equally happy with their times. We drove the hour back home and were treated to biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs, and bacon by Mr. Universally Talented who slaved all morning, thus ensuring that we had to run at least another ten miles if we planned on equaling out the calories in-to-out ratio. Instead, we opted for a long and promising day of perfecting our between-race slacking techniques.The next race is actually only five miles, not the 10K I thought it was, on January 21st. Perhaps I'll attempt another straight-from-the-couch run, and see if I can PR with that strategy. Or maybe I'll be smart, perhaps even run and interval or two before then.

Snapshot of the other races I've kept track of. This is Athlinks, a pretty decent online tracking tool.

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All content copyright unless otherwise specified © 2008-2013 by Tammy Salyer, writer. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use short quotes provided proper attribution is given.

Run, Slacker, Run

I didn’t come to enjoy running naturally. It was forced on me in my teens by angry store clerks trying to chase down my punk shoplifting thug-butt (eventually, I learned the hard way that this “pursuit” was something I should probably discontinue).Let me back up. I did run a fair bit as a little girl, with that same joyous abandon most kids experience. Until one day, my dad, who was a world class track athlete and coach, challenged me to a race. Naturally, he didn’t let me win, preferring to teach me to get tough through experiencing bitter disappointment (still trying to puzzle out that lesson). But he did pass on some, er, dubious, advice: during a race, run as hard as you can and keep running, even if it hurts. As seven-year-olds are some of the wisest people on the planet, me being no exception, I thought to myself, “Are you smoking crack, dear father of mine? Why would I intentionally do something that hurts?” Okay, granted, I didn’t really know what crack was, but you get the idea. Hence, my dearth of running until my teens when not paying for cigarettes and Doritos was more appealing than, well, paying for them, and I undertook my short-lived grocery store sprinting career.After giving up the shoplifting and the smoking, I kept running when I had to, but I never really got that sense of pleasure from it that hardcore runners tell you about. Still, I had some of the greatest running mixed tape compilations for my Walkman ever made (for anyone reading this who was born after 1990, a Walkman was a small, portable tape player that preceded iPods and Zunes. What’s that? What’s a tape? Uh, nevermind...).So why do I run now? A person with my woefully short attention span can't be limited to just one physical activity, and I need something to supplement roadbiking. I choose running because it is much less dangerous than mountainbiking, a sport that requires both balance and the ability to think while moving at speeds that exceed 30mph, all the while dodging killer rocks and roots, stumps and fence posts, cacti and branches, and...you get the idea. I’m enough of a hazard (see photo) to myself on two legs; add speed and an elevated center of gravity, combined with all of the “gifts” of Mother Nature, and I’m pretty much a rolling corpse on a mountain bike.The other reason, however, is more sublime. I’ve never been fast, but somewhere along the line, I learned to enjoy the consistent rhythm of running. Apparently my endorphin glands finally hit a growth spurt when I quit sky diving and my adrenalin glands withered. Human-powered sports, including roadbiking, backpacking, and rockclimbing, have always felt right to me, and running fosters such an epic sense of freedom and resiliency. Getting somewhere under your own steam and having the time and opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds as you go is truly one of the best feelings you can't buy in stores. It’s not unlike writing a book or a short story; there is a lot of suffering and self-doubt as you move along the continuum towards the end, but when you get there, you feel like shouting for joy and hugging a complete stranger, even if they smell kinda bad. Endorphins, baby, blame the endorphins.Which all leads to the reason for this post. I hadn’t planned on blogging again until next year, but suddenly this winter, I found myself questioning my toughness (damn you, dear father). You see, it’s frickin’ cold here. COLD, and I’d all but quit running. As an illustration, I ran the Continental Divide Trail Run in Steamboat Springs in August—sixteen miles of suffering through some of themost gorgeous scenery to ever behold—and have run a grand total of twenty or so miles since. Yep. In my defense, I have the most wicked new bike trainer ever, which has been getting some extreme use, so it’s not as if I’ve been a total slacker.But I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t live with being confined to the indoors due to the potential for a little tiny bit of frostbite. I mean c’mon, if Beck Weathers could lose most of both arms and feet, and his nose to the cold, what’s losing feeling in my hands for a few hours? So I convinced a couple of friends—I’ll call them the Cruiser and the Torpedo—to come suffer in the frigid temps with me during the Littleton Winter Distance Series. I’ll post summaries ofthese races as they occur.Plus, I needed some more t-shirts. First race is December 17^th, so I better go run.

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All content copyright unless otherwise specified © 2008-2013 by Tammy Salyer, writer. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use short quotes provided proper attribution is given.