See Sam Run: Run For Walk 4.1

Despite the egregious lies of my last post (re: “racing soon”), I finally got off my lazy tush and hopped into Northwestern’s Run For Walk 4.1-mile race. While I haven’t totally transformed into a sloth just yet, these past 2 months of not racing became exceedingly evident exceedingly early into Sunday’s race. Just how much did this suckfest hurt? Did Sam race a new 4.1-mile PR? And most importantly, how did his hair look? Read on to find out…

After the Essence of Freedom Memorial Day 5K back in the end of May, I was planning on racing aysap to further lower that infantile 5K PR. However, those plans went out the window when I found myself driving to accounts all over the Midwest, spending hermit-like hours listening to podcasts in the HOKAmobile. While my job as Field Service Rep for HOKA ONE ONE provides me with ample time to listen to all of David Sedaris’ books on tape, my weekends are especially busy, leaving very little time to get in any racing.

But, I’ve been keeping up the running, and as of now (knock on wood) have yet to miss a day in 2015. Running on the Lakefront Path is actually pretty fun – while the path itself is monotonous, there’s always plenty of characters to people-watch and secretly race against. Plus, I’ve even jumped into workouts with the local Fleet Feet Racing Team, having suffered through the fastest mile-repeat workout I’ve ever done (thanks Kyle).

And finally, when I had a weekend where work kept me local, I made a quick google search to find Sunday’s Run For Walk race. After forcibly coercing my housemate/old IWU XC teammate Erik “Squanchy” Bergstrom to race with me, we signed up a couple days before the race, not totally prepared for how much it would suck.

Race morning had us out the door by 6 am, and after picking up our packets and endlessly debating about where to pin our bibs (we went with shorts, to allow for as much shirtless naked running as possible), we yogged for 10 minutes before lining up at the start. Kyle and the rest of the Fleet Feet Racing Team were already at the front of the starting line, and I made Erik promise me to not let me go out with them. The tentative plan was to negative split, a strategy that always works for me but I never actually follow through with. 4.1 miles is a curious distance, so I came in with the B-goal of going sub-5:45 pace, and an A-goal of sub-5:35; I knew this was all contingent on not starting like an idiot. I knew this, told Erik about it, but when that starting gun went off, there I was running 5-flat pace. Woof.

Erik and yours truly at the start

I should mention that this race had more than 750 runners – by far the biggest race I’ve run in recent memory. So unfortunately, there were plenty of people to pace too fast off of, and despite telling myself I was running relaxed, made it through mile 1 in roughly 5:25, and tired. Uh oh. By now Kyle and the Fleet Feet team had taken off, and I found myself running with 3-4 others, clipping off 5:30 pace (according to my Garmin).

Making it through mile 2 right at 11-minutes, though, I hit a mental impasse. See, in a 5K, this is where I’d start going balls-to-the-wall, urging myself on with those cursed memories of a maintenance mile. But with still two miles to go, I told myself to rest this mile and save enough for the last. So I slowed – big time. Strava tells me I was trotting 6-flat pace here, and looking back, it makes sense. Once you start giving in and making concessions in races, it’s harder and harder to really push and keep it together. The little blips on my pacing line below show those times when I’d look down at my watch: each time I was amazed to find myself running so slow, throw in a surge, then slowly ease back to a pedestrian pace.

Almost too embarrassed to put this up...

The last mile found me running ~5 seconds behind a Dick Pond Athletics runner, and for the life of me, I could not catch him. We flew through the 4-mile marker, though I missed the time, and made it down the final stretch across the Welsh-Ryan Arena. Totally spent, I crossed the line in 23:14, good enough for 14^th place and a 5:41 average. Here’s race footage of that final stretch (the good part [AKA me] starts at 2:10): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkVreUwCeqw&feature=youtu.be

Good thing I still have my pretty looks, because that form is atrocious.

Erik finished not too long after, and in chatting with other runners, everyone felt like butt. I cooled down with Katelyn Draths, another old IWU XC teammate, then made the drive home with Erik. We both decided that we needed to race more, so we spent the rest of the day finding local Sunday races (work keeps me from racing on Saturdays). And, lo and behold, below you’ll find my upcoming races for the majority of 2015!

Sunday, September 20^th: ZooRunRun 5K

Sunday, September 27^th: Chicago 5K

Sunday, October 26^th: Evanston Trick or Treat Trot 6K

Sunday, November 8^th: Naperville Half Marathon

Thursday, November 26^th: Evanston Flying Turkey 5K