Campbell Oktoberfest 5K

Those of you who have known me since college can attest to the fact that there's two things I have always been good at: drinking beer and running (from the authorities). Of course, now that I am older, wiser, and slower I have wised up and renounced... Oh who I am kidding. I still love beer. And I still run every chance I get (whether from the authorities or just the local mountain lions and bobcats).

Last Saturday, October 15, I decided to sign up for a local 5K to find out just how slow I have gotten since my high school cross country days. I was never that fast at the shorter stuff in the first place (I'm more suited to the ultra-marathon distances), so I knew that this was going to be ugly. But, I figured that with some local law enforcement loitering around (eating all of the post-race food and hitting on any women who walked by) I should get that little added boost of adrenaline.

I knew I wouldn't have any chance to win (some of these 13 year old girls and 50+ year old men looked like they might be surprisingly fast). And of course, I probably looked like an idiot myself decked out in my Ed Hardy board shorts and my Vibram Five Fingers.

The starting gun went off and everyone started sprinting across the grass toward the paved bike trail. I felt like I was standing still. Everyone was passing me: little kids in basketball shorts, overweight walkers, pregnant women pushing double strollers. I quickly found myself in about 30 place. A quick glance down at my watch showed that we were running 5:45 pace, which was a bit too fast for my game plan of running 6:00 miles. Time to slow down!

Thankfully at about the .5 mile mark people started slowing down dramatically and I reeled in most of the little kids and pregnant stroller moms. But there three 50+ year old guys ahead of me (only one of which I would eventually catch).

I felt like I ran a pretty even paced race, though my Garmin stats tell a different story, with each of the three miles getting slower than the previous. Nonetheless I was reasonably satisfied with my time of 19:07 and my 9th place overall finish. Maybe I will actually do a little training (ugh, speed work) for the next local 5K in February.