Catching Up on Recent Races

My last five local races have been a combination of repeat races from last year as well as new races in Stockton and Turlock. Results were all over the place, good and not so good. One thing that I have found interesting the past two years in particular is that there is no guarantee that how I feel right before a race starts is how I feel once I get into the race. The lesson, for me at least, is to just get to the starting line and see what happens. Usually it's fine but in some races it seems that my energy literally drains all at once. It's a strange feeling but that really is how it feels, like an energy drain. In some races I have been able to get past it and still have a decent effort, in others I have been able to finish but that is literally all I do. That was the case this year with the Move Your Bones 5K in Turlock, a race where I won my age group last year.

I started at a comfortable pace and at about 5:30 into the race the bottom literally dropped out. I spent the last 2 1/2 miles literally just plodding towards the finish line. If it had been a longer race, I probably would have had to drop. Again, the only lesson here is simple, you never know what to expect when you enter an event, even after you start but you can still try to make the best of it. Tough race, tough lesson, but race # 131 since turning 60 done.

Before the Move Your Bones and as bookends to my New Jersey trip where I raced with my daughter and my son in law I ran two Shadowchase Running Club races. I ran the Cancer Awareness 2 mile in Modesto and the Cheese and Wine 5K in Riverbank. Both are part of the club Grand Prix series. The results were similar to last year's results in both races. Between September 20th when I ran Cancer Awareness and October 26th when I ran Move Your Bones I ran five races, traveled to and from the east coast and on October 18th I got my flu shot. While I don't believe I got sick from the shot I do think it could have had an impact on the energy crash at MYB. I need to try to pay attention to race scheduling around a flu shot next year.

The first of my final two races that I am catching up on in this post are the St. Joe's 5K in Stockton that actually was 3.65 miles as opposed to 3.1 of a 5K. I never looked at my watch during this race and felt really good the entire race, start to finish. During the race we weren't told that it was a long course so had I been looking at my watch and paying attention to time I might have been discouraged. I couldn't believe how slow the finish line clock said I had run when I had felt so good. Shortly after that we found out the "actual" distance of the race. Lesson here, don't worry about what your watch says, run how you feel and enjoy it.

The second is the Kettle Dash 5K in Turlock, a Salvation Army fundraiser. It was a good race. I met and ran with another Vietnam Vet for the first 2+ miles of the race and we talked about what coming home was like then and now. He picked it up soon after two miles and I didn't go with him. We ended up finishing 3rd and 4th in the 60-65 age group. One of the fun things about going to a lot of races is meeting new people in the running community.

I've got two Thanksgiving races coming up in the next 8 days so I guess I need to get pictures on here from the race I am catching up on and publish this post before I find myself even further behind.