Father's Day 5k 2010

Father's Day dawned cool and cloudy in my dad's neighborhood. "Doesn't look like too great a day," he commented wistfully as we drove up to Arvada for the Father's Day 5k. "Looks perfect to me," I countered. I'd much rather run in cool, cloudy conditions than bright, merciless sunny ones. Of course, just because it was cloudy down south didn't mean it wouldn't be sunny up north...Sure enough, by the time we got to Arvada the clouds were nowhere to be seen. It promised to be a warm and bright day to run this race.

I was still feeling somewhat stiff from yesterday's 10 mile run with Runner's Edge, my first in the sub-4-hour pace group. So I wasn't planning on breaking my record today. But I still felt I could have a decent race, and finish under 30 minutes. But when I went out for my warmup miles (I always warm up with 2 miles when I run a 5k), I wondered if I was being optimistic. Not only was I still stiff, my right ankle was letting me know it was there. It wasn't screaming at me, but I could definitely hear it. I promised myself I'd take the race nice and slow, and ice my ankle afterwards.

And I was pretty good about doing just that--for the first half mile or so. I held back conservatively, paying attention to any messages my body--specifically my ankle--might be sending me as the crowd surged around and past me. But when the course turned onto Eldridge and started a mild descent (after a short climb on 72nd), I stopped paying attention to my pace and started paying attention to the runner who was just in front of me, whom I could easily pass. And, when I passed that runner, I saw another one just ahead of me, whom I could also pass with ease. And after that, there was another one, and another, and another. Before I knew it, I'd made my way back up to my relative starting position, and was still picking a few people off here and there.

I settled into a comfortably hard pace just before the turnaround at about the halfway point (the course isn't a strict out-and-back). I was still making my way forward through the crowd, and as I approached the end of mile 2 I was getting ready to enjoy the gentle downhill of the rest of the course. I had loosened up nicely by this time, and my ankle's conversation had lapsed into silence. I knew by this time I was on pace to finish near or maybe even under 25 minutes, 5 minutes faster than I'd originally planned on. At about 2.25 miles I passed my dad, who was looking pretty good for a guy who smokes 5 pipes a day.

I was still moving my way forward through the crowd, although not as rapidly as I had before. In fact, with about a quarter of a mile to go, a runner caught up to me! I pushed for a bit, just to see what his response would be. He kept right alongside me and even managed to pull ahead for a little bit! I rallied quickly, though, and passed him again just as we reached the 3 mile mark. Pouring on a final sprint, I managed to pass one more runner, crossing the finish line just a second before he did. I didn't PR, but had a surprisingly good race given how bad I'd felt before the start.

After I finished, I walked back up along the course looking for my dad. I caught him about a third of a mile away from the finish, and jogged alongside him to bring him in for a new PR. The race had featured an ugly tie contest, and he was wearing one hideously bad tie that many volunteers commented on and cheered. We made our way up to the pancake breakfast (included in the price this year--smart!) and checked out the car show before heading home, satisfied with our respective races. I'm sure we'll do it again next year.

Official Time: 25:31
YTD Race Miles: 99
YTD Total Miles: 547.7
World's Finest?: Two guys running together were wearing a Superman and Spider-Man tie for the ugly tie contest. Not that I would think of a Superman tie as "ugly"...