My Seventh 5K

I've got some pictures for this post, so you should enjoy it. I did the Somerset Home's 7th Annual Run for Runaways 5K yesterday. This is the first time I've done a 5K that I have done before. This will allow some comparison of times with greater accuracy to see how well I'm improving.

As you may recall, I'm getting ready to run against my buddy Dave, so this race served as an indication as to how well I might do against Dave. Unfortunately, I was informed that Dave has an injury so we may not get to race against each other. In any case, I asked my trainer Yaniv if he would join me in the race to pace me. I figured this would discourage me from walking and also maybe he could pick up on anything I might be able to change to improve my form/time/etc.

I picked up Yaniv and Tamar at around 9 AM and headed to Duke Island Park in Bridgewater, NJ. Here is a picture of us just as we got out of the car in the lot. Notice my pirate face - this helps you get psyched up for the race:


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After registering and getting our bag of junk (including a purple lipstick container and a bottle of gelly goo that says Rapid Release Tabs on it) we warmed up with some slow pace jogging. I don't normally like to warm up with a jog because I don't know myself well enough to know whether a slow jog would wear me out. After the jog, we went over towards the ranger station to take the final piss before the race and on the way there, we saw a pretty girl wearing a crown walking the other way. Yaniv made the rotating queen wave to the girl and she sorta laughed. We took care of business and went back to the starting line to stretch. This is a very important stretch I like to do. It stretchs the upyoors muscles in your shoulders:


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Before the start of the race, the pretty girl we had passed on the way to bathroom started singing the national anthem. She was doing so well, until she looked directly into my eyes. She must have been so smitten by my new svelt build and lost her train of thought because she immediately forgot the words and the crowd had to help her along to the end. She made a nice recovery, I must say. Now, you may think I'm dellusional and you're probably right, but I'm not one to assume that a pretty girl is sweatin' me... let alone even looking in my direction... Anyway, here she is sweatin me:


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The race started and we were right in the pack between the 7 minute mile people and the 8 minute mile people. Yaniv told me to breathe deeply and it was working... we were going a good 7 minute mile for about a mile. Pretty soon though, I was getting a cramp on my right side. This is pretty common for me, actually, but it's never been this bad. The weird thing about the cramp is that it's always on the right side and always in the same spot. Pretty soon, I was sucking wind and just wanted to finish the damn race. Yaniv was giving me time and distance cues at regular intervals. When we had about a half mile left in the race, Yaniv said something like "Look, there's only 0.5 miles left". I looked up and could barely see the people making the final turn. This was a psychological blow. With the pain in my side and my labored breathing, seeing how far we actually had left to go just made me want to walk. There was no way we were going to break our 25 minute goal. But, I wasn't going to give up, I pushed as hard as I could and finished the race. I even tried to sprint the last tenth of a mile. Despite the push, I just couldn't go any faster and ultimately, I didn't even beat my personal best. All in all, I'm okay with the time. There were a lot of new variables and I was hurtin' pretty bad. I didn't prep too much in the weeks before this race and I'm just happy to finish this race as close to my personal best as I did. Here's a picture of me about 20 yards from the finish line. Notice how relaxed I look:


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And, here's a picture of me walking after crossing the finish line:


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And, finally, here's my evaluation of my performance. I'm making the so-so hand motion here:


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My time was 25:31 - more than 7.5 MINUTES faster than last year. This is 9 seconds slower than my unofficial personal best.

Somerset Home's 7th Annual Run for Runaways 5K - Bib # 178
Bridewater, NJ
November 5, 2005, 10:00 am

Overall Place: 157/280
Age Place: 12/17
Gender Place: 121/173
Pace: 8:13

Complete Results

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

After the race we moseyed on over to the free water, powerade, bananas, powerbars and Zone Perfect bars and went shopping. Anything I eat after a 5K is always the most delicious thing I've ever had. After eating a couple of things, we spotted the pretty girl who sang and chatted with her a little bit. Turns out she's Miss Queen City. Jamie Lynn Maglietta talked with us for a bit about how she's going to be in the Miss New Jersey 2006 Pageant and how her platform is service, support and shelter for teen runaways. She seemed very nice and I wished her luck in her pageant. I couldn't help notice how much she was checking me out. I asked her if I could take a picture with her. Notice how suave I am. I have a mouth full of Chunky Cherry Crunch Harvest PowerBar:


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I know she was just shy. Jamie, if you want to get a drink or something, you can email me your phone number by sending it to jon@internection.com