Tuesday, May 20, 2008

TCho The Running Man

Tonight I ran the American Heart Association Start! Wall Street Run. (What's with the multitudinous use of exclamations?) It was only 5K, but with the gloomy, cold, rainy weather today, I wasn't really in the mood to run.


This was my first ever race. The crowds daunted me at first, and when the gun went off, I BOLTED because I had to get away from those crowds (I can't STAND crowds.) As I ran the course, I got a tour of my old stomping grounds from the days when I used to work at good old 125 Broad Street. I also saw lots of tourists and some cute suit guys watching us run. Towards the finish line two groups of pre-teen kids held their hands up. I'm sort of oblivious to everything (even in normal daily life), and I totally did not notice the first group of kids, until one of the kid's hands brushed my elbow. But I gave some high-fives to the second group. I somehow also completely did not notice a water station in the middle of the race that someone told me about later.

My final time was 23:19 at a pace of 7:46 min/mile, and my overall place was 1,108 out of 4,301 runners, which isn't bad I guess (to see my age group and gender standings, enter my bib number from the picture above here.) I think for the next race I do, I'll do a little better preparation, like make sure my laces are securely tied, and look out for another runner to hitch a ride from and go at his/her pace. And yes, despite all my whining today to my very patient friend, I think I'd like to do another race. But no marathon, thank you.

Still, I was pleased because I finished the race faster than I thought with some help from a call from nature. Before the race, I could feel my bladder starting to wimper and by the end of the race, it was screaming. So if I needed to summarize my race saga, I think this drawing describes my voyage nicely:

4 comments:

bigislandjeepguy said...

hahaha...too funny (the drawing)!

hey, whatever it takes to motivate you to finish the race.

teahouse said...

Go you!! That's impressively fast.

I run like an 11 minute mile...(goes and sobs in corner)

tim said...

Wow, you ran a race. I don't even run if someone is chasing me.

thwany said...

congrats on your first race!