A similar theme is "just show up". That advice came home to roost today - to my benefit.
Those who know me, know that I dearly love Mammoth Cave National Park. I'm particularly fond of the trails. I noticed a month ago that they were holding a 5k at Mammoth Cave and well, I just couldn't resist going. It was one of those 5k's where it was required to register in advance (some federal law about collecting funds in a national park I guess). So I mailed in my check for $12 and felt obligated to go.
For several weeks I've really been trying to pick up the pace exercising, I wanted to do decently on this 5k. I've done pretty well exercising - averaging the equivalent of 4 miles a day jogging. I'm a terrible runner though - it has to be my worst talent. No matter how much I work at it, I'm just slow and never get much faster. Still, it's a good way to burn calories and I really love the park, so away I went.
On Friday, I took the day off and Julie and I went canoeing in the park, it was about a 3 hr paddle, we just enjoyed floating down the river for the most part. On the way home I tried to guess where they would do the 5k. I figured they would run out on the road and then head back on the bike trail. I noted a moderate hill before the loop back would occur.
I got to Mammoth Cave about 35 minutes before the race and ran a bit to warm up. Then I asked what the course was and heard that there was no loop - we were heading all the way to Sloan's pond. I was flabbergasted! There was a hill on the trail out that way that was so steep! When I ride my bike there, I put it in the lowest gear and stand up the whole way with the tire spinning gravel all the way up. I gave up on setting a personal best time upon hearing that and just set my goal to be keep running all the way up the hill. I knew I would have to take the first 2.5 miles relatively slow to achieve that goal.
Well the race started, and I stayed in the back, knowing that's where I would end up anyway. It was pretty much as I expected. As we got closer to the hill, there was a skinny fellow running next to me - maybe 50 years old, we just kind of ran side by side. Before the race I believe I had commented to him that the last hill wasn't a hill - it was a mountain.
Well I barely made it up that hill, but I kept my legs going, with the other fellow just beside me. We jogged the last .5 miles after the hill together and then sprinted to the finish line. He pulled away at the end and beat me by 2 seconds or so. When we finished he thanked me for just running along side him. He was very friendly. The card they gave me when I finished said 71 (meaning I was the 71st person to finish). It was about 31 minutes and 40 seconds. I finished my last 5k on a real flat asphalt course in 30 min and 55 sec so I wasn't too disappointed with that.
Well, since there was no loop, we were kind of stuck at the end of the trail. There were supposed to be busses to take us back, but I didn't see them. I saw a lot of folks take off jogging back to the start of the race. I didn't really want to run another 3.1 miles, but everyone else was doing it. That, and I knew the local highschool who sponsored the race would have to pay $2 a head for the bus ride back - so I decided to slowly jog back.
As I started back, I came across a guy named Nick who works at the park and had run the race. I had seem him at other 5k's in the area. He noticed I was looking at his cool watch. He told me it had a built in GPS in it and that it indicates pace and miles run etc. We got to jogging together and talking and caught up with his friend Sue. Sue was working at the park for the summer, so we all jogged along together talking a bit. One other lady joined up with us. We were about the last people to return. We just talked and chit chatted the whole way as we jogged at maybe 5 mph. I virtually never jog slow enough to talk, so that was different for me. They were very friendly and it was very enjoyable. The 3 miles went by quick enough. At the end Sue had hitched a ride for the last mile with some rangers and Nick stopped to talk to somebody he knew who came riding up on a bike. The other lady and I talked for a while. She's new to running, but was telling me some things she had learned and applied about interval training. When we finally got back to the Mammoth Cave hotel parking lot and stopped jogging, she thanked me for running the whole way, saying she never would have done it on her own. I kept running because she was. Peer pressure can sometimes be a good thing.
Well, I usually never stay for the awards, but I did this time. 5k awards are kind of interesting. They award medals for the overall winners, then they give out awards for the top 3 females under 14. Then top three 15-19, top three 20-24 etc. etc up to age 65 or so. Then they repeated for the males. When they got to my age group, I was intrigued to see what fit looking 40-44 year olds look like. This first guy was this tall stringy dude. The second a shorter version of the same with a cool flourescent wicking running shirt. When they got to third place they said "Brian Schuck", to which I exclaimed "no way, how did that happen!?". I mean really - there were probably only 10 people that came in after me.
Well, I actually won a medal in a race. Sometimes it pays just to show up. I had a really nice time jogging and chit chatting with those folks in one of my favorite places, and to top it all off, I got a medal. Sure - it doesn't mean much - you could just as easily said I got a medal for coming in last. But it topped off a real nice morning.
I'm worn out now, must have jogged 6.5 miles today overall, hope to sleep well tonight.
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