My first red bar EVER (Read 900 times)

I did it! Yesterday was my first race EVER. I live in Oakland, CA. There's a great race almost every fourth Sunday, put on by a local running club. It goes around Lake Merritt--1 loop is 5K, and you can run 1, 2, or 3 loops. I graduated from the C25K very very recently. Last week, I ran 5K twice, on the race course--the only times I had ever run that far in my life! Friday I just did 2.5, to make sure my legs would be rested. Of course, Saturday night, although I meant to go to bed nice and early, I had a bit of a snafu with my girlfriend. I not only ended up going to bed late, but I didn't sleep well because I was upset. Ain't that the best of timing? Sunday I got up at 7, hopped in the shower to warm up and wake up, and put on my running clothes. My dad is visiting, so he was up to see my exhausted nervousness, but I asked him not to actually come to the race. Parent history. You know how it goes. I drank a glass of water, ate a banana, made sure I had my Garmin, and headed out the door. I could see my breath, but it was obviously going to be a beautiful day. I ate half a Clif bar on the drive and pulled in early to the race site. Registration wouldn't start for another 10 minutes (I go places early when I'm nervous), so I sat in my car and listened to NPR for a while. Then I headed to where all the flags and card tables were and signed up. There were folks milling around, most people all smiles, and a few little kids. The sun was out over the lake right now, and it was warm enough to stick my car key in my shorts zipper pocket and dump my jacket in my trunk. I did some speedwalking--my usual warmup-- to the bathroom to pee, then people-watched. To my surprise, my nerves weren't bad at all! At about 8:30, there was a race for little kids--last place was a baby boy who couldn't have been even two years old. Adorable! Finally it was time to line up. No race chips--they had a camera thing at the start line. I lined up at the back. The race director made a little speech about the route, then the siren went off. I reminded myself not to go out too fast and I didn't. I eased past my two friends who had come to watch, and to my dismay, one of them was following me with a video camera. Almost everyone passed me right away, but I knew at least some of them would burn out. As usual, I had the sneaking feeling a few minutes in that I wasn't going to be able to finish, but I used my positive reinforcement to tell myself I could do it. One cool thing: there was a beginning runners' team whose coach would bike ahead to each mile mark and let us know our time while cheering on her people. My first mile was 11:18--17 seconds under my goal pace! The next mile was slower--almost 12 minutes--so I picked it up. The only problem in the race came when there was a fork in the paths and I didn't know which one to take. I ended up deciding to jump up a 2-3 foot little wall to skip to the higher path--probably not great for my tired legs. My other pet peeve--we ran on a public path, and pedestrians were blocking the path, smoking, and talking on their cell phones, oblivious, making me have to weave or slow down from time to time. As predicted, I started passing people at about mile 1.5. When I passed someone, I would tell them to keep going and let them know how much was left. Near the end, I was hurting. I was starting to feel the need to heave a little and didn't think I had much left. But then two things happened-- one, I saw my girlfriend's car parked in the lot as I ran past. She was upset the night before and wasn't sure she would come, so knowing she was at the finish line gave me some energy. That, and just around the bend from the finish line, the running coach yelled that we were at 34 minutes. I was going to beat my 36 minute goal! I picked up the pace and chugged across the finish line. The official results aren't up yet, but my spies tell me I crossed the line at about 35:20-- forty seconds under my goal time! I kept walking to try to slow my heart. Had one little dry heave that I covered up like I was coughing. My girlfriend gave me a hug, and my two friends who came walked up and congratulated me. I got some disgusting Clif Block Shots--margarita with salt -- and decided breakfast was in order. So off we went. Mission accomplished! I'll post some photos when I get them. And as soon as the results are posted, I'll modify to add my time and rankings.

CONGRATS!!! That's awesome!

Great job!!! Thats awesome that your friend was able to show up.

Thanks, guys! I am hooked. I have several possibilities for my next run. We'll see. Probably another of the same race I did yesterday, maybe the San Francisco Pride Run, maybe the San Francisco Marathon 5K...

LOL. The fact that you listened to NPR before the race really made me chuckle! Thanks for that. I usually listen to Korn, Metallica, or Dr. Dre. Would have never of thought to listen to All Things Considered to psych myself up. Might have to give that a try. Congrats BTW!

Great job! The first red bar is so exciting!

LOL. The fact that you listened to NPR before the race really made me chuckle! Thanks for that. I usually listen to Korn, Metallica, or Dr. Dre. Would have never of thought to listen to All Things Considered to psych myself up. Might have to give that a try.

I got a kick out of that as well. On my race Saturday I listened to a mix of NFL Films music and Zeppelin. Congrats on your first red bar!

Way to go! Great time for your first race! That's one thing I love about races - all the smiling people. It is striking, especially in New England.