A few weeks ago, my wife asked my opinion about what we wanted to do the night of her birthday. Her preference was to run the inaugural Terrapin 5k in Grant Park, then go to dinner. Well, twist my arm! It certainly sounded like a good plan to me. And the best part is that it wasn't me trying to convince her to let me run another race!
So like a good husband, I offered to run with her to help pace her to her goal time. She wanted no part of that however, so I was free to run my own pace. I knew nothing about the race until we showed up at the starting line, but it sounded like a fun concept, and a fun night, featuring a post-race concert by the jam band Mr. Blotto.
I am actually focused on a race this weekend, the xtreme 10 miler at Waterfall Glen, so I had no real plan to run hard two days before. That was part of the (somewhat selfish) reason for my offer to run with her. So made a starting line decision to run the first mile at a good pace and see where it went from there. I crossed that mile in 6:35, and was suddenly faced with a choice. I could push it and try to break 20 minutes, or I could back off and keep myself fresh for the weekend race. I figured I would give myself permission to take it easy at the ten miler if I broke 20.
In the end, of course, I did neither. I kept about the same pace through the second mile before deciding I didn't really feel like dragging the rest of the night by letting it all hang out for he final mile to make a push to break 20. So I kept the same pace and finished in 20:21, for a pace of 6:33.
Interestingly, it was the same course I ran a 5k on last month. I placed third in my age group at the Jim Gibbons run, and was really focused on trying to run well there. At the Terrapin, I barely stretched before, and did no warm-up, yet, my finishing time was exactly the same! 20:21. In this race, however, the time waas good enough only for 8th place in my age group.
There are a couple of messages in those results. The first is that, for me, warming up may be a little overrated. The second is that finishing places are all relative. Where you finish really depends on who shows up for a given race. This one was more than twice the size of the the Gibbons run, and it attracted a stronger field. Who knew Deadheads were good runners?
But my results aside, the race, on this night, it was all about my wife. After crossing the finish line I managed to hustle over to get my camera and get a shot of her at the finish line. She fell a few seconds short of her goal time, but it was a really impressive effort for her anyway. It was her first race since giving birth to our youngest daughter a few months ago, and only about the third time she's been able to run at all since then because of a back injury. I felt very proud of her!
There were a few organizational flaws with the race, like a beer line that seemed longer than the course, but, overall it turned out to be a nice run and a great concept. I'm not a die-hard Deadhead, so I had to ask one to learn the origin of the name for the race. Terrapin Station is the name of a popular Grateful Dead album and song.
Overall, I heard mostly positive comments from other runners. My wife's friends who were along for her birthday all ran as well, and then celebrated with a nice dinner afterward.
It was my idea of a perfect birthday, and it wasn't even my idea! Since my birthday is in February, there aren't many races in Chicago to choose from. So Happy birthday Christine!
See you on the roads.....
Nice shirt, John. You should wear it on the air!
Posted by: WendyCity Productions | July 24, 2009 at 04:43 PM
Great blog, John!
Posted by: Pat Hoesel | July 24, 2009 at 08:46 PM
Damn. You're fast. You're having a great racing season.
Posted by: kevin | July 26, 2009 at 01:24 PM
Not too shabby at all, John! And happy bday to Christine. Wish I'd seen you guys in the beer line. :)
Posted by: Liz | July 29, 2009 at 05:03 PM