No more running: Last-minute decision

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Last-minute decision

Last night I went to a charity 5K race, which was the kick-off event for the annual Water Festival, held in Hinton, WV – about 12 miles from the Middle of Nowhere. I hadn't pre-registered, and really was still up in the air about going at all until late yesterday afternoon. It rained all day, the forecast wasn't good for the 8 p.m. start, I'm a morning person (and usually in bed by 8:30 p.m.), blah, blah, blah.

I recalled my feelings after that 5K in April, the one where I had registered as a runner but ended up joining the walkers. I felt like I'd let myself down, just a little bit, by not having an "official" time. But last night, even as I was driving into the park where the event was held, I still hadn't made up my mind. Walk or run?

As it happened, a friend texted me right about then. I told her where I was and she asked, at 7:31, "Running?" I told her I hadn't decided. At 7:40 I texted her again.

"Running. …"

The field was small. And young. Lots of kids from the local high-school track team, young parents pushing jogging strollers. There were a few middle-aged and up runners. I saw the woman who won our age group seven years ago at the John Henry Days four-mile race. The one where I was the last woman in, followed only by a man in his 70s.

The course was the same as the April race – three loops around the neighborhood adjacent to the city park. Nice and flat, and at 8 p.m. it was still light enough to see. In fact, the sun popped out just before the starting gun went off.

My strategy was to run three minutes and walk one. I had downloaded and programmed an interval timer to my phone before I left the house yesterday. (It's called the HIIT Interval Timer Program in the Google Play store, and was super-simple to set up.)

And we're off! I started toward the back of the pack, so as not to impede the progress of the young folk. And I pretty much stayed there, picking out a couple people I wanted to lap (and doing so), but not wanting to kill myself in the process. It was hard to force myself to walk those one-minute intervals, watching all those people fly past me, but in the end the plan worked.

In addition to the HIIT timer, I used MapMyRun to log my distance and pace.

I came in 46th overall, but I don't know how many runners were registered. More than 46, for sure, because I saw some come in after me.

I also don't know how many runners were in the women 60-to-64 age group.

But I was first! Woo hoo!

So. To sum up: