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8:25 p.m. - 2007-06-10
Round 1
Crossorads Dash
Effingham,Il
time: 8 am
weather conditions: sunny and 65
surface: 90% asphalt, 10% concrete

Well, I survived! I crawled my way to a 33 minute and something. They actually told me the exact time as I crossed the line but I was just winded enough to not quite pick up on it. I assumed I'd find it online today but have looked to no avail. Oh well! Whether it was 33:01 or 33:59 is kind of a 'wtf'. It's all the same at that point. I didn't finish last but I was definitely amongst the last in of the 5k. A 15k was being run at the same time and there were plenty of those people still out there when I departed.
Felt fine at the end of the run and probably could have pushed myself a little harder. However, I figured the difference between a 33 something and a 31 something was also a 'wtf'.

After the 70 mile drive home, my right knee was a little tweaked. I don't know if it was from the run or from sitting at an an odd position in the truck with the cruise enabled and the air conditioning blowing on it.
If the knee thing turns out to be something serious and kills off this whole project, the 5k itself was an interesting and new experience. Just getting there and signing in and watching the other characters arrive was kind of cool. People of all shapes, sizes, and age participated. They all had their own way of warming up. As we were making our way to the starting line. A father was telling his daughter: "If you run it in 20 minutes that's fine, but if it takes you 22, don't worry about it. It's no big deal." His daughter was about half my height and appeared to be 8 or 9 years old. It was at this point I realized this little girl was about to literally beat me by a mile.
There were instructions to be followed but the course had many volunteers to help make sure we didn't get lost and were kept watered. The 5k and the 15k went separate ways at the 2 mile mark. The 5k went into the cemetery at that point. The starter says: "If you get out of the cemetery alive, (then he chuckles just loud enough for everyone to hear) turn right and the finish line will be just a half mile ahead of you. What I didn't know but apparently everyone else did, was that the the last several hundred yards of the cemetery was up an extremely steep grade.

Anyway, I lived. I got a goody bag at the end with a bottle of water, a bottle of gatorade some other little diddies. The prerace packet had an official race t-shirt and a powerbar. So if I make it to another one of these things, I'll have a REAL race t-shirt to wear instead of a White Zombie t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. I can at least look like a runner before we actually start running. All in all it was a positive experience and I'm glad I subjected myself to it. (even if a little girl did effectively club me like a baby seal)

Ok! I've got a week of vacation and I'm just going to try and maintain and nurse this knee thing while honing my golf game.

Hasta later!


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