A year ago on the 4th of July, I think the last time I would have run a mile of distance was back in high school. Then I tried running a bit last November, got bit hard by the running bug and for all you kicksters here who aren't familiar with all the backstory, I ran myself into a broken tibia.<br><br>
It was 6 months to the day today that my left leg was put in a cast and I spent the first 6 weeks of the year hopping around on crutches. The 30 Somethings over at Coolrunning had to put up with me while I bitched and moaned my way back to getting out of the cast, starting therapy, starting walking again, and finally resuming a bit of running on April 21.<br><br>
So anyhow, a few weeks back, I set a personal best of 34:28 at a 5K and eventually noticed there would be a 5K near me on the 4th of July. I decided I wanted to run it, plus I would go into it with even better fitness and a better idea of how hard I might be able to push the legs. So I was all cranked up today to run this hard, run all of it, and set a new landspeed record for this slow novice runner.<br><br>
I'm also a type 1 diabetic and those of you here who know Notey probably know a bit about what it's like for diabetic runners. Although Notey presently has it easier than me, he's still a recent and late-onset type 1 sort of diabetic, he still has some beta cells down in the pancreas to help stabilize his blood sugars. I have to do it all on manual control with exogenous insulin and lots of test strips.<br><br>
My blood sugar tested at 137 mg/dl 20 minutes before the start. I injected 1u of Novolog to help with what I anticipated would be a bit of a sugar dump by my liver with the race stress.<br><br>
It was a crowded start. Lots of people. I managed to find a decent midpack spot and fortunately didn't have to do too much weaving around slower runnners or walkers at the start. Still, it took me about 15 to 20 seconds to reach the actual starting line. So off I went. I had a target heart rate in mind for this race of ~160 bpm. I suspected that my fitness could sustain that for a little longer than 30 minutes and that would be the number to get me to the end as fast as possible for a 5K.<br><br>
Reached the 1 mile mark at around 10:30. My heart rate was in the upper 150s, and most of the first mile had been flat or slightly downhill. I knew that after the halfway mark, there would be some uphill for the next 3/4 of a mile. So I tried dialing up a notch and worked on keeping myself going forward.<br><br>
The 2 mile mark passed by with me showing 20:45 on the watch. I knew then there wouldn't be any super magical sub 30 in the works, but I was easily on pace to beat 34:28. And I went to crank my legs harder, keep driving. I wasn't going to leave anything behind.<br><br>
As my watch ticked past 30 minutes, I saw the bridge to cross over and enter the park and where the finish would be. I was feeling good and kept going as hard as I could. Upon reaching the top, I'm looking ahead to see the finish line and chute. There it was, off to the left of the starting line, and behind the huge crowd of mid-pack 5K racers who were waiting and walking slowly forward to go under the finish banner.<br><br>
Yes, you read that right. The race organizers had screwed up the finish area so badly I was forced to come to a halt and get in line. 31:30 showed on the display. Tick tick tick. Creep creep creep. All of us in this line were a bit dismayed at this development. Tick tick tick. Creep creep creep.<br><br>
I saw the clock tick by 34:26. 27. 28. 29. Thanks, thanks a lot. I wouldn't cross the finish line until the clock had gone by 36 minutes.<br><br>
I'm not going to do the 5K at this race ever again. I stayed for a while and got to see that the 10K racers were few enough that there wasn't a backup. But man, I'm a bit pissed about the finish here. I was running a great race for myself today, I had come much closer to maxing out my effort in a 5K and still be running all of it. And now I don't have an official time that's accurate. Bleah.
It was 6 months to the day today that my left leg was put in a cast and I spent the first 6 weeks of the year hopping around on crutches. The 30 Somethings over at Coolrunning had to put up with me while I bitched and moaned my way back to getting out of the cast, starting therapy, starting walking again, and finally resuming a bit of running on April 21.<br><br>
So anyhow, a few weeks back, I set a personal best of 34:28 at a 5K and eventually noticed there would be a 5K near me on the 4th of July. I decided I wanted to run it, plus I would go into it with even better fitness and a better idea of how hard I might be able to push the legs. So I was all cranked up today to run this hard, run all of it, and set a new landspeed record for this slow novice runner.<br><br>
I'm also a type 1 diabetic and those of you here who know Notey probably know a bit about what it's like for diabetic runners. Although Notey presently has it easier than me, he's still a recent and late-onset type 1 sort of diabetic, he still has some beta cells down in the pancreas to help stabilize his blood sugars. I have to do it all on manual control with exogenous insulin and lots of test strips.<br><br>
My blood sugar tested at 137 mg/dl 20 minutes before the start. I injected 1u of Novolog to help with what I anticipated would be a bit of a sugar dump by my liver with the race stress.<br><br>
It was a crowded start. Lots of people. I managed to find a decent midpack spot and fortunately didn't have to do too much weaving around slower runnners or walkers at the start. Still, it took me about 15 to 20 seconds to reach the actual starting line. So off I went. I had a target heart rate in mind for this race of ~160 bpm. I suspected that my fitness could sustain that for a little longer than 30 minutes and that would be the number to get me to the end as fast as possible for a 5K.<br><br>
Reached the 1 mile mark at around 10:30. My heart rate was in the upper 150s, and most of the first mile had been flat or slightly downhill. I knew that after the halfway mark, there would be some uphill for the next 3/4 of a mile. So I tried dialing up a notch and worked on keeping myself going forward.<br><br>
The 2 mile mark passed by with me showing 20:45 on the watch. I knew then there wouldn't be any super magical sub 30 in the works, but I was easily on pace to beat 34:28. And I went to crank my legs harder, keep driving. I wasn't going to leave anything behind.<br><br>
As my watch ticked past 30 minutes, I saw the bridge to cross over and enter the park and where the finish would be. I was feeling good and kept going as hard as I could. Upon reaching the top, I'm looking ahead to see the finish line and chute. There it was, off to the left of the starting line, and behind the huge crowd of mid-pack 5K racers who were waiting and walking slowly forward to go under the finish banner.<br><br>
Yes, you read that right. The race organizers had screwed up the finish area so badly I was forced to come to a halt and get in line. 31:30 showed on the display. Tick tick tick. Creep creep creep. All of us in this line were a bit dismayed at this development. Tick tick tick. Creep creep creep.<br><br>
I saw the clock tick by 34:26. 27. 28. 29. Thanks, thanks a lot. I wouldn't cross the finish line until the clock had gone by 36 minutes.<br><br>
I'm not going to do the 5K at this race ever again. I stayed for a while and got to see that the 10K racers were few enough that there wasn't a backup. But man, I'm a bit pissed about the finish here. I was running a great race for myself today, I had come much closer to maxing out my effort in a 5K and still be running all of it. And now I don't have an official time that's accurate. Bleah.
