Well, the gun went off and we found ourselves racing even though we were walking in the back of the pack. When we saw our time for the first mile was in the 15 minute range and we weren't pushing that hard, we got into it. Despite the hilliness of the course, we finished in about 47:22. I won my age group and Susan placed in hers.
The following weekend we decided to take it more seriously and see how much faster we could go. We entered the Armed Forces 5K in Crescent Springs, KY, which was a new race for us but looked like a good choice. I wasn't sure how fast the course would be because it is a hilly area, and I wasn't sure how we would do in our age groups because the previous years' times looked fairly competitive. But the race was put on by Greg McCormack, and he usually does a decent job.
The course was easier than Kilgour. It was more rolling hills than anything especially steep. The start and finish was in a pretty park with a nice shelter area where we could hang out before and after the race.
Again, Susan had Will in the stroller and I had the dog. We started in the back again, but this time we did not try to stay together. Right away at the start I pulled ahead of Susan. But I knew there was one really fast walker ahead of me, at least---a woman that I saw at the start. She was walking what to me seemed to be amazingly fast, and with seemingly very little effort. But I pressed on, and was rewarded with a time much faster than at Kilgour: 41:05. Susan finished about a minute behind me, also much faster than at Kilgour.
it was indeed a relatively competitive field for walkers. I was only 3 of 6 in my age group, although I was 4 of 21 women and 4 of 30 walkers overall. Susan was 2nd in her age group, 5th woman and 7th overall. Susan was beaten by a 93 year old man!
We decided to keep on with the walking thing and see how fast we could get. I also decided to start "training" a bit. What I began during that next wee was incorporating more fast walking into my regular short runs. Those runs are already so slow, it didn't seem like the walking would make me much slower. And in fact, I found that walking all of the uphill portions of my regular routes gave me a faster time then I have recently gotten "running" the whole way. I've also thought about trying to walk the downhill and run the uphills so I get some practice walking downhill, but I haven't tried that out yet.
The next weekend, we went to the Mariemeont 5k. I was expecting we would be faster still at this race, because there was only one hill (down at the start and up near the finish) and the rest of the race was flat. We did go a bit faster. My time was 40:41. But it was not as much faster as I had expected. At this race, Will got a little cranky about half way through and Susan had to feed him before we drove home, and we all got a little cranky. We missed the awards ceremony, even though we were still there while it was taking place, beause we were so busy cranking at each other. We didn't think that we did very well, but later when we looked up the results, we found out that we were the second and third women overall in the race, and we would have gotten $20 and $15 gift cards if we had been present. From this race, we learned that we really need to get to the races early enough so Susan can feed Will before we start, so he won't start screaming during the race, and we will be able to stay for the awards after.
After the race last weekend, I started doing some research online about race walking technique Because what I have been doing is fitness walking, and I think that formal race walking technique would ultimately be faster. Turns out, the technique is harder to do for any amount of time or distance than the casual observer would imagine. It's that whole keeping the leg straight in front thing. But if you compete on the track at formal, judged race walk events, you can be disqualified for the kind of fitness walking with a bent knee that I am doing.
I tried some during the week to work on my technique on my treadmill workouts. But it's hard. I think maybe it would be good if I had a clinic I could attend where somebody knowledgable could give me advice on my form and on training techniques. In the meantime, I guess I am going to practice a little but mostly what I'll still be doing is fitness walking.
So, finally, this weekend I did a 5k walk by myself. Susan and Will are out of town, so if I was going to race I had to do it alone. I could have brought River along, but I wanted to see if I could go faster without the dog. With River, I can't pump my arms efficiently, and I use up some injury restraining her and also trying to keep her from reacting to other dogs we may see during the race. Plus I have to actually stop at the aid stations so she can drink some water out of a cup, or at least I feel that I have to offer it to her.
I was not as much faster without River as I expected, but I am still just learning the game, and the course I ran on yesterday was also not dead flat so it doesn't reflect my true potential. Or so I am telling myself.
The race I did was June in Olde Williamsburg. This was my second time at the race. I did the 10k there a couple of years ago. It is a very nice community event, also put on my Greg McCormack. Although it is a small field, many of the competitors approach it fairly seriously. it is a mix of high school and college runners, parents of younger children and the children, and some old geezer types who were formerly fast. I knew to expect to face Nancy Z. In the race walk. She's a nice lady whom I have known for years through the running clubs I used to be a member of.
When I arrived at in Williamsburg, I was feeling bad about not bringing River, because the weather was relatively cool and overcast, with just a touch of rain even, and I could have done it with her. She loves it so.
I decided to go for a little warm up jog. Even though I was going to walk the race, I did a jog for my warmup. Instead of my usual mile, I only went about a half mile. Then I hung out and stretched a little while I waited. I said hello to Nancy and chatted her up a bit. When I told her I was walking she asked me if I was injured. I explained about how I had been trying out this race walking thing. And from the somewhat determined attempt she made to make it sound like it was no big deal and we were all out there together and we were just competing with ourselves and blah blah blah, I sensed that maybe she considered me just a little bit of a threat.
She told me that she was not in as good shape as previous years (sandbagging?) and that she barely broke 40 minutes at her last race. I reflected on how I had yet to break 40 minutes ever in a race walk.
A nice thing about this race is there was a separate start for the walkers, so we could get right up to the start line and see who we were competing against. Although as far as "competitive spirit," it was really just me, Nancy, and a guy who would be the overall winner.
The gun went off, and Nancy and the guy took off like they were shot out of a cannon, so ok, I knew I probably was not going to beat Nancy. OTOH, in most races I do start off a little more conservatively than other people. Still, I was moving my legs as fast as I possibly could without breaking into a run and the distance between me and the two leaders was substantial before we had even gone a quarter of a mile.
Well, I really was just out there to see how fast I could go. It was not about beating Nancy. I did notice, though, after about a half mile, she slowed a bit, and looked over her shoulder to see if I was coming, and she was passed by the guy who would eventually win. I wondered how close I would get to her and if she would continue to slow down.
The second half mile of this race drops down hill to a mixed use trail. The downhill is fairly steep, and I remembered that I still need to practice walking fast downhill. I did the best I could. At turns where we ran into volunteers, I made jokes about how I would not be catching Nancy. She is from the area, and everybody knows her, so they laughed. And I laughed.
Mile one was a 12:34. I had a cup of water at the aid station, taking a few sips and then dumping it on my arms. Mile 2 was mostly flat, so I was a bit disappointed when my time was just 13:07. Maybe I have the same problem that has plagued me in all the 5k races I've run, which is remembering to focus in the second mile. I had given up on catching Nancy and had no other competition, so I slowed down.
In the third mile, I tried to estimate how far Nancy was ahead of me by looking at my watch when she passed a certain object in the distance, and then checking my watch as I passed the same object. It was well over a minute when I first checked it. But as we approached the finish, I could see that the gap was narrowing. But I didn't want to beat Nancy, really. Maybe next time, but not this first time we race each other. So I was hoping she wouldn't slow down so much that it would be an issue. And it wasn't. She crossed the finish line and turned around to wait for me and cheer me on. She even held out her hand for a high five as I crossed the line. This was a bit bothersome because what I really wanted to do was stop my watch first. Anyway, what a sportswoman. She beat me by about 30 seconds. She said that if we'd gone another half mile I would have caught her. I agreed, but didn't say it out loud.
I said something about this walking stuff being really hard, and we laughed and she gave me some pointers on technique. Or really, she said to be careful as I work on straightening the leg because it could really screw up my hips, and maybe it was better to just stick with what was comfortable. Although I don't know about that, because I know I can really never take this experiment as far as I might wish to if I don't work on perfecting proper race walking technique. It is pretty funny how much more important technique seems to be in race walking versus running. So maybe I will give it up after awhile because we know how disinterested I am in aiming for perfection in anything!
My last mile was a 12:38, and then 1:18 for the last .1, for an official time of 39:38. I stayed for the awards, and I did win the age group (Nancy is 11 years older than me) and there were seven women in my are group so that is something, although none of them were really competitive. I was 2 of 21 women and 3 of 39 walkers overall.
I'm wondering if these walks will prove fast enough to get me ranked in the local listings that the running shoe store puts out. They do rankings for walkers under 60 and over 60. Nancy gets ranked but she is in the over 60 group. It does seem, after looking at who shows up for these events, that most of the competitions are at least over 50. Do we run until we just can't and then, loathe to give up competing, become walkers?
I don't know how many more of these I will do. I might do the 4 1/2 mile walk instead of the 10k run on July 4. it would be fun to see if I can finish 4.5 miles faster in a walk then I could run the 10k. Otherwise, I don't think I would want to do anything generally farther than these 5k races as a walker. I didn't feel too tired after the Kilgour race but I am finding that these faster walks leave me feeling just as depleted afterwards as I feel after a hard 5k.
