Jingle Bell 5k

Ran the Cincinnati-edition of this annual fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation (a group near and dear to my heart, or at least, my knees) last Saturday morning. The race course is the same one used for one of our summer races, the Big K 5k, and it’s a favorite of mine because I set my 5k PR on it years ago.

The race starts and finishes at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, just across the river from Cincinnati in Covington. You run out and around the block away from the convention center, cross over a bridge, do a mile loop around an industrial area of the city, and back over the bridge to the start.

My goal today was to break 26 minutes, but I didn’t know if I was up to it or not. To place in my age group last year you needed a 27, but most years you need to run a 24-25. I haven’t run this particular race in few years. The last time I did it was in 2003, when I walked it with my dog, Logan, about 6 weeks after my knee surgery.

Last time I ran the course was this past June, when I finished in 26:44. I did place in my age group at that one but this is a much bigger race, with about 1100 runners and walkers. OTOH, they also go pretty deep in the age group awards, so there was a chance I could get something depending on who else showed up.

This morning was not too bad a day for a 5k race: overcast with temps in the low 30s, but not much wind and no precipitation. Got there about 30 minutes before the race, parked in the garage across the street, visited the ladies room (got the stall next to my Congresswoman, seems like I always run into her in the bathroom at this race, what is up with that, at least she kept her feet inside her own stall ), checked out the post-race refreshments (Starbucks, M&M cookies, bananas, water and goetta---no goetta for me!), tied my jingle bells on my shoes and then went out for a 10 minute warm-up jog around the block.

Felt pretty good on my jog. Finished up just in time to line up at the start. Chatted with old friend and former co-worker David J., who told me of some recent heart attack scares he had experienced (docs have given him a clean bill of health but is that a guarantee?). Then some woman came up to me and asked me if this was my “first one.” What is it about me that always attracts these people? Do I really look like I have never done this before? Am I that fat?

So I tell her, no, it’s not, but I haven’t done it in a few years. She starts yakking about the Thanksgiving Day 10k race and asks me if I did that one and I explain that I did another race some place else because I was out of town. And then she asks me about the race next week, am I going to do that one, and I say I am signed up but don’t know yet if I am going to do it. I guess I should have asked her about herself, and I might have done so but at that point I was rescued by the appearance of another old friend, Bob P.

Bob shows me his Garmin, and we discuss my progress towards the 50 states. Bob is now working on volunteering at marathons in all 50 states. It still surprises me when I show up at a race, no matter where it is, and I don’t see Bob there in some capacity.

And then we’re off. For once, I am lined up in the right place and it takes no time at all to cross the start line. Also don’t have to spend any effort running around people. Soon we’re starting to climb the bridge. My knee feels a little twingey but I think that is just nerves and also the temperature. Didn’t bother me during the warm-up. People are passing me on the uphill but I don’t worry about it.

Down the other side, around the corner and there is the one mile mark. My time is 8:28. I need to average 8:20s to get a 25:55, so I know right away that my goal is probably out of reach. So I just concentrate on running the best I can.

I know I’m working hard because I am huffing and puffing the whole way, just barely avoiding getting sick. I had two cups of coffee and a cup of yogurt at 8 am, and I hope I am not going to regret it.

Mile 2 is an 8:30. I am pleased that I have not slowed much. Concentrate some more and try to quicken the pace. Funny how when you try to run faster as the race goes on sometimes all that happens is you maintain the same speed! Coming back over the bridge, I can see the convention center and it looks very far away. I know we still have a quarter mile or more to go after we come off the bridge.

Mile 3 is an 8:29 (although I don’t know that until later), and I know for sure that I’m not breaking 26, so I decide it is not worth getting sick over, and plus there aren’t any women who appear to be my age in striking distance. I run into the chute just behind an older gentleman, George S., who was also at the Flying Monkey a couple of weeks ago. George says these 5ks are barely worth putting his socks on for, but we agree that this race is a festive thing to do this time of year.

With 46 seconds for the last .1, my official finish time is 26:14. I told myself that if I didn’t break 26, I wasn’t even going to bother sticking around to see if I won anything, so after a bit of water, coffee, cookies and a banana, I was in the car and headed for home. Now, if I had seen the age group awards ahead of time and they were something like coffee mugs, or beer mugs, or sports bags, I might have stayed just in case. But since I didn’t know, I didn’t think it was worth staying for some cheesy little medal, or worse, nothing at all!

Found out today that I did get 5 of 45 in my age group, and they went 9 deep so I would have won something. The web site says they are mailing the awards so we will see what I get. I was 74 of 508 women and 268 of 911 runners overall (and I also managed to beat all of the walkers, no small feat).