10K - faster than I wanted

Sunday was the aforementioned 10K in the underground caves here in Kansas City. After taking the week prior off, I was more than a little concerned about my ability to run without pain, let alone not embarrass myself.

The caves in question are naturally occurring caves where about 1,500 people work in various industries. The passages are large (double tractor trailer wide and 30 feet tall at some points), the temperature is constant, the ground paved, and there are even railroad tracks from a bygone era in there. Think about running outside on the road with never changing weather or temperature but fresh air and no sunshine.

I picked Mike Slade (pictured above) up at 8 and drove the 20 miles to the caves. I have been there before but it was many years ago. The traffic was fairly heavy and by the time we got into the caves, it was 8:45, with the 5K scheduled to go off at 9.

There were about 2,000 entrants in the 5K with the winner running 16:17 and the first woman at 17:23. Needless to say, they appeared to be flying. This, of course, did nothing for my self-imposed pre-race anxiety.

A short aside about pre-race anxiety. When I was running in high school and college, I would work myself into almost a trance-like state prior to a race, ignoring everyone and everything around me and concentrating on the race itself. This abated a bit as I got older but it was just my way of concentrating. That was NOT what happened Sunday. Sunday, I just didn't want to finish too far back in my age group. I know, it was self-imposed, silly, and I shouldn't be so damned competitive. Folks, it's me. I can't change it. Put me in a competition and I want to win. Monopoly. Checkers. Dodge ball. Tic-tac-toe. It doesn't matter.

Mike and I lined up just behind the 8 min./mile sign, expecting everyone to be honest in the assessment of their performances. (Don't forget, this was my first race in over 25 years and I had forgotten that people generally fudge by a minimum of a minute). The race started and we were about 20 seconds from the starting line.

The first mile was spent picking my way through the crowd, weaving in and out. I passed the mile mark at 8:11 on the clock (7:50 real time?) and settled into a comfortable (but too fast, I knew) pace. The race was 2 loops of the 5K course but I didn't see any clock at the 5K point so I had absolutely no idea of pace. I did know that I was running probably too fast for my own good but hey, I felt ok.

I passed 4 miles at 30:30 and suddenly realized that I was running 7:37 pace, which scared me a bit. I haven't trained at that pace and had no intention of running that fast. That being said I was feeling ok, not great, but ok and decided to just keep running without thinking much. After all, it was only another 2 miles and I figured I could endure any pain for 15 more minutes.

The bottom line was 47:06 or 7:35 per mile.
17/54 in age group
169/1127 overall

I was not sore and satisfied. Best of all, Mike and I stopped at Llewelyn's on the way home for a few beers.

Now I have figured out why I run.