Glendale, Arizona
This was the last race of the year. If you beat Santa in this race then you get entered into a raffle for all kind of great prizes. This was a tough race for me. I had an upper respiratory thing going on which made it difficult to breathe normally. Try running a 5k at race pace when you can’t get enough oxygen and you will quickly learn that it is a painful experience. Christian took off at a 6:50 for the first mile. I know this because I stayed with him. I did not want to lose to him even though I was sick. Running a sub 7 minute first mile put me in a painful place. I had no choice but to back off at that point or my oxygen deprivation would red lined me into complete failure. I only backed off enough to prevent failure however. I held on to the hope that Christian was going to burn himself out by going out that fast. Unfortunately I have trained him too well. He is not the same runner as a year ago. He now has three half marathons under his belt and the stamina to match. Before I hit the second mile I could no longer see Christian. I still wanted to push it just in case he had a total meltdown, but I was happy for him. I knew he was on his way to a record time. I just wish I was up there to push him even faster. My next mental game was to ensure I stayed ahead of Santa so I could secure the raffle entry. During the last mile, many people, including children were passing me. I could not answer and it pissed me off. I forced one last surge as I neared the finish line. I don’t remember them taking the chip off my ankle. Christian caught me in the shoot and started asking me if I was ok. Apparently I was pretty white and not looking very good. I don’t know about that, but I wasn’t feeling very good that I know for sure. My leg muscles were threatening to cramp. I guess they had had enough of being forced to run without sufficient oxygen. I only ran a 00:25:02, which 2 minutes slower than my last 5k and normally nothing to be proud off. However today I was proud of that time. Despite my inability to breathe I gave it my all. I was close to passing out at the finish line. I did not give in or make excuses. I had plenty of them to choose from this week. I was sick. I had not run for an entire week, which s the first time that has happened in the last two years. I managed to average an 8:02 mile without sufficient oxygen and running at a disgusting holiday season weight of 240 pounds. Christian finished with a 00:23:21, his fastest ever. I will have to hear about for some time to come. I did manage to beat Santa. As we were driving to this race this morning, I was asking myself why we had bothered to finish off this year with such an anti climatic 5k race. As it turned out it was great way to end this year and head into the new year.
