KB5 Road Race – 24/2/2007

Every year, the Edinburgh University Hares and Hounds hold a five mile road race at the Kings Buildings. I can't tell you how much I didn't want to run a 5mi race today.

Thursday afternoon through Friday early evening, I was away to Perth for a work thing. I didn't have time for my Thursday intervals. Instead, I did them yesterday morning with the big disclaimer that I am *so not a morning person, let alone a morning runner. I found a park near the hotel, which was a great alternative to breathing rush hour exhaust. The rest of yesterday was fairly active. I'm not going to tell you what I did last night, except to say that you should scold me because it was nowhere near the resting that my legs needed.

So today, I can't tell you how much I didn't want to race. My butt still hurt from the intervals. My legs felt like lead. My body wanted to lay in bed all day. The last thing in the world either my brain or my body wanted to do was run a race. But I did it anyway.

My friend Alan and I started together, but he's slightly faster than me and I prefer a slower start, so I saw him only for the first half mile. Would you believe it's February in Scotland and people were racing in singlets and itty bitty shorts? I would be attached to the heater the rest of the day if I tried something like that. I wore tights and what amounted to two shirts. Surprisingly, we didn't have hardly any wind.

The first mile was undulating with small hills. The usual race jockeying was limited to what people could do on the pavement and just a metre or so into the street, as nothing was actually closed to traffic. We turned just after mile 1 and started the first climb. It was a fairly steep climb, split to two parts. I love hills and nobody passed me on any of them. I passed a few people on the first part of the climb. One girl passed me on the flat part before the next part of the climb. The second part was steeper and my legs lodged their first protest. I shortened my stride and picked up my cadence. They stopped complaining near the top. We turned there now having the only steep hill out of the way.

The mile 3 marker came up just after the next turn and it was another undulatingly hilly mile across before we would drop back down the other side of the hill. Off to the left, my campus looked very far away. My legs lodged protest #2 as I climbed one small hill. A side stitch developed in sympathy. This one was a bit different and higher up than the ones I'm used to getting. Still on the same side on the right but it was behind my ribs instead of below them. Running got very very hard. I'm sure I slowed down for a minute or so as I tried to shake it. Eventually some weird breathing and stretching while running got it to back off from being so sharp. Mile 3 went on forever.

My stitch finally faded to a hint of an ache just the turn to head down the hill appeared. I picked up the pace again and chased down the mile 4 marker. The runners ahead picked up their pace as well. I don't do well catching people on downhills and this race was no exception. Everybody ahead of me stayed there.

At the bottom of the hill, we had one last uphill. It's steeper than it looks. I had a group of girls a few paces behind me. My leaden legs protested again, my side stitch tried to return again and a brief hint of nausea finally showed up. I remember thinking I sort of deserved all three for my Friday. I also remember thinking nobody passes me in the last mile. I picked up the pace anyway.

The last 1/4 mile took us past the finishers, around two corners and across the line where we started. I found a kick and passed one runner in the last few metres before the line. I felt absolutely awful and went straight into a cool down jog for a few minutes. To stop completely felt like the worst idea ever. When I finally stopped jogging, it just felt like a bad idea. :) I stretched a little, chatted with my friend Alan and then headed back to my office for some more stretching out of the cold.

So I survived and aside from the leaden legs all of the other aches have subsided. I have no idea what my time was. I couldn't be bothered hanging around waiting. I had to cycle to the bike shop and wanted to get home before I might have needed the lights I forgot. I'll post a time when they're posted on Monday or Tuesday. I set a goal for myself of sub 45:00 (9min/mi) given my handicaps for the day.

Edit: My time was 40:01, which puts me at just a sliver over 8min/mi and absolutely stunned considering how bad I felt. I placed 181/218 racing primarily against a bunch of younguns. :)