The Valentine’s Day Dash Love ‘em or Leave ‘em event is a pretty
significant local 5k fun run. The attendance is considerably higher than your
average Seattle 5k and it would be my first race of the new year. Suffice to
say I was super excited for this race, especially when I learned that the race
organizers were looking for “kissing booth managers”. Was this actually a
thing? Were these mythical booths still alive in this modern age? And most
importantly, would they would allow me to set up a MAP (Mono Awareness and
Prevention) booth right next to it?…
The race start was set for 9:30 a.m. and started my warm up
about an hour before. I am still experimenting with the whole pre-race warm up
routine, particularly with the mix of light jogging and strides to both get my
heart rate up and open my natural stride so that I can smoothly transition into
a quick turnover and cadence at the start of the race. About 10 minutes into my
warm up, I noticed a very fast and professional looking group of women in
matching race kits executing warm up drills and realized it was a team of
Oiselle runners. Oiselle is a local Seattle company that designs and sells
women’s running apparel and also sponsors female runners (which include some
big names such as Lauren Fleshman, Kate Grace, and Sarah Robinson). I’m not
going to lie and say it wasn’t an intimidating sight, but it was so much more
fun and cool to see than it was intimidating. The inner fanboy inside me was on
Cloud 9, but I leashed that sucker and headed over to the start line.
Game time. First 400 meters out, the crowd started to thin and I
started to find my stride. At about half a mile in my left quad felt like it
was on the path to cramping and I decided to check my pace to feel it out and
hope that it was just trying to adjust to the colder than usual temperature.
After another quarter mile the feeling passed and I started to push myself
again. Even holding back a bit, when I looked down at my watch it showed I had managed to run a 6:15 first mile split.
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| Although I was unable to find a kissing booth, there was no shortage of creative costumes. |
The second mile has consistently been the toughest split for me
at 5k races, both mentally and physically. My tendency to start off races too
fast definitely takes its physical toll through the second mile. At the
same time, I know that I still have a lot more distance left to cover and with
the start-of-race adrenaline having worn off and no longer helping to numb the shock,
I am reunited with my own thoughts which greet me with a world of discomfort
and unpleasantness. You know the phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”
by William Congreve (yes, upon some noteworthy Wikipedia research I found out
it is actually not a quote from William Shakespeare, although it is often mistakenly attributed
to him)? Well, William clearly never met my brain after it has been ignored for
the first mile of a 5k. Let me tell you, it comes back with an otherworldly
vengeance… However, the second mile is where I fall back on the work and
training I have put in every day. Getting out the door and putting in those
miles every week. Trusting that those miles have made me a better runner
and will see me through to the finish line. This allowed me to keep pace and
finish the second mile split in 6:12.
Going into the third mile I realized I had fallen into a small
pack of other runners. One guy in particular ran next to me for about half a
mile and had a smile on his face the entire time. My facial expression must not
have been pretty because at one point he even unclipped a water bottle from his
belt and offered it to me with a concerned look. I politely declined but it
struck me how this was just one of so many examples of what I love about the
running community. Here was a fellow runner who was probably hurting as much as I was and still managed to stay classy and devote energy in the middle of his own race to offer me his water bottle. Props to you my friend.
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| I was unable to find you after the race to shake your hand, but if you are reading this sir, your "bro's before racing woes" attitude was truly appreciated. |
Half mile to go and I notice a couple of Oiselle runners I saw
before the race fly past me. Like, full on sprint past me. I tried to tap into
this enthusiasm of speedy energy and I found a little left to make a final push
of my own. I came in with an official time of 19:10.
Post-race afterthoughts:
2. I think I will start taking closer note of what other runners are doing for their pre-race warm up to see if there are any particular exercises or patterns that I might want to incorporate into my own.
3. Unfortunately, no mythical kissing booths were spotted at this event. Maybe next year.
