Race #5 Overall

Race Bib

I picked up this race sort of at the last minute as a fill in since I opted not to do the Run Thru History the previous weekend in Vicksburg.  I hadn’t been feeling myself with a persistent cough and sore throat.  Turns out that bronchial issue I had starting around the Mambo was indeed Bronchitis.  Guess I got lucky not picking it up from mama in New York but after my stepdad got it before my birthday and then they visited around the same time, I did contract it from that visit.  So the fact that the RTH was in Vicksburg along with them was a most definitive factor in me canceling the run.  I can’t go to Vicksburg and stay in a hotel.  And I didn’t want to risk reinfecting them or myself.  The week before the race I nearly talked myself into doing it anyway, but I’m glad I backed out.  Turns out I’m not completely over this mess yet still.  Also it also turned out to be extremely cold that weekend.  That certainly would not have helped.

So for this race, a week after the Run Thru History, I felt the need to get back out and try to run this bug out of my system.  Well, bug’s still present, and the run certainly hurt like hell at various parts, but I’m still alive and not worse for it at the moment, so no harm done.

This race is very small, maybe 60 or so runners total with varying talents so that actually helped.  There were fast runners, medium runners, run/walkers and then a handful of mainly walkers.  So all-in-all this race could easily be for anybody.  The weather for it was nearly perfect.  It was mainly cloudy, which later turned into mainly haze.  The sunlight was soft and the temperature started off around 52F or so and worked it’s way easily into the 60s.  You can tell spring is on us now.  The course is a little odd though mainly because the Pennington Biomedical Center campus has about as many sidewalks around it as the LSU Quadrangle.  And sometimes the race just went straight out onto the street.  It also went off-road a bit behind their lake, went gravel or limestone and then into a small set of woods.  That was unexpected.  The track to me was the worst part of the race if I had to declare the worst thing about the race.  And it wasn’t bad because of the gravel.  It was bad because they advertise the race as a 5K but I felt my time was short for a reason and every measurement I did indicated that this track really was about 2.80 miles or about 4.5K.  Still a great race.  But if you’re keeping up times and pace numbers for training or something, it could mess up your stats.  Not to mention, since this wasn’t a full 5K, I won’t count it towards my 13 in 13′.

I’m not mad though.  Initially I finished at 31:11, which blew my previous personal best out of the water.  I was now on the brink of running a sub 10min/mile.  And I was wheezing through the last half of the race.    I ran the whole first mile and then dry mouth set in.  Luckily they did have water on the course twice.  If they hadn’t had the water, I would not have finished.  The first water helped my dry mouth as it seemed to not really come back during the race, but it set up the coughing fit I had in the last mile.  I was mainly walking with light jogs in between coughing fits.  So even though I ran pretty hard the first mile (Again! as it seems I prefer to start off fast and then limp to a finish), I was only slightly unconvinced about the 31:11 time.  It wasn’t until measurements later in the day did I come up with 2.8 miles.  So I redid the math and came up with a predicted 5K time of more like 34 minutes and a pace of a little over 11 minutes per mile.  Still that would be a personal record for me, but it’s a lot more realistic since my previous was slightly under 37 minutes and a nearly 12 minute mile.  Kind of makes me wonder what would I have done if I was in full health and caught up on running.  Of course then I would have done the RTH also.

The race was managed very well for as small as it was.  They had chip timing.  Plenty of water, drinks, fruits, and goody bags for everyone.  They also had door prizes for randomly picked runners.  It was a very fun event and I’d be tempted to do it again next year.  I’ll add that besides from the obvious bronchial problems, I really didn’t hurt at all after this race after I put a lot of water back into me.  Seems this mucus problem drains a lot more moisture from me than I give credit.

I’m still scheduled for the Crescent City Classic Easter Weekend but as of now I have work duties the day before and the day after.  Hopefully they don’t extend into race day itself.  If not, I still intend to race in NOLA and let that count officially as my 10K for Louisiana.  As of now, I was supposed to already have LA and MS completed and planning on AL.  Seems plans easily change.  I’ll have LA done soon.  I also plan to do MS and TX in May now.  There’s a race in Ridgeland, MS on Memorial Day weekend and there’s one in Fort Worth, TX in early May which I plan to do just because I’m going to be in town for it that weekend anyway.  As for AL, I think I’m going to hold off til next year for the Azalea Run, just because of this sickness and other factors.  I have no doubt I’ll make it there eventually real soon since it’s only about 3 hours drive away, so I have no worries about postponing it for now.

I will add also that the whole Lent thing seems to be working to a degree.  No cokes, no fast foods… I’ve certainly lost a few pounds and gained some running speed.  Let’s see what I can complete before Easter, and then the real test will be to continue to lay off the cokes afterwards.  It also helps that a few spring sports seasons are about to kick off.  Yay for recreational sports.  Boo for bronchitis.

Race: BR Dietetics Association

Date: March 9, 2013, 9AM

Place: Pennington Biomedical Center, Baton Rouge

Time: 31:11

Distance: 4.5K or 2.8mi