2-14-15
Today, although I'd entered the Bryn Mawr Running Co. Feel the Love 5k, it was very much looking like there were already 3 strikes against my actually running it.I tutor 12-3 at Community College of Philadelphia on Saturdays this semester, which means cutting it very close to get there for a 3:30 race.
I'd hurt my hamstring last Sun. in a 200 dash, and although that was calming down (thank you, Advanced Sports Chiropractic--!), I was inundated with weather-alert texts warning me that dire things could happen if I so much as stepped outside the door. Well, that stepping outside the door thing was necessary--work calls and all!
And soon enough the snow and the weather-alert texts were mounting up. Did I REALLY want to do this? But something kept telling me to go. I decided that if a cab came to my bus stop before the bus, I'd take it to the Navy Yard (no way I'd get there in time on public trans!). And within seconds, a cab rounded the corner and off to the Navy Yard for me! It was apparently kismet--I was meant to go. Arriving at the start ten minutes before the race doesn't make for much if any warm-up, but with no plan on aiming for a personal best (this was just going to be a fun run for now, no testing, just there for the socializing!
After peeling off as many layers from my overdressed self as time allowed, it was time to start--so I took my position in the back, as my ambition level required, and off we went, the speedsters springing into the front and disappearing around the corner. I moved at an easy training pace, and soon began to see the benefits of occasionally not 'racing" a distance (as is my habit if I pin a number on).
I got a better look at the array of costumes and colors, feasted my eyes on the Delaware River, with its line of pink and Center City Philadelphia silhouetted against the sky, encouraged fellow back of the pack runners, including a couple women near the end of the race who were trying to break 35 minutes--as we neared the finish, the two women sprinted ahead. I tried to pick up but although the hamstring behaved reasonably well at my slow pace, it drew the line at a closing sprint. But I hadn't set any particular time goal for this race, so I was glad simply to see at the end that my companions had met their goal. (I was under 35 minutes as well, just for the record, but I wasn't in this for any specific time--and what I got was what I'd set out for--to enjoy the experience, run comfortably, and socialize--at McFadden's in Citizen's Bank Park, where a free beer awaited me--and I sampled their wonderful fish tacos!
Better still, I got a ride home with friends who had invited me to join them at their table!
The crazy/wonderful thing about running is the camaraderie among runners--whatever the speed, we have in common that the road keeps calling, despite floods of weather alerts, despite all the obstacles along the way--and even if our speed is curtailed by lack of warm-up and/or an injury that needs more healing before our speed is ready for prime time, we know where we want to be--and that inner compass takes us there!
posted by DPMcManus @ 5:01 PM
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