Road to the Super Bowl 5k

After ten years living here I must finally be getting to be at least somewhat Philadelphian. Why else would I be going to a pre Super Bowl race (rescheduled from mid January) after the Iggles let us down yet once again. From where comes the need to relive that? Then again, I can also blame my participation on my wife, as she wants to run one 5k per month this year and the race pickins are slim in February.

So C., T. and I packed up for Wilmington to run the Road to the Super Bowl (that already was). Fortunately it started at 11 a.m. so we could sleep in a bit and I could eat a big bowl of Cream of Wheat for breakfast. The weather, sunny and in the high 30’s, was ideal for racing. In a nod to the start of Spring Training, I looked at this race as my preseason, coming out of the January-February doldrums to test how my mojo was coming along.

The alert reader will have already picked up several disclaimers upon which I could write off this race, should I do badly. In this spirit, I was also aware of a knot that had settled itself into my right calf from the “speedwork” I did yesterday on the USP indoor track. Looking back, I think there is some sadness to the fact that I need to spend so much self-talk to convince myself that this is just a race to see how I’m doing, that there is nothing at stake here.

Last year’s results showed this race was won in about 17:45. It was clear upon getting to the race that this would not be the case this year. The staging area was in a sports bar, offering a roomy, heated area for doing the usual pre-race stuff. Immediately to the right upon coming in there was a group of young guys with UDXC on their sweats, and then I recognized Greg Cauller, a guy I had dueled with in last Fall’s Delaware Distance Classic 15k. After all my playing this race down, now it suddenly became interesting.

I was also looking forward to this race because it would be the second one that my boy T. would be running. One of the fun parts of being a dad was showing him the right ways to do all the pre-race stuff that you gotta do. He was excited and liked that you got a shirt for racing. He also liked the awards, which were bobble-head football player trophies. According to the race director, they were recognized by Runners World as being among the nation’s most unique road racing trophies.

The race started on a downhill and two UDXC types took off in front and stayed there. I held third for about a half mile and then got absorbed by a pack of about five, including Cauller. I slowly fell behind this pack as mile 1 came in at 5:17. After mile 1 the course hooks up with an uphill piece that I recognized as part of the infamous 3-mile uphill stretch of the Cesar Rodney course and at about three-fourths through the second mile the course turned around and the uphill became a downhill. On the turnaround I counted myself tenth, just behind two guys dressed all in black. Right after the turnaround I made my move screaming downhill past Agents J & K. Mile 2 went by in 5:34 and, while nobody was coming up behind me, Cauller remained about 50 feet ahead of me. Mile 3 was in 5:28 and I finished in 16:53, good for 8^th overall and a bobbing head trophy for first male in the 40-44 group.

I then took a cooldown run by retracing the course to meet up with C & T. I had seen them after the turnaround heading up the course a little past mile 1. After that T left C in the dust and was running alone when I met up with him at about mile 2. He was pretty tired but managed a strong kick for the final .1 mile to finish in a little over 36 minutes, almost a five minute improvement over his last race. Not bad for an 8 year old. We both then cheered C when she came in at about 3 minutes behind him.

And I was happy with my 16:53 as well. A sub 17 showing, without having done any speed work over the winter, tells me I got my mojo working just fine at this point in the preseason and gives me a head of steam for my second pre-season run next Sunday at the NE Roadrunners Winter 10k.

T at about mile 2

T right after finishing

C right after finishing

Me and T