Busy Sunday
Action packed day today.
Started off with the Jingle Bell 5k. This is a fundraiser put on by the Arthritis Foundation in many cities, Philadelphia being one of them. It has traditionally been the closing race for the fall racing season. It starts in Manayunk, right on the Schuylkill River, and in the first year I ran it it went up and down the hills that Manayunk (a section of Philadelphia) is famous for, but this year it was simply an out and back along the river down the gentrified main drag (which Manayunk is also famous for).
The weather was perfect for racing: sunny and in the 40s. The race, however, seemed past its prime as it felt like the organizers were cutting corners, despite charging an outrageous $40 for a walk on registration. This was doubled as T also ran today, despite having a cold. For $40 I'm gonna expect a bit more in terms of amenities than your run of the mill local yokel 5k, and thus I will complain loudly about screw ups like their only having 6 porta potties for 800+ entrants, and only having tent-size t-shirts available by the time I registered.
Having got squawking out, the race was uneventful. I started out in the lead and it was me and another guy I didn't know out in front, neck and neck, for the first two miles (5:16 & 5:37, but the pace did not feel this uneven). However, the other guy did not seem to be working nearly as hard as I was, and after the 2 mile mark he pulled away to eventually win by about 5-10 seconds, and I finished the bridesmaid in 16:45, my best 5k showing of 2005. That's really all there was to it.
I jogged back upstream and met T at the 2 mile marker, and ran the last mile in with him. He alternated between jogging and walking, but with about .1 to go I asked him if he thought he could catch up to a woman who was about 100 feet ahead of us. He responds with a kick that easily reels in the unsuspecting woman and then some, and finished in just over 39 minutes. Someday, probably not soon, I'd like to work with him on evening this pace out, but in the meantime he gets alot of enjoyment and pride out of running these 5k's. And so do I.
The picture here is me and T, SC - a Central Park Track Club guy who has become a regular fixture on the Philly running circuit and his kid, the race organizer, and several other kids who somehow got in the picture, posing at the awards ceremony.
That's how the day started, and the day ended with me and C meeting my other four teamates from "Easy on the Eyes" and their partners at a dinner at the Fountain Restaurant for a dinner for 10 we won at the Parkway Run in September. This was the best thing I've ever won running, with amazing food, awesome wine, and most entertaining company stretching from shrimp hors d'oevres at 6 pm to chocolate souffle and double expresso four hours later. I love that we could spend this time together, and also that I could treat C and through this thank her for the great support she's given me all year. I also love that we are not a particularly fast team, but have nonetheless won this prize, at a major local race, for the second year in a row because our slowest member, RW, is also the savviest when it comes to negotiating race bureaucracy and a particularly arcane sign up procedure that befuddled a Philadelphia Track Club team that would have handed us our butts on a platter. So it was a true team effort. Below is a picture that is curious in how different we look from how I perceive us in real life - somehow more like we all belong at a place like The Fountain.
Started off with the Jingle Bell 5k. This is a fundraiser put on by the Arthritis Foundation in many cities, Philadelphia being one of them. It has traditionally been the closing race for the fall racing season. It starts in Manayunk, right on the Schuylkill River, and in the first year I ran it it went up and down the hills that Manayunk (a section of Philadelphia) is famous for, but this year it was simply an out and back along the river down the gentrified main drag (which Manayunk is also famous for).
The weather was perfect for racing: sunny and in the 40s. The race, however, seemed past its prime as it felt like the organizers were cutting corners, despite charging an outrageous $40 for a walk on registration. This was doubled as T also ran today, despite having a cold. For $40 I'm gonna expect a bit more in terms of amenities than your run of the mill local yokel 5k, and thus I will complain loudly about screw ups like their only having 6 porta potties for 800+ entrants, and only having tent-size t-shirts available by the time I registered.
Having got squawking out, the race was uneventful. I started out in the lead and it was me and another guy I didn't know out in front, neck and neck, for the first two miles (5:16 & 5:37, but the pace did not feel this uneven). However, the other guy did not seem to be working nearly as hard as I was, and after the 2 mile mark he pulled away to eventually win by about 5-10 seconds, and I finished the bridesmaid in 16:45, my best 5k showing of 2005. That's really all there was to it.
I jogged back upstream and met T at the 2 mile marker, and ran the last mile in with him. He alternated between jogging and walking, but with about .1 to go I asked him if he thought he could catch up to a woman who was about 100 feet ahead of us. He responds with a kick that easily reels in the unsuspecting woman and then some, and finished in just over 39 minutes. Someday, probably not soon, I'd like to work with him on evening this pace out, but in the meantime he gets alot of enjoyment and pride out of running these 5k's. And so do I.
The picture here is me and T, SC - a Central Park Track Club guy who has become a regular fixture on the Philly running circuit and his kid, the race organizer, and several other kids who somehow got in the picture, posing at the awards ceremony.
That's how the day started, and the day ended with me and C meeting my other four teamates from "Easy on the Eyes" and their partners at a dinner at the Fountain Restaurant for a dinner for 10 we won at the Parkway Run in September. This was the best thing I've ever won running, with amazing food, awesome wine, and most entertaining company stretching from shrimp hors d'oevres at 6 pm to chocolate souffle and double expresso four hours later. I love that we could spend this time together, and also that I could treat C and through this thank her for the great support she's given me all year. I also love that we are not a particularly fast team, but have nonetheless won this prize, at a major local race, for the second year in a row because our slowest member, RW, is also the savviest when it comes to negotiating race bureaucracy and a particularly arcane sign up procedure that befuddled a Philadelphia Track Club team that would have handed us our butts on a platter. So it was a true team effort. Below is a picture that is curious in how different we look from how I perceive us in real life - somehow more like we all belong at a place like The Fountain.
posted by seebo | 10:35 PM
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