In my last post, I basically whined about my injuries and complained about how I'm probably going to have to have surgery.
Today, on the other hand, I laid down a perfectly acceptable 30:01 at a local 5K. How is this possible?
Naproxen, baby. Roughly 1000mg of prescription-strength anti-inflammatory goodness coursing through my veins. I'm Lance Armstrong without all the trophies, yellow jerseys, fame, and fortune. Though, in my defense, nor do I have a decades-long web of lies and intimidation, either.
I'm torn between taking a very conservative approach in my running and recovery right now, waiting to go off to have big needles stuck in my lower leg (see previous disgusting post), and trying to make it through the two upcoming races that I've already paid to run in : Yuengling Light Lager Jogger in Pottsville next week and the Sole of the City 10K in Baltimore the following. With a little luck and a lot of naproxen, I should be able to get through Lager Jogger, but the Sole of the City distance is well outside my comfort zone these days.
But anyway. That's all stuff for other posts. I hadn't been planning to run this race, but after I bombed an indomethacin-assisted 3 or 4 miler after two miles on Thursday night, I decided that I might as well sign up for this. Injured and out-of-shape as I am, today would fit into my running schedule anyway and two of my best recent runs were races in Baltimore and Virginia Beach. Between trying a new anti-inflammatory and the adrenaline of race day, maybe this would help get me a little farther than I've been reliably able to go lately.
It did. I started out very conservatively as the race began behind Northeastern Middle School. The first 3/4 mile was mostly uphill, and I paced myself cautiously (starting out slower than my normal pace seems to have been another strategy that's helped in my good runs). I seperated from Chris as we ran up a steep hill going around the Middle School toward Board Road. We were now on my usual running route. I hit the first mile marker right around minute 10, which means that after my conservative start I probably took off a little too fast. Likewise, I think I ran most of the second mile in "overcompetitive asshole mode", because when I started out the third mile, the couple I was chasing started pulling away from me and I started to feel like I was running out of gas.
Still, I ran the whole thing at a 10/minute-mile pace, improved over the Shamrock St. Patrick's Day 5K, and finished strong. It wasn't one of my better times, but given the circumstances (which include that I'm just not in my best condition for reasons both within and outside of my control) I'm very comfortable that I gave my best effort today.
If I'd run the event in November, and scored an average time, I would have won my age group (at the time I was in my "month off" and couldn't have run a mile, probably), but today I think even my PR would have only got me third, I believe. I'm in a tough age group here in the local running community!
The weather was very Brian-friendly: cold and windy. Great for running, in my opinion, but not so great for standing around for the medal ceremony! I'm glad we stuck around though, because Chris took home her first-ever age group award! Congrats to her for bettering her time from the last Movie Madness and picking up some hardware, to both of us for running good races, and to everyone who participated in today's Movie Madness Race Series.
I thought this was a fun event. Chris ran a Movie Madness 5K in November in Manchester, and she said this course seemed a little tougher and that they seemed to put a little more production into the theme and the event itself. I thought the course was moderately tough: a lot of uphill at the start, but then basically flat for most of the middle third of the race, and then mostly downhill at the end...with a finish on the high school track (which is not one of my favorite things, but it was just the finish, not a cheesy way to add distance). The t-shirts were nice (I signed up at the last possible second and didn't get one) and for the first time ever, in addition to the medal (I'm kind over getting medals for every single race, but that's probably also a rant for another blog post, too.), I got a FINISHER BOLOGNA SANDWICH! Awesomeness.
Overall, this was a fun little race. I'm glad I ran it, and I think USA Road Running did a nice job. (There was also a half marathon, which I think would have been a challenging and scenic course, based on looking at the map.)
Now, excuse me. I have to go grind up some Naproxen tablets.
Today, on the other hand, I laid down a perfectly acceptable 30:01 at a local 5K. How is this possible?
Naproxen, baby. Roughly 1000mg of prescription-strength anti-inflammatory goodness coursing through my veins. I'm Lance Armstrong without all the trophies, yellow jerseys, fame, and fortune. Though, in my defense, nor do I have a decades-long web of lies and intimidation, either.
I'm torn between taking a very conservative approach in my running and recovery right now, waiting to go off to have big needles stuck in my lower leg (see previous disgusting post), and trying to make it through the two upcoming races that I've already paid to run in : Yuengling Light Lager Jogger in Pottsville next week and the Sole of the City 10K in Baltimore the following. With a little luck and a lot of naproxen, I should be able to get through Lager Jogger, but the Sole of the City distance is well outside my comfort zone these days.
But anyway. That's all stuff for other posts. I hadn't been planning to run this race, but after I bombed an indomethacin-assisted 3 or 4 miler after two miles on Thursday night, I decided that I might as well sign up for this. Injured and out-of-shape as I am, today would fit into my running schedule anyway and two of my best recent runs were races in Baltimore and Virginia Beach. Between trying a new anti-inflammatory and the adrenaline of race day, maybe this would help get me a little farther than I've been reliably able to go lately.
It did. I started out very conservatively as the race began behind Northeastern Middle School. The first 3/4 mile was mostly uphill, and I paced myself cautiously (starting out slower than my normal pace seems to have been another strategy that's helped in my good runs). I seperated from Chris as we ran up a steep hill going around the Middle School toward Board Road. We were now on my usual running route. I hit the first mile marker right around minute 10, which means that after my conservative start I probably took off a little too fast. Likewise, I think I ran most of the second mile in "overcompetitive asshole mode", because when I started out the third mile, the couple I was chasing started pulling away from me and I started to feel like I was running out of gas.
Still, I ran the whole thing at a 10/minute-mile pace, improved over the Shamrock St. Patrick's Day 5K, and finished strong. It wasn't one of my better times, but given the circumstances (which include that I'm just not in my best condition for reasons both within and outside of my control) I'm very comfortable that I gave my best effort today.
If I'd run the event in November, and scored an average time, I would have won my age group (at the time I was in my "month off" and couldn't have run a mile, probably), but today I think even my PR would have only got me third, I believe. I'm in a tough age group here in the local running community!
The weather was very Brian-friendly: cold and windy. Great for running, in my opinion, but not so great for standing around for the medal ceremony! I'm glad we stuck around though, because Chris took home her first-ever age group award! Congrats to her for bettering her time from the last Movie Madness and picking up some hardware, to both of us for running good races, and to everyone who participated in today's Movie Madness Race Series.
I thought this was a fun event. Chris ran a Movie Madness 5K in November in Manchester, and she said this course seemed a little tougher and that they seemed to put a little more production into the theme and the event itself. I thought the course was moderately tough: a lot of uphill at the start, but then basically flat for most of the middle third of the race, and then mostly downhill at the end...with a finish on the high school track (which is not one of my favorite things, but it was just the finish, not a cheesy way to add distance). The t-shirts were nice (I signed up at the last possible second and didn't get one) and for the first time ever, in addition to the medal (I'm kind over getting medals for every single race, but that's probably also a rant for another blog post, too.), I got a FINISHER BOLOGNA SANDWICH! Awesomeness.
Overall, this was a fun little race. I'm glad I ran it, and I think USA Road Running did a nice job. (There was also a half marathon, which I think would have been a challenging and scenic course, based on looking at the map.)
Now, excuse me. I have to go grind up some Naproxen tablets.
Bologna sandwich + Naproxen = Breakfast of champions. Congrats on the race, and good luck with the huge needle!
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