James K. Polk 5K [Entered 8/5/05]

Today was a little 5k race in Charlotte, NC. Actually in Pineville, NC, but you get the picture. About 200 people gathered for the James K. Polk 5K, on a hilly little course through a couple of neighborhoods, finishing at a recreation center and park. I was sporting my all-black Gazelles gear, but I wasn't about to intimidate any of the locals.

Jeff and I had a nice one mile warmup and then I did a few of the drills and some stretching before the race start. I lined up near the front, ready to go. The weather wasn't bad, even with an 8:00 am start, with temps in the 73 degree range. A ton of folks blasted out really fast for the first mile, but I stuck to my guns, and "ran how I felt" instead of trying to chase people I didn't know. That strategy worked well for me, as I started catching people at the half mile mark. From that point on, I wasn't passed, and I kept rolling up people the rest of the race.

First mile was flat to moderate downhill, and I clicked that off in a respectable 7:36. Since I didn't have any race goals today except to go for consistent effort, that was a good start. Mile Two featured the two nasty hills on the course. On the first one, I passed about 8 people, which was an ego booster. Gilbert's training really helped there! During mile two, I slowly caught up with a guy pushing a baby stroller. That wasn't so bad, but he had a little boombox strapped to his stroller, blaring annoying music at all those around him. I caught him, and then stayed away from him by pushing up the last couple of hills during mile two. That split was 7:40, as I kept my effort even considering the terrain.

By now, the sun was an issue, just as an annoyance. The course still rolled a bit, but it was primarily flat. I kept picking out people to catch, and was pretty successful with my little stretch run. That third mile split was 7:25, more like I should be running. According to the course markers, my last .11 miles was 0:50, 7:36 pace. I guess I did slow down a bit at the end. In that last bit, I was catching an older lady, who I knew was the local age-group hotshot runner in the 60-64 age group. Cathy was her name. Anyway, as I caught up to her, a voice from the side of the course yelled out, "Cathy, don't let the guy in black catch you!" That was me, of course, and Cathy did pick it up just enough to stay away from me to the finish. Turns out that it was Jeff who had yelled that to Cathy, since he had finished a few minutes ahead of me.

I finished 51/178 in the race, 8/12 in my age group, and 45/117 in male overall. Not bad for a casual race, but I was way off my 5K PR. Final time was 23:34, 7:36 overall pace. I'll take it.

We watched the final finishers and then cheered on the tiny tikes as they did their .1 mile race. That was pretty funny to watch. There was plenty of food and drink afterwards, and for a small race, it was really well done. No confusion over the course, and everything was clearly marked. Thumbs up.

I got in the full stretching routine as they passed out all the awards, and then we enjoyed the rest of the day. We visited the James K. Polk historical homesite (had to make sure and do that after running in his namesake race, didn't we?), packed up and headed to Asheville. We did a long walking tour of Asheville once we got there, including a lot of the sites found in Look Homeward, Angel, the big novel by Thomas Wolfe that we're reading. Asheville is a city of wide ranging terrain, so that walking tour wasn't easy. On the way to Asheville, we took in a folk art gallery just for fun. It was a fun day, and finishing it off at Barley's Taproom in Asheville for some really fine pizza and locally-brewed beer was a fine bonus at the end of the day.