In my brief tenure running 5k’s, I’ve run in various conditions: heat, humidity, moderate temperatures, drizzle, and all manner of combinations thereof. I’ve been spared the cold extremes (so far), but I’ve run in enough Upstate New York heat to know that it is far from favorable, despite some good results. The beauty (or curse, depending on your perspective) of Upstate New York weather is that it can be far warmer or cooler than would typically be expected. Sometimes it almost seems as though we can experience all four seasons in one day.
It should have come as no surprise that an evening in late September would involve temperatures in the 80s. Even the most jaded New Yorker is usually too busy enjoying the unseasonably warm weather to complain about it. There was a solid breeze blowing, taking the edge off the heat, but even that and a flat course ended up being more than I could handle this evening.
I really wasn’t worrying about my time, but I hoped that the conditions would be favorable for a nice little PR in the Watervliet Arsenal City 5k, my 12th race. This 5k also featured the only false start I’ve experienced. Probably two dozen runners took off prematurely, including me. What can I say? I saw asses running and I was just following the ass in front of me. Within a manner of seconds, the runners stopped and returned to the starting line. An airhorn blast finally signaled the real start, and someone had a small but frighteningly loud toy-like cannon that took what appeared to be a 12-gauge blank shotgun shell. Had I not been forewarned, the loudness would have sent me about 50 yards--vertically.
As we started out, I felt like I had a good cadence going and felt very relaxed. I thanked volunteers and cops, as applicable, at every intersection. At the 1-mile marker, the clock indicated I was on just over an 11-minute pace. Not too shabby at all. Just before the 2-mile marker, though, I felt the tank emptying fast. It turned out that even though my brain had 3.1 miles in it, my legs had just shy of two miles of running in them; the remainder of the race was all run/walk for Gingah. Even Gingah-the-Thanking-Machine with an Attitude of Gratitude couldn’t keep my legs running. I decided it was wiser to save something for Sunday afternoon’s CaresNY AIDS 5k.
After I got home, my throat started to feel sore. I hoped it was just dehydration or fatigue from the 5k, despite the fact that every time for as long as I can remember, a sore throat lead directly to a nasty cold (and every cold I’ve gotten for as long as I can remember was immediately preceded by a sore throat). I hoped that this time it was just part of my 5k hangover. Oh, hell no. By the time I went to bed after watching the Red Sox game, I could feel my head fill with congestion and the sneezing had begun. I threw back a dose (well, more like two) of Nyquil and decided to take it über-easy on Saturday, hoping this nasty head cold would run its course quickly and enable me to have a solid Sunday.
Nearly twelve hours of sleep later (with a brief break around 6am to let two little doggies outside to pee), I was bearing the merciless onslaught of the mother of all seriously nasty-ass head colds. Great. Gee, I didn’t have anything important planned for the weekend…just singing at Mass and running a 5k. I was actually more worried about the singing. Who gives a crap what I sound like when I run a 5k? At that point, all I wanted was to run the full distance, time be damned. In the meantime, I must have been at least partially dehydrated, because a lot of various fluids were going in (juice, water, herbal Throat Coat tea, skim milk, chicken broth), but only a relatively small amount of one kind of fluid was coming out. Unless you count what I was blowing out my nose into a tissue.
Wow…that got rather ugly and awkward there, didn’t it?
Just picture some long-distance runner firing off snot rockets during a marathon while his nipples bleed from chafing against his running jersey. I don’t sound quite so icky in comparison now, do I?
Aaaaaaanyway, my checklist for Sunday’s 5k now needed to include a small pack of tissues. Gingah don’t do snot rockets. Gingah’s got herself a rep to maintain.
Sunday’s CaresNY AIDSWalk included, for 2010, an inaugural 5k race. Despite the fact that I still felt considerably like dog poop, I figured I should be able to manage at least a run/walk for 3.1 miles. Besides, how could I resist the opportunity to wear a red superhero cape?
I was, as usual, one of the first runners to check in. (This explains why I was able to get a really good parking space in Washington Park, where I have so often been thwarted in my search for any parking space.) Although I didn’t get a T-shirt for this run (I found out too late that T-shirts were only for those who raised at least $100 for CaresNY; a fact that I banked for next year), I did put my red cape on right after I attached my timing chip and racing bib. I got my photo taken by a couple of people and even got interviewed for the evening news on the local NBC affiliate. (They used a nice soundbite, but no amount of post-production editing can compensate for my lack of makeup. <shudder>)
By the time the race started, we’d already heard from Mayor Gerry “The Man with the Tan” Jennings, Anne Hughes (one of the anchors from WXXA, the local Fox affiliate) and one of the state legislators. (I think it was one of the Breslins, Neil or Mike, but I can never keep them straight anyway. Besides, they‘re state legislators...or county...or whatthefuckever, so who really cares?)
The race itself was fairly uneventful, since I barely made it a mile before I had to slow to a walk. Even though the congestion I felt was largely confined to my head, my lungs still managed to feel the effects of my cold. This was my first experience running sick, so the fact that I was able to run at all was a relief. What I remember most distinctly was the fatigue. I also remember a couple of folks with cowbells who obliged my pleas for “MORE COWBELL!!!“ and the college kids in their fraternity and sorority sweatshirts who volunteered as course marshals. (I would like to extend my apologies to the members of lambda pi something, since I thought the first letter was delta, but on the second lap I realized there was no base to the triangle. I hope that when I shouted “Thank you, Delta Pi!” as I chugged by, they just figured I was too delirious from the effort to see straight.
According to local news reports, approximately 1,000 people attended; 88 of them participated in the 5k. I finished 82nd of those 88. This fact actually came as a relief to me, since I was certain I was in last place practically the entire race. That tends to happen when one feels like a zombie. (Incidentally, only one of the runners behind me was older than I am, so the fact that I actually finished a 5k faster than some twenty- and thirty-somethings was a nice touch.)
The CaresNY AIDS 5k was my last run before next weekend’s Komen Race for the Cure. I’m hoping for a good race and to feel healthy. So if you’ll excuse me, there’s a bottle of Nyquil with my name on it…
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