Monday, February 2, 2009

No Pain, No Gain?




I ran a 5k this weekend and finished with my third best time ever. I was in the top ten in my age group, men 35-39. There were nine of us. I huffed and puffed behind the other eight. It was a really small race, but damn, dead last? I was feeling good and then I wasn’t. It didn’t help that as I scrolled down the results I wasn’t tops in any age group until men 75 & up. I dominate when it comes to races in the Deep South sponsored by a Jewish Community Center and people born before 1935. A sixty- seven year old man beat me by more than four minutes. An eight year old beat me by more than three minutes. I would have pushed him down if I could have caught him. I was pretty discouraged, until I saw the results for the 24-29 year old group. What a bunch of fatasses? I won that group by nearly three minutes. I don’t know if it’s more embarrassing for the race or for the three guys in the primes of their lives coming in dead last as a group. I may have been the weak link in my group, but at least I represented with a time under thirty minutes. The fastest guy in the 24-29 group barely broke thirty-two minutes. I’m sure the sixty-seven year old is writing a similar blog post about me. I didn’t almost die in the Mekong Delta so some lazy jackass in his late thirties can take his own sweet time to waddle across the finish line. You know what I was doing in my mid thirties? I was having flashbacks about Charlie. I don’t know if he’s a Viet Nam vet. He was mixed in the crowd enjoying coffee, bagels, and donuts while I was trying not to have a heart attack. I was really regretting my choice to post my goals on here during the last mile of the race. If I hadn’t told everyone what I wanted to do, I would have scaled back my pace saying screw it. I still don’t know what lesson I learned. On the one hand I ran a fast race, which I like. On the other hand I spent the better part of a half hour in excruciating pain, which I don’t.

2 comments:

MJ said...

But in the car on the way home, you felt great. Don't let your stats get you down. The endorphins were working!

JSG said...

Too bad you're not 40 yet. EG would've rounded out the bottom, and he'd have been last with his BEST EVER time. As to the 24-29 set, I think they were all pushing double strollers....