\nhas been going on at
\nRacing Apparel Headquarters<\/a> have yielded dividends.<\/p>\n
My running goal for the off-season was to break 21 minutes,
\nbecause… well, because my friend Ray said I couldn’t do it (easily).<\/p>\n
So the past week or so, I stepped it up to 45 minutes instead of the
\nusual 25, and see if I could do a better 5k, this time at sea-level,
\nand on a flat course.<\/p>\n
I tried to run it “bandido” which is short-hand, for just showing
\nup to the race, not signing up, and running. Hey, I’m not taking any
\nof their free Gatorade, and I’m already paying taxes on the streets,
\nso I’ve convinced myself that I somehow deserve it. Unfortunately,
\nonly cripples and old men showed up, so I was having second thoughts
\nabout not signing up. Perhaps, I’d show up in the top 5, and it would
\nbe awkward. It’s one thing to end up 158th in your age-group, but
\nanother thing entirely to arrive within a minute or two of the guy
\nbreaking the tape. So, I buckled and paid $45 to run three miles on
\npublic streets.<\/p>\n
When the gun went off I kept telling myself “don’t be stupid; don’t
\nbe stupid”. This was my mantra to remind myself not to go out too
\nfast. I consciously kept myself running at 7:00min\/mile, hoping I
\nwouldn’t blow up. After the first mile, I was comfortably in 5th
\nplace, and I started visualizing how cool it would be to arrive among
\nthe first 3, with my friends, family, and especially my mom, watching.
\nI don’t think I had ever podium-ed in anything past pre-kindergarten
\nraces (where everyone is a winner), so I started concentrating on
\ncatching #4 and #3.<\/p>\n
Luckily, as I sped up in the second mile, I was able to reel both
\nrunners. The 1st guy was way out in the distance, apparently running
\na race of his own, but the 2nd guy was actually within reach. I saw
\nmy mom and sister at the finish line, so I figured I’d might as well
\nbury myself for the last 800 meters. Who cared if I walked the last
\nbit? So I pulled a kamikaze move– all or nothing– but unfortunately
\nas I was about to catch the 2nd runner at the finish line, everyone
\nstarted cheering us, alerting my prey and causing him to speed
\nslightly beyond my reach.<\/p>\n
Long story short, I got third, but I did beat my previous record of
\n22:00 with a jaw dropping 19:48. Truth be told, my GPS marked 3.05
\nmiles, which is 0.05 short of a 5k, but worse case scenario I’m safely
\nunder the 21:00 mark, and pretty close to under 20, which is pretty
\nfreaking awesome…especially for a non-runner.<\/p>\n
So this is me, basking in the aura of kicking 40 years old right in
\nthe ass, and being faster than I was in high school. My fastest mile
\nin high school was 6:20, and I did 3 of those puppies at 6:33 this
\ntime, with the last one at 6:02. [And I didn’t actually throw up like
\nin high school.]<\/p>\n
This one’s for you mom.<\/p>\n My friends that are into endurance sports tell me that I’m built more like a Kenyan than a Lance Armstrong impersonator. It seems running comes a lot easier to me, with little training, whereas I’m just mediocre at cycling, with a lot more effort. Unfortunately, we’ll never know because I love riding my bike a … Continue reading Kicking 40 right in the ass<\/span> ![\"Oh](\"http:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/img_20131207_085934-1023x1023.jpg\" "\\"img_20131207_085934\\"")