Monday, December 14, 2009

Christopher Martin's Christmas Run For Children 5K Race Report

Splits: 8:00; 7:55; 7:49; :46; 24:30 (7:53/M).

First off, how the heck did I run a 22:57 last year? Second, how the heck did I run a 24:30 this year?!! UGH, I felt good, but I think I "babied" myself too much. I don't have any kind of a great race report. It is my favorite 5K race ever, as you'll soon read why. It was a relatively flat course out and back from Christopher Martin's Restaurant in New Haven. The course was new, and it was OK, but I do like the course from the previous years better. No excuses though, the new course didn't slow me down. I slowed me down. I worked up a good sweat, and was actually overdressed for a cool Connecticut day. I could have worn shorts, but I chose not to since it was 19 degrees outside when my daughter and I left my house. My daughter, a co-worker and I all ran the race. We started together, but since I was given permission from the two of them to run my own race, I did. So the quality father-daughter occurred after the race during the post race party in the bar area of the restaurant. First I "established the base," meaning I ate three hot dogs and a bagel in order to have some food in my stomach before heading inside to consume my share of the 15 kegs of free beer that was available. Once inside, I had the important responsibility of passing cups and pitchers of beer back to the other patrons. That's what happens when you're tall and finish 437 of 1609 finishers. So as much as I've whined about my time, I still finished before 75% of the runners. The post race party also has a men's and women's competition with categories such as tallest, best tattoo, best sports bra...well, you get the idea. It gets pretty crazy as hundreds of runners are packed together like sardines in a small bar consuming 15 kegs of free beer (Thank-you New England Brewing Company)for 3 hours while cheering on the competitors. No, I didn't get up on the bar to compete. I wasn't drunk and stupid enough. Matter of fact, I drank responsibly as you can tell since I'm writing this today. :-) P.S. Note to self: Don't attempt to add a race to the "Previous Races" category in your blog when you're tired. Otherwise you may accidentally delete all of your previous race results. Too late....^$#@%$%

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like a fun race and how motivating it must have been to run fast and get back to serve the other runners! Great job! I love those fun contests but what about the "Best Sports Bra" category. They all look the same to me. So who won that one???!! Way to keep it fun this season!

Melanie Tait said...

Sounds like so much fun Glen and how lovely to do a race with your daughter.

I've tried and tried to convince my dad, but he's not interested. Well done to you!

Lindsay said...

well it sounds like a fun time all the same! :)

were you by chance doing more speedwork last year? either way, still a good run. they can't all be pr's right?

Lisa said...

Sounds like a fun day. So what category did you win??? And oopsies about your sidebar :) Congrats on a great finish Mr. Speedy.

Mel-2nd Chances said...

Great base building with the hotdogs!! LOL! I would totally love to run a race with my dad -- but he's to involved in his mixed up love life to care about anything else. lol! Great job on the race!

Jill said...

What a fun race! Gotta love those sometimes. Awesome finishing before 75% of the others - that's a great feeling!

Irish Cream said...

Haha, oh no! What a bummer about the previous races list.

Also, this definitely sounds like my kind of race! SUPER fun! Although . . . I've been to one of those post-race "beer flowing" types of gatherings--and they can get SCARY! Runners are crazy when they are intoxicated!

Anyway, great race, Rick! You rocked it out there! :)