Wednesday Night at Eisenhower Park

The 12th saw my return to running at Eisenhower Park. The Long Island Road Runners Club does a series of Wednesday night 5k's over the summer. I never ran in one of these events before, but I have had the opportunity to run through Eisenhower Park many times in the past.

When I was getting ready to go to Officer Candidate School back in 2000 my Officer Selection Officer was stationed at Garden City. I would roll out of bed at 5:30 in the morning three days a week so I could meet with the other Officer Candidates waiting for the Winter Class in Quantico to begin. We would all gather at Eisenhower and do a three mile run consisting of four laps around the softball fields and then endure whatever other activities the recruiting staff had lined up for us.

I don't know what a perfect score on a Marine Corps PFT is these days, but back then you needed to do 20 chin ups, 100 crunches in two minutes and a three mile run in 18:00. While I never scored a perfect I managed to come close on my last PFT.

These days all of the above are lofty goals.

The 5k at Eisenhower was a small and very fast field. The bulk of the runners were high school or college level XC runners or club runners. Taking this into account I decided that lining up toward the back of the pack was the greatest courtesy I would be able to give.

Before the race started I noticed a group of Poolees running that same old lap around the softball field with their recruiter. They were calling out cadence as they slogged along. The Corps goes on and on.

Back to the actual race. My friend Kevin joined me on this one. I thought Kevin was in worse shape than I was. I was soon to be proven wrong.

I told myself that I was gunning to finish in under 30 minutes. I went out after the horn sounded and ran what I thought was probably a ten minute even pace. Crossing the first mile marker I realized I had gone out too fast when I saw 8:55 on the clock. While it is nice to know that I have a sub nine minute mile left in me, I knew I did not have a sub nine minute mile plus 2.1 more miles in me.

Sure enough my pace dropped like a rock. I did not even bother to check my split at mile two. I wound up finishing at 32:10.

This entire race I had been occasionally checking over my shoulder to see where Kevin was. I had not seen him since about a half mile into the run. Imagine my surprise as I cross the finish line and I see Kevin waiting beside the chute for me. I was still mentally unwilling to accept the fact that he had finished before me and I clung to the slim hope that he had gotten a cramp and dropped out somewhere along the way.

Sadly for my ego this was not the case. Kevin finished in 23 and change placing 64 in the field. I represented at 144. I am reasonably certain there were at least 145 people who ran this race, so it was not last place. Congrats to Kevin on a great race.

Status:

26.1 miles into my goal of running 50 miles by the 17th. Maybe I will reset the goal for thirty miles. Then I am all good.

Upcoming Races:

10/3 - RunAmuck - as fun as this one seems I can't pull road trips for running events multiple times a month. So slogging through mud and rivers may have to wait until next year since the relay marathon in Asbury is higher on my list of things to do.

10/18 - Asbury Park Relay Marathon - team members thus far - Dori; Chewbecker; Kevin; Me. team name - undecided.

2/14 - Austin Half Marathon (?)