Today I ran the 5-mile Cambridge City Run. It was my first running race in several years. I’ve become a lazy runner, which may sound like an oxymoron, but compared to runners who track their mileage, pace times, personal bests, sneaker miles, and other stats, I’m the nonchalant, “Think I’ll go for a jog” type with no preconceived notions of how I’d fare against a clock.
“I’ll be happy if I finish under 55 minutes,” I told people. Aiming for 11-minute miles seemed sounder than 10-minute miles, which is what I did in the last race that I ran when I was younger and more motivated.
The weather at race time was the nicest it has been all week: Gray, windy, and 40 degrees. Miraculously, it was not raining (yet). There were hundreds of runners, as well as large groups of Cambridge teenagers participating in a concurrent 3-mile walk for the Andrea Harvey Memorial Fund (here.) Soon after the start of the race, I fell into a comfortable pace and let Mr. Pinault disappear into the pack ahead of me. At Mile Marker 1, my headphones prevented me from hearing the split time being called out by a man with a stopwatch. I picked out a ‘rabbit’ — a small woman in shorts whose legs were red from the cold. We passed a fair number of people. At the Mile 2 marker, I lowered the volume on my iPod to catch the split time: 18:30.
Not bad! I thought. The race began to circle the Fresh Pond Reservoir on an unpaved trail, and I contended with puddles and mud as well as strolling dog-walkers and families. Passing the other runners became difficult, and my ‘rabbit’ hopped away. The wind coming off of the reservoir was frigid. To make matter worse, the runners soon merged with the walkers — packs of teenagers who clogged the path and amused themselves by making fun of the runners. I increased my pace just to get away from them.
There was no Mile 3 marker. When I reached Mile 4, I was stunned to hear: 37:15. The realization that I was running 9:30-minute miles invigorated me, and when a woman in a Red Sox hat passed me, I vowed to return the favor. I trailed her until the only substantial hill in the race, a 1/2 mile from the finish. She slowed down and I sped up, overcoming her at the top of the hill. I ran like hell to the end and finished at 45:49 (410th place out of 701 total, 38 out of 93 in my age/gender.) Man, I was psyched, and exhausted, and rather hungry.
