Sick, Freezing, and...Fast?: Friday Knight 5k Recap

Location: Geneseo, NY

Date/Time: October 16, 2015

Size: 51

Weather: High 30s, windy, freezing rain

Course: Steep hills

Time: 26:06 (short course?)

Rank: Overall: 32/51


I've been running seriously for a year and a half now, and I have a few races under my belt now.  Some were fantastic, and others...not so much.  But now, I have run a race that I can safely call the worst race I have ever run.

Now, there wasn't anything inherently wrong with this race.  It was small and took place on my college campus, which is quite hilly, but is naturally a course I am very familiar with.  Rather, it was everything out of my control that went wrong.  Here were some factors before the race:

1. I had TA'd for a lab earlier in the day, and my students tried desperately to avoid me because of how snotty I was.  I was a week into a head cold and still no sign of recovery.
2. It was raining.
3. It was cold.
4. I REALLY wanted to go home.

Despite all these factors, I went bib pickup, thinking that I had a little more time to decide whether or not I was actually going to run.  After all, I had a complementary t-shirt and pint glass waiting for me.  While I was there, I ran into my professor, the same professor who I had bumped into at Wineglass the week before.  My professor is an accomplished adventure athlete, and he has been very encouraging of my venture into running. 

In my mucusy, foggy head, I *rationally* reasoned, since my professor had spotted me, he would be disappointed if I quit.  I had no choice.  I had to run. 

As we gathered at the race start, the rain really started to come down, accompanied by strong gusts of wind.  I should have probably taken that as a sign and gone back home then.  Nope.  The gun went off and I darted to the front of the pack.

Somehow, it got even colder as I was running.  My hands were gloveless and frozen, but after only half a mile, I could no longer feel my legs either.  I started to fall behind as we ran up the steep hills of campus.

At mile two, the rain started coming down in sheets.  I had to stop pumping my arms because my hands were too occupied with wiping the water off my face so I could see where I was going.  Since I knew the course so well, I actually ran with my eyes closed on the few flat portions of the race.  It was just easier that way.  Other racers kept passing me until I was the only one left in the area, so I assumed that I had already fallen into last place.

Halfway through mile 2, I started to get very painful side stitches.  I was seriously considering DNFing at this point but two things kept me moving.  The first was that I absolutely did not want to DNF in a race that my professor was also running, and was probably going to win.  The second, and more practical reason, was that due to the nature of the course, my warm, dry car was about a mile and a half away anyway, so it wouldn't actually save me anything to quit and walk back.

It took everything in me to not walk, but as I neared mile 3, I got some much needed encouragement.  After running alone for over a mile, I could hear runners behind me, which meant I wasn't in last, and I still had someone to beat.  I picked up the speed a little and saw the track at the bottom of the hill, where that wonderful "FINISH" banner was standing.  When my feet hit the track, I broke into a sprint.  I couldn't stop smiling, just because I couldn't wait to finally be done.

I quickly found my professor at the finish line and congratulated him.  He had won second place overall.  And me?  I hadn't won anything, but my time wasn't as awful as I thought.  I had finished in 26:06, which was just one second slower than my PR (though in retrospect, I believe the course was a little short). 

I couldn't believe it.  This was the hilliest, coldest, wettest, and sickest race 5k I had ever run, and I nearly beat my PR?  Well, I think a new sub 26 PR is right around the corner.

Finally, the Friday Knight 5k was the last race in my local 5k trio (Oak Tree 5k and Ramon Rocha 5k being the other two).  I ended up finishing the trio with a combined time of 1:18:38, which put me in 9th place out of 24, 5th female.