Top o' the morning to ye! A fine sunny day to run a 10K, and at the reasonable hour of 10am! Instead of paying $100 for a St.
Patrick's Day race in Portland tomorrow, I've opted for a cheaper one, $40 (and
that was because I registered last minute) down in Salem today, where the money
goes to a charity. I guess I'm less enthused about races in general, especially
at the shorter end or 5K and 10K, distances I might coneiveably run anyway, but
being with a pack does motivate me to push myself, run faster, though would be
more fun with a friend or two. Or at least a fellow barefooter. Alas, I have
neither.
The route starts in Riverfront Park, and loops around Minto
Park, areas I've run before on my own. The 5Kers have a different start and
will go directly to Minto, while us 10Kers will first go over the footbridge to
West Salem and run around the baseball fields. I'd say the 5Kers double the
10Kers in number, and few of us even
want to start near the START line (a chalk line on the sidewalk) thinking, like
I am, that there's no way I'm doing this fast.
Air cool enough that I have running pants and sweatshirt on,
though some folks are in shorts. They have shoes to help keep them warm. I'm
not worried about whether the feets will make it, I'm just kind of out of
shape, having spent the last month in Europe, walking on cobblestones a lot,
with two hour-long runs since I've been back. Still, a 10K is doable. More a
question of what kind of shape I'll be in afterwards. And, I can always walk.
Pretty low-key at this event: The countdown comes from a
dude over at the rotunda on a PA, for both sets of racers, and we're released!
Following one of the organizers on his bike, though there are volunteers at
each of the major turns. He may actually be here to warn the normal pedestrians
out here on a Saturday morning, of which there are many, looking at us like
we're all crazy.
We go north and take a left over the Willametter River on
the pedestrian bridge. So far no whispers behind my back about the bare feet.
Maybe I'm just another Oregon crazy. Also, maybe my pants, which are loose,
cover them up a bit. But feels good! Bare sole to pavement! I've missed this,
what with traveling and cold weather.
I am going slow. I was at the back to begin with, and getting
passed, resisting that urge to start fast in a race, hopefully to avoid the
burnout halfway through. Or maybe I'll just come in last. We cross the bridge,
take a sharp right down to the baseball fields and a large road loop, the pack
starting to spread out. I get stuck behind this group of college kids, or that
age anyways, all of the young women clustering around this one young man, it's
'his' group, as he regals them with a long joke. I don't know, I guess this is
what extroverts do when they run.
Right in front of them is some guy running with a backpack,
attached to which is some kind of speaker or Alexa-thing blaring really insipid
fizzy techno music, loudly. Like, 1) Did you ask anyone if they wanted to
listen to your music? 2) You couldn't wear earbuds? and 3) That's what fires you up to run?
That combined with all the people and their beeping ant
twirping watches feels like I'm running in a video game. Well, so, I can either
slow down and let them all get ahead, or, use this as an opportunity to pick up
the pace for a little bit, just enough to get me far ahead of them. So, adelante! And I do pass them, or at
least some of the beepers and Techno Blaster Dude. Unfortnately, the Cult of
Personality group also picks up the pace after me, coming up right behind, and
the joke is still ongoing. And it's
not even being told well! We've gotten on a bike trail, and I step off, so I at
least don't have the guy yelling right at my back, which one young woman
mistakes for me just getting out of their way because they're taking up the
whole bike path. She says thank you. I don't know, I guess I'm just jealous
that the young women are clustering around him and not me. But why would they
cluster around me? They never have in my whole life.
But running! Yes! Body in motion in the sun and, DOH!, I
stub my toe. This happens to me, and somehow the more it happens to more it
seems I'm likely to do it. Nothing major, or doesn't hurt, just scrapes the tip
of my right big toe, but I know immediately what's happened: just a little
scrape rips open a flap of skin. I look down: blood covers my toe. Argh! Again,
no pain, and I'll finish the race, won't even slow me down, but it's the optics
of the thing: I want people to see how easy barefoot running is. This will not
convince anyone, this will kill all curiosity, this will horrify. I'm the worst
barefoot running ambassador.
Grr, adelante....Up
back across the pedestrian bridge, back through Riverfront Park, where the
5Kers are already returning. That was quick! Have we gone halfway already? Must
be. Up over the Taco Bridge into Minto Park. This is a new bike path, just
completed last year, connecting to 20 miles of trails overall, including along
the Willamette, though we're crossing a 'slough' at this point out into a
marshy area, still on bike path, and while the route so far has been smooth, at
this section the path gets a lot of pebbles on is, so I have to pay a bit more
attention to where I'm stepping, even then still getting the occasional rogue
pebble.
Along a pine forest/old plantation, still on paved bike
path. We take a right towards the Willamette, and I'm hoping/thinking that we'll
go along the river, but no, I can see runners in green turning left: onto the
gravel road. Gravel: my nemesis. And it ain't gravel fines either. Fortunately
there's a thin section of grass to the left, but that soon gets into a section
of blackberry brambles, which has been cut back from the road, but that has
left some smaller sections of blackberry twigs. Which have thorns. Argh! Please
no splinters please no splinters! Gotta shift the gravel! Argh!
I slow way down,
and who should catch up to me but Techno Blaster and his girlfriend. A whole
bunch of people pass me here. But it doesn't last long. We hang a left across
some grass and back on bike path, where my pace picks right back up and I
proceed to pass everyone who just passed me. Including Techno Blaster. And,
he's just cranking it, with some kind of computerized pacer thingy that
interrrupts the music to announce his pace and distance.
He's got some other folks behind him, and his speaker is
facing them, not even himself. I pass him, but I can't help myself, and as I do
I turn to him and say, 'Hey man, could you turn the volume down a little bit?'
He's shocked, shocked,
then disgusted. He sneers. 'No man, I'm good.'
Ok, I tried. Not gonna press it. Maybe if someone else says
something he'll get it. I'm actually at a good pace, and I pull away. I hear
his girlfriend ask what I said, then the music seems to get louder, and I
think, Oh wow, he just turned it up to spite me. But then it stops! I do
believe his girlfreind got him to turn it off! Bless all girlfriends of asshole
dudes!
Loop back around past the pine trees, back over the rogue
pebbles, passing all the walkers now (which, as a side note, how crazy is that
to pay money to walk in a park you could walk in anyways? How crazy are we
all?) and back over Taco Bridge. Home stretch! One little loop-de-loop, clogged
a little at the kids' playground and the 5K walkers and their strollers, none
of whom see aware that the 10K runners are coming behind them. 'Make a hole!'
I put on the sprint. I always push it at the end. Maybe only
gets me five seconds on the time clock, but it's a matter of personal pride. One
guy I pass gets inspired and starts to sprint too, and this is the benefit of
running a race, we inspire each other. A guy ahead of me I guess hears my feets
slapping, or my labored breathing, and he
starts to sprint. I yell out, 'I'm coming for ya!' but he's got it. We all get
some claps at the finish line for the extra effort, which, the appreciation is
nice, and we're done!
And, crickets. I look down at my feet. Oh wow, that's bad.
Somehow the blood has sprayed everywhere and my left foot is covered too. Damn,
this is embarrassing. Well, my work is done here, results will be posted online
later. I have a mild curiosity, now that I'm 50, if I'm decent in my age class,
but I'll find out. Not with a bang, but a sore limpy body do I make my way to my
truck...
PS-Placed 62nd overall (our of 114, so halfway), 57:42 tra la la....
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