During the eight years that I lived in the Township of Little Falls, N.J., I ran the Passaic Valley Rotary River Run 5K six times. I got a few PRs at that autumn race, as my short game improved year after year, culminating in my peak in 2016. I moved out of the town that year, and at some point since then, that race ceased to exist.
To my delight, I found out that a new race - Run Little Falls - was debuting this fall in Little Falls and it would coincide perfectly with my current 5K training cycle.
Though training had not exactly gone well - days of fatigue and lots of pain in my legs, especially my left hamstring - I was excited to go back to my old hometown and race on the streets I had come to know so well.
With fewer than 200 participants, it was not a big race, but a nice turnout for a brand new event. Even more impressive was that it seemed like the town's residents were really behind it. Looking at the results sheet, one might guess that half of the participants were from Little Falls. Even the mayor ran it.
Funny side note about that: the T-shirts that all the participants received read, "I'm not the mayor, but I Run Little Falls." That is, all the participants except one - Mayor Damiano's read, "I AM the mayor, and I Run Little Falls"!
The race started on the track of Passaic Valley High School - the very track on which I did years of interval training - and the course led us onto Main Street, Cedar Grove Road and Wilmore Road for the first mile, which I ran in 6:09. Already I could see that there had been no improvement since Surftown, but like that race a month ago, the competition was quite soft and I was in third place, and closing in on second.
Turning onto Prospect Street and up the course's one hill, I pulled into second and stayed there for the remainder of the race. The leader, 22-year-old Sean Lang was long gone. Maybe a few years ago, I could have kept up with his 5:42 pace, but no longer. As I crested the hill and did the quick turns on Stevens Avenue, Walnut Street and Union Avenue before getting back onto Main Street, I tried to maintain the pace I had established and came close with a 6:12.
The downhill came halfway through the third mile, so I pushed into it with all my might, opening up my stride and much as it would go. My legs were hurting again, and I thought my left hamstring was going to seize up, as it had been doing all year when put under great stress. I squeaked out a 6:00 for that last mile.
Those times, of course, are from my Garmin, which always seems to cause some discrepancies. I gave it everything I had getting onto the track at the high school again and finished with a 19:10, which would mean that the last tenth of a mile took 49 seconds. That is absurd, though, because it would equate to an 8:10 pace. Sure, I may have slowed down in my fatigue, but not that much, especially not at the end of a 5K.
So, once again, either my Garmin is calculating miles too short, or the course was too long. But either way, I do not really care. I trained for a race and I ran the race. I put my best effort into it and came out of it with another worthwhile experience...and a $20 gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods for winning my age group. Not bad for a morning out in the old town.
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