I was promised things that were not delivered.
After receiving my Covid vaccinations in April and May, it seemed like it was right to dip my toes back into the waters of in-person racing. I had been running my own races in every distance for more than a year at this point.
For a year, I literally had not touched another human being besides my wife, so the idea of standing in a crowd at a start line did not appeal to me, but this race made promises. These included the requirement of face masks pre-race and post-race, as well as a staggered start with participants spaced six-feet apart. There was even a stipulation that participants could be disqualified for not adhering to these guidelines.
You do not believe me? The guidelines are still online: runscore.runsignup.com/Race/NJ/Pequannock/PVRotary5k
Unfortunately, these were all lies. Not one person (besides me) wore a mask and there was no staggered start. I wore my mask at the start line and right through the first quarter mile or so until I was clear of the crowd of people.
Ugh. Crowds of people. I did not miss that for the past year.
Getting a quick start to get away from the multitude, I bolted up West Parkway, making a right onto Birch Road and another onto Boulevard. The course was somewhat familiar - I had run some of these road in previous races, as well as on long runs. One thing I knew for sure was that the whole thing was flat, so the strategy was to keep the throttle at full speed for as long as possible, since there were no hills.
It had been more than a year since my last sub-six mile, so my expectations are a lot lower these days. That being the case, the 6:03 first mile was nice to see. Not only that, but I was in a solid fifth place. Boulevard seemed to take forever, but as I turned onto Slingerland Avenue, my second mile clocked in at 6:10. Not bad. Plus, I managed to pull into fourth, and the third place runner was in sight.
After some quick turns back onto West Parkway, then Stephen Avenue, Reynolds Road and Greenview Drive, I was closing in on the third place runner, but I could feel myself rapidly conking out. I even briefly passed him, but he overtook me again. Still, I managed to do mile three in 6:11.
I mustered up as big of a rallying kick as I could when I turned back onto West Parkway for the home stretch into Greenview Park, but that last tenth of a mile was still too slow for the pace I had been doing, taking 48 seconds when, really, it should have been more like 42 or so.
With a finish time of 19:14, and placing fourth overall and winning first prize for my age group (the overall winner was in his 40s, but they did not duplicate prizes, thankfully), I would say that this was a resounding success considering the dropoff in my speed due to my age.
Then again, the second overall finisher was 61. Sixty-one! Damn, way to make me feel bad about my ass-draggin' 46-year-old self. Oh well, nothing to do but start marathon training again.
