Wrong Way Dicker

“You are who you are.” Never were truer words spoken. Today might have been the acme of my running life, but alas, it wasn’t to be. Adam, my coach seems to think that there is enormous room for improvement in my running, especially velocity at Lactate Threshold. If you want to know more about that, email me.
























In any case, to improve, we are concentrating on intensity, and entering 2 races, 5k’s and 10k’s, a month. Today was the first effort since my transition from Ironman training. The race was for the benefit of African Children, and was the first event put on by three nurses who are giving their time and love to help disadvantaged children in Africa. The race was around a 2.25 mile track that circumnavigates a man made lake. In order to get the full 5k in, we started in one direction, turned, and were to follow the path around the lake to the finish.

The gun (actually just a guy saying go) went off, and I found myself in second place overall. After the turn, I was about 30 yards behind the leader. As we passed the start, I was holding my 30 yard deficit. Unfortunately, just as the leader passed the start/finish, the path branched with one route headed toward a parking lot next to the lake, and the other headed away form the lake, but looking like a path. He slowed and asked me what I thought. I said, “they said to follow the path,” so we both turned away from the lake, crossed the road, ran around another parking lot, crossed the road again, and ended up back at the lake. At that point, there was another choice to be made. We could either turn and head back to the start/finish line or go around the lake to the left.

Obviously, it made no sense to head back the same way again, unless of course we were in some unpublished play by Sartre. So, now that I was alone in the lead, I turned left to follow the path around the lake. I was in the lead, not just of my age group, but ahead of the massive field of about 100. I passed the only water stop to terrific cheers from the volunteers. I also passed a guy carrying the cones that marked the turn around from the beginning of the race. As I got about half way around the lake, I began to encounter the first runners coming toward me. Ought oh. I was not about to turn around. That would have definitely lead to confusion and a probable disqualification. So, I continued around in my own private, or almost private direction. The original leader was still behind me.

I crossed the finish line after running 3.4 miles instead of the 3.1 that equal 5 kilometers. It was good enough for second place overall. My fellow confused competitor was third overall. The winners time was 23:05. I punched my lap button when my GPS device told me I had completed 3.1 miles. I did that in 22:30 I was actually the fastest overall. The race director was very apologetic. It was a beautiful day, the people were very nice, and working for a great cause, and they gave me the same award (the necking Giraffes that I'm holding in the image above), as the person that was officially declared the winner.

“You are who you are.”