This is the weekend of the Missoula Marathon. I’ll be running the marathon on Sunday, but first I did the beer run and the Tony Banovich 5K race.
I arrived in Missoula Friday
afternoon. Rental cars were too expensive
to be worth the cost, but my hotel had an airport shuttle. My hotel was downtown, so once I got to my
hotel, I could walk everyplace else I needed to go.
I got to my hotel around 3:00
PM. After checking in, adjusting the
thermostat, and unpacking a few things, I walked to the expo. The expo was at Caras Park, which is right
next to the Clark Fork River.
I got to the expo before packet
pickup started. While I was waiting, I
watched some guys who were surfing the rapids.
I picked up my race packets for
the 5K race and Sunday’s marathon and then went back to the hotel to get ready
for the beer run, which started at 6:00 PM.
The beer run was a free three-mile
fun run. It wasn’t really a race. It was just a chance to get in a short
training run and get a free beer at the finish line, courtesy of Big Sky
Brewing, which sponsored the event.
My weather app was giving me an
ominous forecast. It said a thunderstorm
was imminent, and it would last at least an hour. I looked outside and it wasn’t raining, so I
decided to take my chances. I went ahead
and walked to Caras Park, where the run started.
About 10 minutes before the
beer run, it started sprinkling. It was
warm enough that a little rain wasn’t a big deal, although I was still worried
that the sky might open up at any time.
The course for the beer run started
and finished at Caras Park, which is on the north side of the river. We ran on a paved bike path and a few city
streets for about three quarters of a mile.
Then we crossed the river on a pedestrian bridge. We ran a loop around the University of Montana
campus and them returned the way we came.
I fully expected a thunderstorm, but the rain stopped by the time I had
run a mile and a half.
The beer run was advertised as
a three-mile run, but it was more like 3.2 miles. I ran it at a nice easy pace. When I finished, I was handed a bottle opener
and a ticket for a free beer. It wasn’t
raining, so I was able to take my time enjoying my post-run beer. There was a bluegrass band playing under the
pavilion.
I walked back to the hotel and took
a quick shower before dinner. By the
time I was ready for dinner, it was 7:00 PM.
There was still a threat of rain, so I didn’t feel comfortable walking
too far for dinner. There’s a restaurant
connected to my hotel, so I went there for dinner. As luck would have it, they not only had
pizza on the menu, but it was really good pizza.
I went to bed early, but I only
slept for half the night. I rested in
bed until I needed to get up, but I never got back to sleep. I guess even 5K races can give me pre-race
nerves.
The 5K race started at 8:00 Saturday
morning. When I looked at the forecast
the night before, it looked like there was a 50% chance of rain. When I got up, I was pleasantly surprised to
see that it not only wasn’t raining, but there wasn’t any rain in the forecast
until the afternoon.
When I signed up for the 5K, I
was planning to race-walk. In a couple
weeks, I’ll be competing in two race-walk events at the National Senior Games. I thought race-walking the 5K would be a good
tune-up for my events at the senior games.
Since then, I’ve done some
really intense race-walking workouts, where I’ve pushed my pace as fast at 9:40
for a few minutes at a time. After one
of those workouts, I started to notice some discomfort in the back of my knees. When you race-walk, you have to keep your
knee straight. I think my training was
so intense that it caused minor strains near the top of each calf muscle. My left calf seems to have recovered, but I
still have soreness near the top of my right calf.
This injury doesn’t bother me
when I run, but I was worried I would aggravate it if I tried to do an all-out
walking effort in the 5K race. Instead,
I chose to run the 5K race.
The course was a loop. It started on the same bridge where the
marathon finishes. I’m used to crossing
this bridge in the opposite direction. I
immediately established a quick pace by accelerating until I was out of breath. Then I did my best to hang on, even though
the pace didn’t feel sustainable.
I’m not used to pacing myself
over distances as short as 5K. I had to
fight the temptation to slow to a pace that felt sustainable. I knew if it felt right, it would probably be
a pace I could run for a much longer distance.
Even though I was already out of breath, I challenged myself to keep up
with the runners around me.
By the time I made the first
turn, I was starting to feel some pressure building in my intestines. I thought I had emptied out before the race,
but apparently not enough.
At the end of the first mile, I
got my first time check. I ran the first
mile in 7:21. That was at least 30
seconds faster than I started at the B.A.A. 5K race in April. That’s my only recent 5K race, and I was
disappointed with my slow pace. I wanted
to do better today.
At the B.A.A. 5K, I gradually
accelerated throughout the race. That
wasn’t going to happen today. I couldn’t
imagine holding the same pace for two more miles.
In the second mile, I sometimes
felt like I was starting to slow down.
Each time, I challenged myself to keep up with the runners around
me. I could keep up with most of them,
but a few were passing me.
Toward the end of the second
mile, we ran across the campus of the University of Montana. We ran on a sidewalk that was paved with
bricks. That same sidewalk was also part
of the beer run. I moved to the edge of
the sidewalk, where there was a narrow strip of smooth concrete. That forced me to stay right behind two other
runners who were doing the same thing.
It was here that I noticed that
several of the runners just ahead of me were young children. I could barely keep up with them.
Eventually, we turned onto
streets again. I was still following a
young girl that was only half my height.
I couldn’t quite keep up with her.
Farther ahead, I saw a young boy stop and step off the road. Then he threw up. I felt bad, but not that bad.
I was having a different
problem. As I finished the second mile,
I started to feel like I could lose control of my bowels at any moment. It’s hard to hold it in when you’re trying to
run as fast as you can.
My second mile was slower than
the first one, but only by one second.
As I started the third mile, I was forced to hold back a little, so I
wouldn’t crap my pants.
We briefly left the road to run
across some grass. I don’t run well on
grass. Thankfully, it was only for about
50 yards. Then we turned onto a dirt
trail, before eventually getting back onto pavement.
I was passed by a runner who
looked like she was probably in high school.
She looked perfectly comfortable, like this was just her daily three-mile
training run.
At about two and a half miles,
we turned onto the same pedestrian bridge that was part of the course for the
beer run. For the rest of the race, we
followed the same route as the beer run.
After crossing the bridge, I was
right by my hotel. We were supposed to
turn left, but I was tempted to turn right and run straight to the hotel, so I
could make a bathroom stop. If this was
just a fun run, I would’ve bailed out.
This was a race that I paid to enter, so I was determined to finish.
For the rest of the race, I had
to compromise slightly on my effort.
Ideally, I would be digging deep and fighting for every second in the
last half mile. Instead, I had to hold
back slightly. I knew my time would still
be much faster than my time at the B.A.A. 5K.
When I finished the third mile,
I could see the finish line just ahead of me.
I slowed a little in that mile, but not as much as I thought. I ran that mile in 7:27.
I ran fastest in my sprint to
the finish, bringing my average pace down to 7:20. I crossed the finish line in 22:43. My time at the B.A.A. 5K was 24:21, so this
was a substantial improvement. I’m
pretty happy with that, especially under the circumstances.
I was surprised by the size of
the finisher medal. Maybe I’m just
showing my age, but when I started running, only marathons had finisher
medals. This 5K medal is nicer than a
lot of my marathon medals.
After getting my medal, I
walked quickly to the port-o-potties, so I could finally relieve the pressure in my intestine. Then I walked back to the hotel to shower and
stretch. It wasn't until two days later that I learned I had placed second in my age group. I'll get an award in the mail.
Tomorrow, I’ll be running the
marathon. Stay tuned for my next race report.
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