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Race Report: Alameda Midway Shelter 5K

08 Jan 2013 9:32 AM | Anonymous
[Thanks to Roy Carlisle for contributing this article!] 

Saturday, December 1, 2012
Alameda Midway Shelter 5K Run
Time: 31:33 / Pace 10:09
58th of 95, no age divisions

When I stumbled out of the house at 8am on a Saturday morning it was raining hard. In the East Bay of Northern California we usually have 60-66 days of rain annually and often the hard rain days produce more than an inch of rain, quickly. It is not that wimpy drizzle I grew up with in the Pacific Northwest. It comes down with intention and vengeance. Anybody in his right mind, not me obviously, would have taken one look at the pouring rain and stumbled back into bed. Instead I thought of my friend Walker, who lives in Atlanta with his lovely wife Joy, and his repeated statements that he likes to run in the rain. But I don’t know if it rains hard in Atlanta. And I remembered Jack, my running friend who lives in Alameda, where I was going, who ran this same 5K race with me back in the early 2000s, when it was storming something fierce. With wind gusting, rain pouring down, seemingly in more than one direction, cold that invaded your personal space no matter how many layers you were wearing, it was weather nor a race to forget. It was, in our minds, the worst weather either one of us as endured for a race. When you realize that together we have probably run more than 200 races in every season and throughout the country, including ones in the snow, that is “high” praise for that little local endeavor.

Was I really going to endure this again? I was on autopilot, like I usually am in the early morning, and so I was going to head for Alameda and see what happened. I could always sit in the car while others with more fortitude carried on. Although I knew I had too much pride for allowing myself to do that. Driving down the freeway, I became a bit apprehensive; the rain was coming down so heavy and fast that we were all driving about 35 miles an hour. A flash of an accident I had many years ago because of this kind of storm niggled at me and kept my pace slow. But then I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to get to the race in time for the start. I sped up a little, but I could feel myself holding a tight grip on the steering wheel. With my little car it a gust of wind or a sudden swerve could be prelude to an accident. I was determined to avoid any sudden anything.

After making a wrong turn and having to navigate out of what seemed like dozens of cul-de-sacs on Bay Farm I finally found my way to the parking lot at the Alameda/Bay Farm ferry landing. I was irritated with myself for getting somewhat lost but alas, the rain had slowed. Good sign. Opening the car window I found that it was not raining hard enough to even need an umbrella. Maybe we were going to have a charmed moment. I calmed down and got moving. Usually all of the registration tables, small piles of shirts, and awards were out on display but this morning everything was crammed into the small covered waiting space along with runners trying to stay dry. I was hoping there would be coffee because I had skipped my latte and I do need it. I mean, I need it, it was part of my pre-race ritual and when the weather is not cooperating, the rituals are even more important. I know that all runners understand this but it is hard to explain to others.

Then the rain slowed even more and people began to venture out into the parking lot and onto the course (a bike/walk/run path) to warm up. I walked quickly to the waiting area to get my bib/tag and pick up my tee shirt. Black is an unusual color for a race shirt but it certainly fit the mood of the morning. This tee had primitive art on it, which spun home that we were raising money for homeless women and children. It made me determined to run even though they already had my money, now they would have my feeble effort to kickstart my “I hate the early morning” body.

Front tee shirt art for the Alameda Midway Shelter 5K Run

Many registered runners didn't show up so it was a small crowd of us that bunched up to the starting line. Now I was ready to go. Let’s do this, I thought, and that small tingle I always feel at the start of a race, made me smile. I love races, I really do. Somebody hit the start button by saying Ready! Set! Go! and hearing that phrase made me smile even more. Many of the younger runners shot ahead and I even started too fast but what the heck, we were running to help people. One guy older than me--No, I don’t really know that he was but he looked older--passed me and that made me even more determined to get into steady pace just slightly faster than my normal pace. I watched a very attractive woman slowly pass me and I thought, now if I followed her, that could help me keep going. It was a nice thought and it worked for about a half a mile but then she was gone. Too bad, now I was running alone but I did feel good, even if I could not go quite as fast as I had hoped.

This path we were on is the same path that I run every Sunday afternoon with Jack so I was very familiar with it. But that also meant that I didn't spend any time enjoying my surroundings like I normally would during a race. Besides, the cloudy weather bathed the scenery in gray and so the bay, the coastline, nothing was very eye catching. I returned to the “tunnel” of my own running space and kept moving ahead.

Since a 5K is only 3.1 miles it meant that we would run out for 1.55 miles and then come back on the same path. That can be interesting because you can see the lead runners and faster runners coming back at you. This is fun if you don’t get discouraged by the fact that they are running almost twice as fast as most of us middle of the pack runners. But I actually enjoy this spectacle because I think fast or elite runners are a joy to watch. It inspires me; it doesn’t discourage me. That joy increases when I see someone who is older running at a very competitive pace. That morning the man who finished second overall was 51 years old! Mauricio’s pace was 6:02 minutes per mile, which really is almost twice as fast as I usually run. But I loved watching him and the other elite runners chew up that path.

For a few moments, right before I hit the halfway turn around point, the rain began again and I thought we would be in for a serious downpour. But it only lasted about 3 minutes, it never got heavy and it quit again. Thank God for small favors because I had not donned by running cap which I wear to keep the water off my glasses. It can be a bit tricky to see any obstacles--like other runners--if my glasses are covered with rain and then also fog up. But that didn’t happen and I cruised along.

Since I do know this path very well I also didn't have to think about when I would sprint. The path comes out of a stand of trees right before the parking lot and it is only about 75 yards from that point until the finish line. I was ready. The rain had restrained itself as if Mother Nature knew that few pleasures in life are as sweet to me as sprinting at the end of a race with every ounce of energy in my body. There were not enough people to constitute a “crowd” or crowd noise but I did hear a few gasps and encouraging yells when I wound it up and took off. Yesss! And then, passing the finish line, I was gasping for air, pulling off my marker tag so they could compute my time and picking up my “medal.” Now look at those pictures of the medal, is that cute or what. My black marker inscription did not help “cutify” it but it did designate it for my race medal/ribbon collection.

Now I wasn’t on autopilot and I was very glad, again, that I had forced myself to run on behalf of my body and others.


Midway Shelter 5K “Medal” with Inscription
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