Hokahey 5K

Our new business is keeping me busier than I ever imagined. For the first time in many years, I am fully engaged from the time I get up until falling into bed. I had forgotten the thrill and energy produced by taking on a new challenge. I have even come up with a new marketing ploy based on my running. I'm thinking of contacting all of the fast guys in my age group and offering to reduce my commissions if they will let me sell their house in Austin and refer them to an agent in say Portland. In a couple of years, I could start walking away with some age group awards!

Speaking of running, I actually haven't done much lately. In the days following the IBM 10K I noticed some tightness in my hip. The location was in the same general area that took me out of the 2007 Boston training and trashed a year of training. I began a concerted effort to address the issue before it become an injury. By Monday of this week it had reached the point of pain during my run so I cut the run short and developed my plan of attack on it. I notified my running buddies that I was taking a week off. I scheduled a massage with Lisa, the Mistress of Pain, and hit it with Aleve on day one then Advil and Tylenol after that. At my massage, Lisa was amazed at the lack of knots in my calves and at the vastly improved range of motion in all of the major joints. She agreed that the barefoot and near barefoot running has transformed my lower body and that it seems to be the right approach to running for me. Then she got busy on my hip. I had been dreading this because I hadn't done a massage in over 8 months BUT we were both surprised at how easily the muscles released. I left with a little bit of soreness that was nearly completely gone by the time I reached the office. No running on Friday. I had no time to really think about the Hokakey 5K that I had entered for Saturday.

The Hokahey 5K was not really a "race" after all. This was an opportunity to come together with the friends of Dan Keitz and raise funds for his battle with ALS. As I got ready for bed, I didn't know if I would race or not. The thought even occur ed to me to try running barefoot. I decided on the drive out to Oak Hill that I would run it barefoot if the pavement looked smooth. When I got there they were handing out chips with the bibs. Hmmm, hadn't thought about attaching a chip without shoes. Ok, lets run some of the course and decide what to do. I jogged out for what I thought was about a mile and found the pavement to be pretty rough so shoes were staying on.

I seeded myself near the front and decided to just see what I had when the gun went off. I knew Kurt M. would go for the win and there were several buff looking high school XC guys with that look in their eyes. When the horn sounded I found myself running in 5th place with Kurt and 3 XC guys out ahead. I was breathing heavy within 20 seconds while these guys seemed to be just cruising. At what I thought should be about the 1st mile I sneaked a peak at my watch and saw 4:20 so I knew I was in trouble. I was feeling like we had run a mile already but we had only run 3/4 mile if that! Then I saw the HILL. Where in the hell did that come from? I dug in and passed one of the XC kids but Kurt and the other two were now pulling away. Going down the backside was no fun because I could see we had to come right back up in short order. From this point on I could hear footsteps right on my heels. I never looked back though. On the return trip up the hill, I got passed by some guy named Larry. Why do they always seemed to be named Larry? He passed me like I was standing still. I figured I would now get passed by 5 or 6 more before we finished as I was beginning to run out of steam. I could hear footsteps getting closer and closer as we neared the final stretch. With about 200 meters to go, I felt someone try to pass me. I dropped whatever hammer I had left knowing it wouldn't be enough if it was one of the young guys. After about 50 meters, I heard them back off and knew that I had broken them. I pushed to the finish vowing to NOT look at my watch crossing the line. I looked up and saw Dan at the finish line so without thinking I jumped and gave Dan my best salute. I had my usual couple of minutes of dry heaving before I realized I hadn't stopped my watch. I don't yet know what my time was BUT I managed to hold onto 5th place overall and 1st masters! Kurt held off the 2 XC guys for the win and Larry must be younger than 40. I spent about an hour visiting with Dan and many of the folks from our Pikes Peak training. It was good to see people that I had not seen in 2 or 3 years. I'll be back to run this race next year!

RESULTS:
Hohahey 5k
Austin, TX
14 Nov 2009

1 0:18:42 Kurt Mohlman M 29
2 0:19:01 John Vogt M 31
3 0:19:27 Larry King M 43
4 0:19:40 Matthew Nyfeler M 17
5 0:19:50 Geezer Collins M 46
6 0:19:50 Cody Castelline M 15
7 0:19:56 Michael Wedel M 34