I get to Chris's house and follow him to the place where the group meets. We met at a starbucks out in Weston. The group ranged from me being the youngest to some middle age dudes to one older guy on a recumbent bike. They were nice and were all wondering how to prounounce the name of Lees-McRae on my kit.
Most of the guys were rockin tri bikes but that was cool. They were training for triathlons and such. Chris told me to watch out for the guy on the recumbent. He said well be cruising at like 23-25 mph and this dude will come flying by!
Apart from it being 100 degrees the ride was good. It started out slow but we eventually got the pace up. We still only ended up going about 23 mph. I ramped it up a little faster when it was my turn at the front but I ended up blowing most of the group. But the stronger guys stuck with me. I ended up blowing at the end because I thought the end was closer than it was so I was going pretty hard for longer than intended. I didn't know the roads since I had never been out west to ride.
Chris wasn't kidding though, that dude on the recumbent came flying by me when I was going about 25! I had no clue those things could go that fast! He was joking about getting a disc wheel for it, that would be nuts! He was wearing shimano sandles that had cleats on the bottom and you could clip in with them, nuts! We eneded up doing a little over 30 miles. So it was a good work out. I was glad with how I felt riding with a group and think I am ready for a race series I found here.
This was the temp when I got home at about 10 am...
I got home, showered, ate and put my compression socks on. I needed to recover for a 5k I was going to be doing in a few hours.
The 5k was in Miami and I hadn't registered yet so we had to boogie down there early. Traffic wasn't bad cause it was the weekend. We got there and I registered, my parents where gonna do the walking portion of it but we figured it would be way too expensive so they kind of snuck in and didn't pay, don't tell anyone...
My race number.
This race was chipped, meaning that they kept score with a chip. High tech!!!
I ran into a family friend and he has been running marathons for a few years so I figured if I stuck with him I'd be money. He told us to start on the 1st line, so I followed him.
This was part of the crowd behind me. Big group! I think there was close to 2,000 people.
The race started and my friend Bob almost trampled this 8 year old kid that was in the front, he kind of had no business being there, Bob picked him up and threw him back, it was pretty scary but funny at the same time. I had my headphones in cause I needed some rockin beats to help get me through it. I was rockin out to the BeeGees, Barry White, LCD Soundsystem, Patsy Cline and one or two other artists.
The race was hot, it had been in the high 90's all day. It then started raining, most of you would think that's good but no. The rain here makes the heat so much worse. The steam from the pavement makes the air so thick, you could cut it with a knife. I was dying! I went in to the first mile and saw my pace time was 6:30, way to fast for mile 1! So I slowed down and that was good cause it was hard to breathe. I didn't notice my other times cause I was so hot and only focused on seeing the finish line.
Coming into the last turn i was taking the inside line, coming close to a parked car, cause the inside is always shorter. Some d-bag tried to squeeze into the space that was between me and the car, all two inches that was there... He tripped me up but I didn't go down, lost a few seconds though... That was about 100 yards from the finish, the last 50 or so I just flat out sprinted. My legs were so cooked but I wanted to finish strong. It seemed like it was never going to end.
My time was 22:06 and I had an avg. pace of 7:07. I placed 5th in my age group, 20-24, and got 62nd overall! I had no clue I had done any sort of place worthy run. I wonder if I could have broken 20 min if I hadn't done that ride in the am? My goal next 5k is to break 20 min.
I wasn't hungry after the run, my stomach usually doesn't want food after I run. I was in much need of fluids though, luckily gatorade was passing out free samples of their new organic flavors. It was really good, not as sugary as the old gatorade! I also found the beer tent. I figured there weren't going to be any medals cause there were thousands of people, so beer was my medal! Except it was budweiser...
Well it was a busy day to say the least. Sorry this was such a long post, thanks for the two of you for finishing it! I plan on doing much more running since it seems that I am semi-good at it. Hopefully I can start doing this race series on weds. nights. I want to upgrade and possibly win some much need cash. Running should be good cross training for the bike and the bike should be good training for running.
Well these are two videos, one from the group ride and one post 5k one. Enjoy! Till another adventure, adios!
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