My day started at 5 am- actually, it began at 3:30 am. I returned from my oldest grandson’s football game around 10:30 pm and was in bed by 11:30 pm. My old guy’s disease got me up at 3:30 am, and I was dozing in and out for the next 90 minutes until my alarm went off, thinking about painting my shed.
Earlier this summer, my oldest daughter Sandra and I planned to enter a team at the Speak Up 5km in Richmond. Our team first ran in 2023.
The Cameron K. Gallagher Foundation hosts the run. Early in 2014, Cameron, a high school student, was struggling with self-destructive issues and was helped with the assistance of mental health professionals. She wanted to bring awareness to teen mental health and developed a race in her subdivision to be held in the fall of 2014. While running a half-marathon in the spring of 2014, she passed away at the finish line from an undetected heart issue. The foundation was formed, and this year was the 11th running.
The event is an untimed fun run in Byrd Park with about 3,000 participants. I prepared for the event as if I were running a race. Since November 5, 2023, I have not run more than 28 minutes without stopping to walk. The longest continuous distance I’ve run in that time was 2.6 miles.
After being down for five months with an A-fib, my legs lost some spring and endurance. I’ve been training with a Couch to 5km plan for the past eight weeks, working to get back to where I was in 2023. Though my goal 5km race is the Deuce Braswell 5km Run Against Teen Violence in two weeks, my goal for the day was to run the entire 5km without walking.
I left my house by 6:30 am and arrived at the empty parking lot at 7:45 am, picking the spot closest to the race course. There were a couple of port-a-potties in this lot.
The weather was 70 degrees, with overcast skies and a 65-degree dew point. I started my 30-minute warmup at 8:05 am. I did ten 3-minute segments. The first six and last three were 30 running strides, and the rest were walking. The seventh segment was 3 minutes of running.
I wore shorts over compression shorts, a singlet, and my Saucony Triumph 21 shoes. When I returned to my car, I had time to change into a singlet and drink water.
At 8:45 am, I met up with my team, my daughter, and my youngest grandson for a photo and headed to the start area. They had pace signs on the road. Most of the participants were behind the walker sign. I expected to run at an 11-minute pace and started between the 10-minute and 11-minute per mile signs. There were about 500 people in front of me and 2900 behind me.
At 8:55 am, positioned on a scissor lift in the middle of the start line, sang the national anthem and Cameron’s mother gave a lovely speech ending with the words “Let’s finish this together.” The field started. They didn’t move the lift from the center of the start line, which blocked 50% of the roadway. That would spread the field out even more.
I went out easily, but it still felt harder. The organizers did not have any mile markers.
From my Garmin, the first mile was mostly downhill, dropping 80 feet. There were a few uphills, and my legs felt tired, and my quads hurt a bit. I tried to increase my cadence on the ups. My first mile was 10:43.
In this first mile, they had a silly string zone. Residents near Byrd Park complained about silly string littering their neighborhood. The organizers tried a workaround: putting tarps down for easy clean-up. After the zone, there was still a lot of silly string on the roads.
The roads through Byrd Park were rough. I last ran in the park in 1998 and don’t remember the road camber and uneven surface.
After the first mile, the course entered Maymont with a few ups and downs. The path narrowed, and at my pace, many people combined walking in their progress. Coming out of Maymont, my second mile was 11:38. My legs continued to hurt. I slowed when I needed to but never walked.
Out of Maymont, the third mile involved climbing back up the 80 feet, we had descended in the first mile. This climb was challenging, but I continued to run.
The quote alley was around mile 2.5. Once through, the course was on a crushed stone path that made eight switchbacks. At the end of the gravel path, a grass funnel led to the finish. My third mile was 11:44, and my finish time was 35:11, 4:40, slower than last year. I used my Garmin time as the finish had no display clocks. Worried that the course was short of 5km, I ran 30 meters past the finish line until my Garmin registered 3.1 miles.
I started using a Garmin 245 and heart rate monitor earlier this year to track my recovery efforts. I created a Garmin Connect account that tracks personal records. I now have a set of Garmin PRs to chase. In this event, I recorded a one-kilometer, one-mile, and five-kilometer personal record. The five-kilometer record was why I made sure to run a complete five kilometers. I could finally walk; I had met my goal.
I got a drink of water and my finisher award towel and headed backward on the course. I hooked up with my youngest grandson and ran with him for about 500 meters to the finish.
Then, we headed backward on the course. I hooked up with my daughter as she entered the quote alley and walked with her to the finish.
We hung out a little, then I ran to my car and exited the parking lot by 10:30 am.