Weight I have lost

Monday, November 17, 2008

Pancreatic Cancer 5K

So, Friday I was exhausted. I did the headbob thing at my desk from 1 to 130 when I said Fuck It and went home. I slept from 2 until 6. I still felt really tired. Nothing exciting happened on Friday night.

Saturday D went to work, and I got up around 830. A and I were doing another 5K. This one was in Grant Park for Pancreatic Cancer (link tells you what PC is since neither A nor I knew). I got to A's around 9:15. It was 55 degrees. We walked down to the Pavillion and signed in. Our reception was a bit frosty since neither of us raised any money for it (again, we didn't even know what it was). So we got our T-shirts that we had to ask for, as opposed to those around us who received them. We also asked about the course, and got, "I don't know." So back to A's we went to put our T's in the car. And back to the pavillion. Opening ceremonies were going on from 10-1045. In that time, I found out that A doesn't mind a black man being over her (politics, sortof), which still has me chuckling. She found out that I haven't shaved my legs in about 3 weeks. Terribly exciting...we still didn't find out what PC was, but that usually you are black, old, a smoker, a diabetic, a man, and have very little chance of surviving...or so said the white, young non-smoker, no-diabetic female survivor. Finally the ceremony was over and we had to walk to the start line.

There weren't a lot of runners (we found out this was the first run, the 3rd walk). The walkers were on a different route. So the race started. I just kind of ran it. My knee was bugging me and it had been so I wasn't out to set a record. We ran near the Interstate and back to the park and up my least favorite hill in GP. Got up to BLVD and ran on the sidewalk. I was very careful because I was sure I was going to slip on the wet leaves (it rained overnight). Mile 1 was 13:45...I knew I was going slowly, but ok. I passed 2 12 year olds and they would pass me then walk, and then I would pass them. Finally on Atlanta, I passed them and 3 more people. Up onto Cherokee. This is an up/down street. The hills aren't hard, just long. I really didn't want to run on the sidewalk but looking at the slope on the street, I knew I would hurt my leg more. Mile 2 came, and it was 28:58. Getting slower.
There were some really good volunteers on the course and they cheered me on. Sometimes being at the back of a pack, you wonder if the volunteers are wondering why you aren't just doing the walk. This is what I thought they thought. There were a lot of cops for the race too. So finally I got to the turn and ran down hill. And all the walkers were on the street and I had to run against them up that same dreaded hill. The cop told me it was the last hill, and I could do it. By now my knee REALLY was talking. I walked half of the hill. I got to the top and resumed running. I passed the start cone. This run seemed really long, like at the cone it should be over.

I continued to BLVD, and then turned into the park. Only .1 more miles. Yay! I crossed the line at 45:27. I was horrified at this time. To make matters worse, they wouldn't record mine or Anne's time (she waited for me at the finish), because "they already know who the awards are going to." WTF! That isn't the point. So that ticked me off.
We went and got some water and they still had some... Yay! And then we walked home. A said her time was off from the cemetery run (part of the course was the same) by 2 minutes. Hmmm so was mine.

So I got home and looked at another GP run we had done, and my time was faster for that and that run was over a year ago, when I started running. Something was wrong. The difference in the courses was the beginning. So out to US Track to map the damn thing. Turns out it was 3.3 miles. Now in the grand scheme of things this isn't a lot, but it is almost a lap at the track, which equates to about 3 minutes, so things started to make more sense.

I'm still irked by that and the lady who wouldn't record my time. But eh...I got a T-shirt, and now I know what Pancreatic Cancer is.

Oh and then on Saturday Night, D and I did a case race of Pipeline Porter. Needless to say I didn't run 4 miles on Sunday.

Time: 45:27 (run)
Mileage: 3.3 (13:46 min/mile)
Calories: 912
Max HR 187
Avg HR 166
In Zone 12:43

6 comments:

Viv said...

Great job, Al!! I still have no clue how the hell you are getting away without shaving for 3 weeks
:-O
Hey don't think those thoughts from the back of the pack. I felt like that this week as well especially when I had to scroll scroll scroll then scroll some more for my results. We are out there RUNNING an we only have to look at ourselves to beat.

timeformetofly said...

I felt bad reading about how you were treated at the race, and I think it is sad that it seems like they treated you as a lesser participant because you did not fund raise for PC.

But good for you for moving past it and running the race! Great job!

Marcy said...

I wish they had a PC 5k here. They only have the walk (I do it every year) I'm REALLY surprised they gave you shiz about the fund raising part. Here, they say if you want to raise money then you can but it's more important that the awareness gets out.

Anne said...

Apparently very few people survive pancreatic cancer so those survivors were very very lucky. This is what I've found out after the fact. But A, like my sis says, at least we're OUT there!

Nitmos said...

Not to sound Seinfeldesque but whats the deal with wildly inaccurate race distances? Seriously, missing 3.1 miles by .2 miles is quite a snafu for them in my book. Let's see, if that was a marathon and we project that out...they'd have been off by roughly 1.5 miles.

Aka Alice said...

Hey, you're out there, you're runnin...You Rock!

Really? 3 weeks?