Santa Speedo & Jingle Bell 5k

Sunday, December 14, 2008
9:00 AM, Austin, Texas
http://mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3441

My Goal:

• Wanted: under 19:57 minutes
  
• Did: 20:54
  

My Rankings:

• Overall: 40 / 555
  
• Gender: 30 / 247
  
• Division: 3 / 28

This past weekend I ran the Trail of Lights Santa Speedo and the Jingle Bell 5k. The speedo run was on Saturday night and was done to raise awareness and funds for Out Youth here in Austin. From the Out Youth website:

Out Youth is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support and provide services to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth ages 12 to 19 in Austin and Central Texas.

As Mark, so very well put it, "you don't have to have cancer to raise money for it". I'm not gay but in this day and age, we all probably know someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender and if you don't then you will very shortly. And you won't just know them, they will be a good friend of yours. It's nice to know that there is a place out there that helps confused teenagers accept their sexuality and I was glad to help the cause in any way I could. This time it meant running in a speedo!

There were somewhere between 2,000 - 4,000 people out for the Trail of Lights 5k this year! There were a lot of great costumes: people wrapped head-to-toe in christmas lights, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and elves but nothing could beat the santa speedo runners! In addition to my red speedo and santa hat, I brought along some green, battery powered, christmas lights and two lighted ornaments. I figured, why not up the humility and draw even more attention to myself!? I wrapped the lights around my torso, tucked in the battery pack and hung the ornaments from my speedo.

In total, there were around 20 people running in speedos and it was a blast! My ornaments broke off, from my speedo, as soon as I started running but the christmas lights stayed on for the entire run. I was a little worried about the battery pack, for the christmas lights, since it rested precariously close to my cojones. Sweating too much could have been quite the shock! I received a lot of cheers from the crowds and I had no less than three women yell out "you can be the light of my life"! I might have to run in a speedo more often...

This race wasn't timed but I finished somewhere in the top 50. I know this because they were giving awards to the first 50 finishers and I received a hat when I crossed the finish line. What a fun race and I was glad to help out a great cause! I look forward to running in it next year!

The Jingle Bell 5k was the following morning and I was still feeling tired from the speedo run and the wind was blowing fiercely. This was a timed race so I was trying to beat my Brown Santa time of 19:57 but didn't feel like I would be setting any new PRs this morning. I tried working my way to the front but people were too tightly packed and I couldn't get close to the starting line. When the whistle blew I was juking my way through the crowd avoiding walkers and people with strollers. I danced my way through the maze of people and soon I was able to settle into a speedy pace but I lost a good chunk of time there. The wind also proved to be a rough obstacle as at one point, on a long stretch of road, we were running head-long into it. Despite the wind I was knocking out a steady pace and soon the finish line was in sight!

Up ahead of me was a kid, who couldn't have been older than 11, blazing down the course. I had been catching up to him but he decided to sprint, for the finish, at the same time I did. Some people on the sidelines were cheering him on but a few of the rabble-rousers were yelling "Are you going to let that kid beat you?" at me! Well... yes... NOOO! He was now gaining ground on me! I summoned up every ounce of speed I had left but it was no use, he matched my speed an then laughed at it! Who the hell was this kid! My legs are longer than his... he is breaking the laws of physics by running faster than me! Convinced, now, that he must be some freak of nature I accepted defeat.

I crossed the finish line at 20:54, good enough for third place in my age group! I didn't beat my previous 5k time and I got smoked by an 11 year old, freak of nature, but getting third place helped make up for it!

Brown Santa 5k

Sunday, December 7, 2008
8:15 AM, Austin, Texas
http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3456

My Goal:

• Wanted: under 20 minutes
  
• Did: 19:57
  

My Rankings:

• Overall: 7 / 95
  
• Gender: 7 / 51
  
• Division: 1 / 5

Three weeks had passed since my first marathon and the swelling and knotted muscles in my calf had subsided. I had been doing some running to test my legs and all seemed well so I decided to put myself to the test and run a 5k! I convinced my brother to run the 5k with me and we arrived around 7:30, race day morning and did a half mile run to warm up. After the warm-up we hung around for a bit, watched the Decker half-marathoners start and I tried some of the ZICO coconut water they were handing out. Goddamn that coconut water is nasty, makes me feel like I'm drinking tepid bath water!

Soon it was about time to begin so we worked our way to almost the front of the pack. The gun went off and we dashed across the starting line at a lung bleeding pace! My brother was pushing a bit harder than me at the onset so I let him go and hung back because I was fairly certain he could not maintain that pace and I would eventually catch up to him. About a half mile into the race I passed a runner who, shortly after, caught back up to me and began to match my speed. Looks like I had found a new best friend and a pacer! Chris was the name of my new friend and every time I would begin to slow down I would see Chris gaining ground on me which would motivate me to catch back up. Chris would falter occassionaly also but it didn't take long for him to catch back up and match my speed once again.

Chris and I passed around seven people, on our run, and around mile 2.6 we caught up with my brother. The runners up ahead of us were too far gone and there was noone behind us that was in distance to catch us before the finish line so we maintained a steady pace and ran as a group. After a sharp turn, I noticed Chris' nose was bleeding! He denies it but I'm almost certain my brother elbowed Chris in the face (accidently?) when we were coming around that sharp turn because they were both running extremely close together! And here I thought I was competitive...

Chris turned out to be a hardcore dude, he was wiping blood away every few seconds while also still maintaining the same running pace! Soon the finish line was in sight and all three of us sprinted for the end hoping for a mini-victory against the other two! Chris' bloody nose got the best of him during the sprint and he fell a few seconds behind. My brother and I battled it out, for the finish, and I'm pretty sure he was throwing elbows at me whenever I got too close! My brother won this battle (but not the war) by a WHOLE second! Chris crossed the finish line four seconds behind me and we all congratulated each other and I thanked him for pacing me.

Checking the results showed that me and my brother got first place in our respective age groups! Hell yeah! This was the first time either of us had placed in a race and we even got a medal at the awards ceremony! We left for home, happy with our medals and some coconut water that was forced upon us. I don't know if it was the passion fruit or if nothing could bring me down from this high but even the coconut water tasted great!