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!