Trust me - if I can run 5km without stopping, anyone can run 5km without stopping. What kind of bothered me though was the number of messages I got after the race asking me if I was alright, because some (other) 27 year old dude died on the course (RIP). Thanks friends.
Anyway, that's the first race under my belt and I have to admit that it was pretty damn exciting. I've never participated in such a huge anything before and with all the spectators and other racers shit got real. Real real.
In retrospect, 5km really isn't that long and unlike the marathoners you can basically power through the cold, thirst or any minor bodily struggle that you might have. I'm pretty thankful that A) my knee didn't explode and B) I didn't run out of gas, because it would have been very uncool to have to walk past the finish line.
Turns out the excitement and adrenaline actually does come into play because randoms cheering you on is pimp. Coming up to the last km or so I could not believe how many people were there screaming for just about anyone - makes you feel all good inside.
Getting down there was a real pain too because apparently the fact that 20000+ people were participating didn't register properly with my brain. And so I thought traffic, parking and the whole shuttle bus fiasco would have been no sweat...
Noob move of the day: despite the fact that it (actually) came with instructions, I broke the strap on the timing chip. Solution? Silly looking scotch tape.
So the start is organized into corrals, which doesn't mean much in a mass start apparently. Everyone lines up and funnels through the start gate to activate their timing chip, then the race is on.
Check the corral out - I'm out front in the red corral, and (I think) there were at least 2 more huge ass crowds behind me. Even at this point I need to make my way to the Automotive Building ahead, turn right, then pass the actual start line about 100 yards out. Since my math is awesome I can tell you that it actually took 2:12 to get from here to the timing mats. Lambs to the slaughter.
After that you're basically breaking ankles dancing around people just to get past them and make some space. The first km is like an arcade game because a whole bunch of people are trying to do the exact same thing.
For timing there's gun time (the time started when the official fires the gun) and chip time (your actual recorded time when passing the start and finish lines). Booyah technology, but unfortunately your overall rank is actually determined by the gun time. That's nonsense because unless you're right at the start when the gun goes off then you don't stand a chance (against the black people).
The one thing that threw me off was that there weren't any distance markers along the way. I had my Timex with me but judging pace was pretty messed up since you're all excited and everyone is doing different things. It's a good thing that I had a few practice runs under my belt or else I wouldn't have had any idea how fast I should be going.
I won't lie, my pace was pretty much determined by the hottest girl I could keep up with, so the whole race your own race game plan where I had pace/km planned out pretty much just turned into me juking out dudes and chasing girls. The plan seemed to work though because it was my best time ever and up until that last stretch, where I started tosprint run faster, I felt pretty smooth.
It wasn't until the very end where I saw the 500m mark, 200m mark and the finish gate that things really registered with me because time passed so quickly. I felt like a boss running through the grandstands and when Jeff magically spotted and cheered me on I went Super Saiyan 2. PS: I can't wait to buy my finish line photo.
This is the scene just after the finish. Tons of medals, Gatorade, heat blankets and food for all the finishers. I even saw some vomit on the ground.
So it was a hell of a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again. Since the fastest time of the day was about 15:30, I guess I have a lot of work to do. While I don't think my knee would be able to survive that lightspeed jump required to do a half or full marathon yet, I'm down for more 5km action until I build up to that kind of thing.
Look at me now hater, look at me now.
Next year I'm going to wear my GoPro just to capture how much dodging a guy actually has to do.
Anyway, that's the first race under my belt and I have to admit that it was pretty damn exciting. I've never participated in such a huge anything before and with all the spectators and other racers shit got real. Real real.
In retrospect, 5km really isn't that long and unlike the marathoners you can basically power through the cold, thirst or any minor bodily struggle that you might have. I'm pretty thankful that A) my knee didn't explode and B) I didn't run out of gas, because it would have been very uncool to have to walk past the finish line.
Turns out the excitement and adrenaline actually does come into play because randoms cheering you on is pimp. Coming up to the last km or so I could not believe how many people were there screaming for just about anyone - makes you feel all good inside.
Getting down there was a real pain too because apparently the fact that 20000+ people were participating didn't register properly with my brain. And so I thought traffic, parking and the whole shuttle bus fiasco would have been no sweat...
Noob move of the day: despite the fact that it (actually) came with instructions, I broke the strap on the timing chip. Solution? Silly looking scotch tape.
So the start is organized into corrals, which doesn't mean much in a mass start apparently. Everyone lines up and funnels through the start gate to activate their timing chip, then the race is on.
Check the corral out - I'm out front in the red corral, and (I think) there were at least 2 more huge ass crowds behind me. Even at this point I need to make my way to the Automotive Building ahead, turn right, then pass the actual start line about 100 yards out. Since my math is awesome I can tell you that it actually took 2:12 to get from here to the timing mats. Lambs to the slaughter.
After that you're basically breaking ankles dancing around people just to get past them and make some space. The first km is like an arcade game because a whole bunch of people are trying to do the exact same thing.
For timing there's gun time (the time started when the official fires the gun) and chip time (your actual recorded time when passing the start and finish lines). Booyah technology, but unfortunately your overall rank is actually determined by the gun time. That's nonsense because unless you're right at the start when the gun goes off then you don't stand a chance (against the black people).
The one thing that threw me off was that there weren't any distance markers along the way. I had my Timex with me but judging pace was pretty messed up since you're all excited and everyone is doing different things. It's a good thing that I had a few practice runs under my belt or else I wouldn't have had any idea how fast I should be going.
I won't lie, my pace was pretty much determined by the hottest girl I could keep up with, so the whole race your own race game plan where I had pace/km planned out pretty much just turned into me juking out dudes and chasing girls. The plan seemed to work though because it was my best time ever and up until that last stretch, where I started to
It wasn't until the very end where I saw the 500m mark, 200m mark and the finish gate that things really registered with me because time passed so quickly. I felt like a boss running through the grandstands and when Jeff magically spotted and cheered me on I went Super Saiyan 2. PS: I can't wait to buy my finish line photo.
This is the scene just after the finish. Tons of medals, Gatorade, heat blankets and food for all the finishers. I even saw some vomit on the ground.
So it was a hell of a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again. Since the fastest time of the day was about 15:30, I guess I have a lot of work to do. While I don't think my knee would be able to survive that lightspeed jump required to do a half or full marathon yet, I'm down for more 5km action until I build up to that kind of thing.
Look at me now hater, look at me now.
Next year I'm going to wear my GoPro just to capture how much dodging a guy actually has to do.
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