The Colony City Chase is a 5K race hosted by the Rotary Club of Fitzgerald, Georgia. They have been hosting and putting this race on for 23 years and it shows. The registration is fast and efficient. The course is well-marked and exactly 3.1 miles (few courses are exactly even in this day of constant GPS reliability). And the volunteers are very helpful and courteous. The Colony City Chase has served as the primary fundraiser for the Fitzgerald Rotary Club and they seem genuinely happy that you have come to their race.
Fitzgerald is named the Colony City because after the Civil War, the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression, or whatever you are calling it now, it was founded as a refuge for Union veterans fleeing drought conditions in the Midwest and it quickly became a symbol that both Northern and Southern people could peacefully live together during the Reconstruction years; which is why they start both the 5K and the one mile fun run by the firing of muskets by a couple very authentic reenactors who will scare the bejesus out of you if you aren't paying attention. I wasn't!
A not so great picture of me running! A good picture, but boy do I look rough!
The 5K is not my favorite race distance for many, many reasons. I like the 10K and the 15K much better because it seems like you are getting more for your money. However, I really wanted to do well at the Colony City Chase for a lot of reasons and I felt that Fitzgerald would be a great place to try and do well because I knew the course would be exact, I had run the course many times, and I know the Fitz. to be fairly flat. I really want to get back to letting my body remember what running fast felt like and felt like this was the race to do it in. So, I found a good training schedule for the 5K race and trained as hard and as faithfully as I could. My goal was to finish the CCC in 20:5?. My previous 5K PR was 21:26, set at last year's Jingle Bell Jog in Macon. I did the speedwork. I did the long runs. I did the tempo runs. I did the easy runs. I felt like all was going well, except that many of my workouts seemed to be almost too hard to complete, but as the race loomed nearer and nearer, my body got stronger and the workouts became a little easier. I even bought a cheap pair of racing flats and secretly felt they would be my secret weapon and actually believed the "facts" on the box they came in about them taking seconds off your time. I need and needed all the seconds I could get.
Race day came and I ran to where the race would start. This is my Fitzgerald race tradition. I use this as my warm-up. It gives me time to think, not be nervous, wake up, and get ready to race. I then got my number, put it on my jersey, ran a little more, stretched a good amount, changed into my other shoes, reset my watch, and then nervously took my place in the second tier of people at the starting line. I looked down to double check everything and that's when they shot the muskets. It shocked me into action. Every race starts too fast and this one was no different. There were several high school and college cross country runners in the front and they shot off and took an early lead that only grew as the race continued. I was feeling good and ran the first mile in 6:30, which was a little faster than I needed to be going, but I really wanted to break into the 20 minute range. I caught several people who were in front of me and then hit mile 2 in 13:20, which meant I ran the second mile in 6:50 due to some nasty shake and bake pavement and more inclines than I remembered. Then my body said in very plain English, "Are you serious my boy!" and began to fight against me. The third mile I kept trying to get back to my needed pace, but it was a no go. There was a guy in a red shirt ahead of me and I was in passing range a little after mile 2, but then he started increasing his pace and I started decreasing mine, which is not a pleasant experience. I felt a little better when I rounded a bend and saw the finish line and tried to finish with a strong 400 meter rush to the finish line, but my body was finished and I crossed the finish line in 21:20; six seconds off of my PR time, but still 21 seconds from where I wanted to be. I crossed the finish line thankful to have run a better time, but still severely disappointed in my time. I went and grabbed some water, changed my shirt and shoes, pouted a little, and then my sweet wife found me and told me what an awesome job I did. (I am not quite sure what I would do without my Sweet Melissa, but know it wouldn't be much.) I then told myself to get over myself and be happy that I am getting better even if it may be just by a little bit.
Mel and her parents left the race and went and got some breakfast and I stayed behind and ran the one mile fun run. It was a real big booster. Sometimes, you need one even if you know how silly it really is. I took the lead about a quarter mile into the race and even passed the pace car and finished in 7:15, but didn't cross the finish line. I hadn't paid for the race and I had really only beaten a bunch of little kids, moms with strollers, and dads who were carrying their kids; like I said, it was very silly, but it is not often when you are an average runner to be right behind the pace car and I had to take advantage of that, right? I turned around and ran to a place about 0.10 away from the finish line and cheered the finishers in.
Mel and her parents came back kindly bringing me some very delicious food from Sonic and we went to the awards ceremony. They finally got to my age group (which sadly is taking longer and longer to get to these days. I am so old!) and they called out first place for ages 30-34 and Donald Dark had won. He wasn't there, so I went and accepted his award. I am glad to know Donald ran that race, so that David could go home happy with a trophy and a Sonic breakfast burrito!
Overall, I really enjoyed the CCC and hope to run it again. I will hopefully pass Donald in the last mile next time and still get the breakfast burrito. If you see Donald please tell him to train harder. He really sucked it up in mile three.
Thanks for reading and keep running,
David
Amazing! Why do they always screw up our names?!
ReplyDelete