Caution ... NSFW means Not Safe For Work ... I swore in my writing of this blog post.
I woke up around 6:30AM. I didn't try to wake up my darling wife, Christine. She had spent the night on the couch because she had not wanted to disturb me. I try to deserve her love. I quietly ate my pre-race bowl of cereal, checked the temperature (75F), dressed in shorts and a short sleeve tech shirt, geared up and headed out. I arrived down at the NCA around 8:10AM with plenty of time to snag a parking spot in the shade and get my race bib to prep for the 9AM start.
I had plenty of time to go for not one but two warmup runs. One was for a mile at 8:12 pace, link here. The other was for 0.4 mile at 7:28 pace, link here.
Score-This! did the timing and required us to run through their narrow 15 foot arch at the start. I was up near the front and heard everyone tell each other to "Be Careful". I was one of them since I knew what it was like to get tripped at the start (Airport 5K last year). So ... we were off .... carefully!
I got up to speed after the start quickly. I knew this course well. The Freezeroo uses this course and this was my second NCA 5K. It's is an out and back, twisty at the start, goes through a park, gets on Long Pond Rd and Trolley Rd and then turns around back the same way. I did OK the first mile, 6:43 pace, as we got onto Long Pond Rd. Beth DiCantis passed me. She is faster so I let her go. The mile on Trolley Rd was a bit slower, 6:53 pace. I could see that Mark Herberger was behind me at the turnaround. I wanted to keep him there. I endured the third mile. I really wanted to take a tiny walk break but didn't. I shortened my stride and just gutted it out ... through the park and passed a few younger runners, through the twists, mile 3 marker at 7:14 pace ... 0.1 to go ... clock was under 22 ... push ... done! My Garmin had 0.17 miles at 6:34 pace with a best pace of 5:45. I was drenched with sweat and downed three cups of water right away.
I made my way down to the cafeteria and cooled down as I talked with Bob Dyjak and Mark Herberger. Officially, I finished in 21:55, 12th overall, link here. I was 2nd out of 15 in my wide M50-59 age group. I got a $10 Wal-Mart gift card for my efforts.
I left and could have gone home which would have been the safer move. But ... I wanted to support those runner who were running around and around at the Mind the Ducks 12 hour run in Webster. I knew several of them. So ... I went out to North Ponds Park in Webster.
I parked on the west side of North Ponds Park in the Holiday Inn Express parking lot around 11AM. I could see the runners go by about 50 yards away. Spoiler alert! Mistake ... I wore my prescription sunglasses and not my running sunglasses when I got out of the Equinox.
I gave encouragement to runners I knew as they went for about 5 minutes. I joined Prem Kumar when he went by. I hadn't seen him and wanted to talk to him. He said that he had run 22 laps. We talked and ran at his nice and easy pace ... through for him (and around for me) the start/finish ... and into the hollow where TrailsRoc had set up their tent. The ground here dipped. I was running to the left on the shoulder because the paved path had narrowed and I didn't want to crowd Prem.
Now ... my prescription sunglasses were bifocals so I had almost no view of my feet. Well ... my left shoe caught a root and down I went! I remember it in slow-mo ... falling ... hoping I wouldn't ... FUCK ... hitting the ground ... visions of falling the same way at Sehgahunda in 2010 ... FUCK ... Ouch! ... trying to catch my breath for what seemed a minute ... Ouch! ... looking at my bloody right forearm ... it's right on top of my Sehgahunda scar ... people were around me ... I needed help getting up ... people helped me up ... walking ... limping ... a slow jog or two with Prem. I apologized to her for distracting him. He apologized to me for I know not what. We got back to where my Equinox was parked and I bid Prem "good luck" for the rest of the day. I inspected the carnage: right forearm , right shoulder, right leg and my right ribs hurt .... just like the fall at Sehgahunda 2010. I thought ... FUCK, I have the Fly By Night Du down in Watkins Glen at 6PM ... I hoped I could still go ... I wet a towel in my gym bag with water and toweled off the blood and dirt ... then I drove home.
I edged my body out of the Equinox, limped up the stairs and called out to Christine to help me. I ached and it hurt to move my right side. She helped me out of my clothes, bandaged me up with some 2"x3" bandages (two on my forearm and one on my shoulder) and eased me into bed. I got up after a hour and tried to move around. I wanted to see if I could move enough to run and bike later. But ... no. I knew that I would just injure myself just moving around or maybe really injure myself by falling while running or crashing on my bicycle. So I pulled myself from the Fly by Night Du around 2PM ... SHIT!
One highlight of the afternoon was that a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS14 running shoes arrived from Road Runner Sports via FedEx. I found that I saved about $50 by ordering last years shoes mail order. Christine went to the main door since I was in absolutely no condition to get up. It really hurt to move. Getting up was pretty painful.
Life happens. I got a call from my cousin, Mary Tack. Her father, my Uncle Bud Nevil, was in the Canandaigua Hospital. We threw on some clothes after supper and went down to see him. I could walk ... just not so fast. Google told us the directions since I had never been there. We met up with the Nevil clan around 7:30PM as he was being brought up from the ER to a private room. Everyone was curious about the bandaged arm. Their hug squeezes were a bit painful. I talked with Uncle Bud and told him how I got banged up.
We encountered rain and saw distant lightning flashes over Lake Ontario as we headed home. I thought of the runners who did the Fly by Night Du, results here. I wish I could have been there.
Anyway ... I eased myself into bed and found that I had to sleep on my back. I will heal. I have Dirt Cheap #2 at Black Creek Park on Wednesday. Maybe I won't be up to full speed but I want to be there. I don't like to DNS (Did Not Start). I have unfinished business in 2016 with both the Fly by Night Du and Mind the Ducks now ... hopefully they won't be on the same weekend.
Lesson learned ... DO NOT RUN WITH PRESCRIPTION BIFOCAL SUNGLASSES!!
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