Do you remember your first road race?

Harry - are you talking about the boalsburg race?

tm wrote:

Harry - are you talking about the boalsburg race?

I am, in fact.

I ran a 10K race. I think I ran about 38 minutes for the race. It was funny for several reasons:

1. I thought everyone who ran a road race was probably pretty fast, so I started at the back of the pack. I passed nearly the entire field in the first mile. I ended up finishing something like 6th overall.

2. I kept passing some guy on the uphills only to have him storm by me on the downhills. He finally said, "Kid, you'd run faster if you conserve you energy on the uphill and run hard on the downhills." I did that on the next hill and ran away from him.

3. Jim Ryun was running in the race. If you ever saw pictures of Ryun and me running, you would swear that we were identical twins (except he was way faster). My mother and a friend were watching the race. At the finish, they saw someone like me coming in and said, "There he is. No, it's Jim Ryun. No, it's not, Yes, it is." This went back-and-forth until Ryun ran by. My mom's friend said, "Oh, it's only Jim Ryun."

4. The race was in Denton, TX, and you made a right turn to lead back to Fouts Field and the finish. There is a beer barn on the corner. Some guy behind me ran through the beer bard and came out in front of me. I still outkicked him, however.

5. There was a marathon along with the 10K. It was determined that the "winner" had ridden in a car a good part of the way. He actually had the gall to ask where he could buy a trophy like the ones they were giving away.

Wow, great story!

I ran the Mall-to-Mall run/walk in Cedar Rapids, IA. It was a pretty flat 8.8 mile race (actually, a "time-prediction" run). I'd never even run half that distance before. I also assumed that everyone in the race would be way faster than me so I started in the back. In dead last. It was a small race, but I did start passing people and finished somewhere in the middle. I ran 1:23.

10km, 34:21 aged 16 over 10km in 1999.

A 5K around Hain's Point in Washington DC sponsored by the Sri Chimnoy cult. I was 23 and already out of college. Had sometimes jogged for fitness, but had never run XC or track. It seemed like a big adventure and I was plenty nervous. Ran 18:18 and was pleased with myself for not finishing last, having to walk, or getting sick. But I never improved my 5K time too much even after years of marathon training, so I've always suspected the course was short.

1978

I was 18

129lbs

I won

very old timey guy with wool socks type of thing

I was either 12 or 13 (it was summer '75 and my birthday is in July) and I ran 2 miles at the weekly fun run. 13:16. Thus emboldened, I entered a 5-mile road race. Didn't actually train for it, and died like I never have before or since. No idea what my time was--the mind is a wonderful thing and allows horrible memories to be erased.

I was 30, and had been running for a couple months after finally quitting smoking. I entered a 5k with about 400 people. The leader took off at 3:00/km pace, and since it felt reasonable at first (haha), I went with him. That lasted about two minutes, and then I started fading. I eventually ran the first km in 3:06, and was completely toast. I struggled through a death march for the next 4km and finished with a 20:20.

It was 1972 and I was 16. I ran a 10 mile race in LaCrosse, Kansas. It was an out and back course mostly over gravel and rolling hills. I believe I finished in the top ten or very close to it and ran about 65 minutes. What stands out was Jim Hershberger, who was an outstanding masters competitor at the time, telling me I should have a longer stride for my height. I found him amusing and annoying. I still do. Ironic in that he lives about 10 miles from me now in sunny Southwest Florida.

Jayhawk wrote:Ironic in that he lives about 10 miles from me now in sunny Southwest Florida.

Any reason you need to call it "sunny" Southwest Florida? Are you a travel agent?

I ran in to a guy I knew at his first race, a 5 miler. I was surprised to see him there since he didn't run that much. I only knew him to jog a couple of miles. He was (is) short and pudgy and he lined up at the front.

My running partner and I told him he was right where he should be so he could sprint ahead of everyone else so he wouldn't get trampled. He laughed, said, "Ha ha, I know better than that" but he didn't move. My friend and I moved back expecting the newbie to move back, but he didn't.

The gun went off and, sure enough, the newbie took off. He held his own. For about 1/2 mile. We passed him and he was already on the side of the road, bent over and gasping for air.

When he finished, we told him we were just joking about taking off. He said he didn't think he took off.

Oh, those newbie mistakes.

I invited a non-running friend to my first road race. I wanted someone to come to the race with me, and preferrably someone I knew I could beat. He was a decent 400/800 (52.0/2:00) guy in high school, but he hadn't run in a couple years so I figured I could take him.

I overestimated my fitness and took the first mile out in 5:40. That felt ok until the halfway turn-around point. Then I just bonked and it was a death march. I think my last mile was something like 8:00. My friend passed me with about 800m to go. I think our times were about 21:10 and 21:40. I felt like I was certainly going to die, and I was pissed off for getting beat by my friend. I thought I would never race again. But after a day or so of pouting I got over it and started running again.

My friend ran in a few more races with me and he never beat me again. Not that that's a big deal, because he never really trained seriously. But they were moral victories for me.

Congratz brother

Early 70's, my high school XC Coach took a few of us to a "5" Mile road race around the grounds of a State Hospital.

I remember the residents were watching out their room windows.

We got popsicle sticks with our place as a race memento.

No age groups, just a few awards for the top finishers.

No women, maybe 50 or so guys.

5 miler, Hudson MA, a June evening in '73.

I was a 4:49 miler just after sophomore year, training on intervals and 3-mile runs.

Fred Brown presiding.

I went in the 2nd pack at about 5:15-5:20 pace. I ate it big time at about 3 miles and stumbled to finish in 32 minutes plus. A lesson in pacing!

A couple weeks later in Marlboro I got under 30 minutes running even pace.

I was 11 years old, and ran a Diet Pepsi 10K Challenge race in the Midwest. I finished right over an hour.

I was 19 years old and had just joined my university’s track/xc team the very first year that my university fielded such a team for women. I had never done competitive sports before but I’d been the star of my high school PE class in the 12-minute run and figured I’d give it a shot. I promptly established myself as the distance star of the ragtag team the coach was assembling.

I’d been training with the team for about six weeks when the coach told the distance girls we were going to run a local 10-mile road race. I had never run as far as ten miles but the coach told me he’d run with me to pace me. Of course I was excited and took off too fast, and coach let me do it. By about the 7-mile mark I was paying for it. Coach kept trying to encourage me but I was dying. And then:

“See that girl up ahead of you, with the long hair and the white T-shirt?”

“Uh, I guess.”

“She’s in your age group. She’s a good runner but she looks like she’s hurting. You can catch her.”

(Groan) “I don’t wanna catch her.”

“Sure you do. Come on!” Coach started to ramp the pace back up. I wanted to kill him but was too tired, so I had to follow.

Indeed, she was falling apart worse than I was and we reeled her in. The finish area was in sight as we pulled alongside her. She turned to look at us with that deer in the headlights look and we powered ahead to cross the finish line. I collapsed in happy exhaustion.

Immediately after the finish I saw white T-shirt girl crying and holding her knee. The age group was 13 to 19, and she had just turned 13 and looked about 10, while I was six months shy of 20. I felt like a grownup beating up on a little kid. I told coach I felt bad about beating an injured little kid for the age-group win. He told me “you know, if it had been the other way around, she would have done the same thing.” I reckoned he was right.

I have no idea what my time was. A couple weeks later I got injured doing a hard mountain training run and I never competed in a meet for my team. I quit running altogether for several years and picked it up again as a graduate student.

I was an 800m runner. And I filled in on sprint relays when needed. My coach tricked me into signing up for a 5k road race after junior year. I figured 5k. No biggie. We run at least 3 miles every day. I don’t remember much of the race itself. It was July 4. I do remember having a melt down and getting passed by two of the top runners on the girls XC team. They were 19/20min XC runners. Big wake up call. I think I ran 21 mid. I haven’t been able to find results and I’ve been looking for a very long time. One of our top runners won in about 16:09. The race usually had some good competition in the 15-17 range.

It was even worse because my chemistry teacher was there and I had a crush on her. No way would she leave her husband for a HSer that can’t break 20.