Crashing a City 5K Race

I only have a few more months before the city Sprint Triathlon in August. Because of that, I've been trying to condition and train for each event (I haven't started swimming yet, though. That will come later when I feel more comfortable in a bathing suit :).

For the running event, I've been training with the Couch to 5K program. I downloaded the nine podcasts from Robert Ullrey and have been using them as I go out jogging. I've completed Week 2 of 9. I was a little scared of running at first, but this program is really easy to follow and it builds your stamina and confidence all in one.

One Saturday, I got up, got ready, started the C25K podcast, and headed out into my neighborhood to jog/walk for the 26 minutes. At first, I was the lone runner during this sunny and beautiful morning. But I rounded a corner and there were several runners coming the opposite direction. It seemed more runners wanted to enjoy this nice day.

I continued on my path, with Mr. Ullrey in my ear cheering me on, and more runners passing me on the other side of the street. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking I'd never seen so many runners in this neighborhood, but I was still clueless to what was happening.

Finally, my path looped back toward my house and I converged with all the runners. I saw them entering my neighborhood from another road, and it started to dawn on me. But my first real clue was the flags and markings along the street. I thought, "This must be a race". I rounded a corner and there was a table full of drinks and stuff for the runners. I stayed on the opposite side of the road, but thinking back I should have gotten a drink and pretended I was really part of this race. Haha!

Runners were passing me...because I am slow and because I would walk sometimes when Mr. Ullrey told me to...but that was okay. Along the path, there were a lot of arrows and distance markings to point the way, but some were not pointing in a clear direction and were confusing to me, if I was really following them. But I continued along my way in my own little world.

When I got to my street, I was nearing the conclusion of the last 90 second run, so naturally I turned off the main road to get ready for the 5 minute cool down. I actually turned off into a nearby neighborhood from mine, because I wanted to stay close to my house, but still have some distance for my cool down walk. There were two runners behind me, a father/daughter team. When I turned off the road, they followed. WHOOPS!! That has NEVER happened to me before. Haha!! I had to laugh at the situation. Do I really have that much influence? But I do have to say that there was an arrow around there, but it was pointing in a very confusing direction. It was all left up to interpretation which way to go. So maybe they were just as confused as I was with the arrows and trail markings, and because I took the turn and looked so sure of the direction, they took my lead. I just hope I didn't mess them up too bad with adding more distance and time to their race.

Soon I'll be able to run a full 5K. Maybe I will be in one of those races for real. But I'll be aware of rogue runners who confuse racers into take bogus trails!