photo by Steve Penland

Saturday, October 29, 2011

It Just Keeps Getting Better

After my great 3k last weekend, I had it all planned out--I would go down to Milwaukee again the first week in November and try a 5k.  I had it all planned out, that is, until I looked at the Time Trial schedule...there were no Time Trials the first weekend of November.  In fact, when I looked closely at the schedule I realized that if I wanted to do a 5k in Milwaukee any time before my big race, the Masters Single Distance in early January, it would have to be now, the last weekend in October.  I really didn't want to go to Milwaukee two weekends in a row, but what are you gonna do?  It would be really dumb to have my first indoor 5k of the year be in my big race.

So I headed to Milwaukee after work on Friday, but I wasn't excited about it.  Last week I couldn't wait to go to Milwaukee; I was happy, excited, and looking forward to getting some ice time (and that was even before my races ended up being fantastic).  This time...meh.  I'd been cranky for most of the week, for no apparent reason (but at my age, one can always conveniently blame fluctuating hormones).  As I headed East on the freeway, I actually found myself thinking "What are you doing?  You could be at home, sitting on the couch with the Hubster, catching up on DVR'ed episodes of "Top Shot" and commenting on the cute poses the dog assumes when she sleeps." (Yeah, we really know how to party!).  So the karma for the weekend was not good.

Even before it became kardeerma.

That's right.  I had a car/deer interface.

Fortunately I saw him bounding through the ditch towards the freeway in enough time to start braking--and to start wondering if the moving van behind me could brake as fast as I could. The deer was moving fast and I was slowing, so I hoped he might actually clear my lane safely, but no such luck--I thumped a bit of him with my right front bumper.

I immediately pulled over and got out to inspect the damage.  Surprisingly, there was none...just a slightly ajar fog-light-space cover, and a small clump of deer fur (sadly, I don't think the poor deer was as undamaged as my car).  So I popped the fog-light cover back in place, got back on the road, and dialed the Hubster (admittedly, with shaking fingers).

Now, the Hubster is a Car Guy, and the health of our vehicles is of paramount importance to him...but still, I was hoping for a slightly different response to my blurted "I just hit a deer."

Something other than "Oh...great."

No "oh my gosh, are you OK?"  No "are you hurt?"  Dude, I could be sitting here with an antler impaling a vital body part, and you're wondering how much damage I've done to the car?!

Naturally, the remaining three hours of the drive did not go well.  I alternated between feeling absolutely horrible that I had hit and likely maimed the poor deer, and nervously scanning the ditch for any of his relatives  that might share his suicidal tendencies.  And when I did, briefly, forget about deer, I was reminded by seeing another body on the side of the road or, worse, a Deer Smear...100 yards of blood and random lumps of mangled flesh coating my lane.  Wisconsin in the fall is not a happy time to be a deer.

Saturday didn't start much better than Friday had ended.  By the time I was ready for my 500, I was feeling like the human embodiment of one of those athletic excuse shirts: "My skates feel dull.  My skinsuit is too tight.  I kicked myself in the ankle.  I looked at the finish time for the 500s' and thought it was the start time and almost missed my race."

But I was there to race, excuses notwithstanding...so I checked my skates and found that they were, indeed, sharp.  I took off a layer under my skinsuit to allow breathing room.  I inspected my ankle and found that it was just bruised, not bloodied.  And, due to my compulsion to be horrifically early for everything, I still had plenty of time to get to my race even though I had read the schedule wrong.

And the 500, surprisingly, turned out well.  I'm not a sprinter and typically suck at the 500, but this one went OK--a 49.22.  I'm quite capable of throwing down a blazing 50-second 500 (for those of you who don't skate, most 12-year-olds  are faster than that), and in fact I did just that last October in Milwaukee.  So the 49 was good, and I had even blown the final corner, so I know there's more speed available.  I've struggled for years to lower my 500 times without much success (even though my other times have improved), so it's nice to feel like maybe my improved technique will finally allow some downward movement in my 500 times.

But I still wasn't feeling hopeful about the 5k.  For one thing, there was my pair.  Or rather, pairs.  There were only 3 of us doing the 5k, so they put us together in a quartet; me solo first, followed by the other two.

Who were both men.

One of them was a young man who I've seen grow up skating in Minnesota, and who is now in college.  He's a very nice young man, and I really wasn't looking forward to messing up his race by making him go around me once or twice as he lapped me.  The other guy was an unknown, a Roger someone.  I asked some fellow skaters if they knew "Roger."  At first they looked blank, but then said "OH.  Ro-zhay."  And they said no more.  But I got the impression that Ro-zhay was fast. 

So it wasn't looking good.

But then, literally as I was standing on the starting line, an official came up to me and said he was sorry, but they'd need me to skate solo...they didn't have enough people timing to do a quartet.

I didn't think it would be appropriate to kiss him.

So I started the race, thrilled to be the only one on the track.  My goal was to achieve around an 8:36 (last year's 5k in October was 8:38), which meant laps between 40 and 41 seconds.  I tend to go out a bit too fast, so I really wanted to do a 39 and no faster in my first lap.  But, despite relaxing and taking it easy, my first split was...37.

Oops.

But I felt really good and relaxed, so I kept going.  Focus on the technique, no "running," nail the corner entries and exits.

And the laps ticked by, incredibly smooth and easy, for the first 7--a 38, then a 39, then 40's.  In fact, I felt great until lap 8, with 4 to go.  At that point my back got pretty sore and I really had to start working, but the remaining  4 laps were 41's and one 42.

For a final time of 8:30.43.

Wow.

It was, I think, my best 5k since my 8:16 (on fast Salt Lake ice) in 2007.  In fact, the first 3k of the 5k was 3 seconds faster than my 3k last weekend, and the 5k time was my second best ever in Milwaukee (and the best was achieved on a day when the "constant tailwind" blowers had been turned on, which they no longer are).

So yeah...a good great day, and another reminder that what happens leading up to a race, for me, often has absolutely no bearing on how the race will go.

(Oh, and Ro-zhay?  Turns out he's a Swiss Olympian, and would likely have lapped me at least 3 times in the 5k.  Although he was very nice, and shook my hand before the race and managed not to show any dismay at having to race a 48-year-old woman...I think it's best for both of us that I got to skate by myself!)

No comments:

Post a Comment