Yesterday I run the first official race in my life - 10k race Maniacka Dziesiątka in Poznań. The race was quite small - organizers capped the maximum number of registered runners at 1500 and to the start made it 1460 people (1434 to the finish), in comparison next week I'm starting in Warsaw Halfmarathon with a number 5231, still the length of the queue to the start surprised me. Even though I wasn't at the very end it took me 1 minute from the start till I crossed the start.
As the race was meant to start at 12 noon I wasn't in great danger of oversleeping, nevertheless my both sons at 6.30 made sure that I don't stay in bed too long. For a moment with a pillow over my head I tried to pretend that I'm going to fight for my good night sleep before a race but it was in vain. After all how long can one pretend to sleep with 2 boys jumping all over him?
Maybe it was a mistake but I did not cancel my today's German lesson so 3.5 h before the race I set down with my German tutor. The bright side is that I collected my starting card a day before so I could go directly to start. 2h before the race it was my wife's turn to polish her German. In meantime I was dressing my 'support team' and the younger member (Wiktor) screamed long enough to make sure that I carry him around the house (I suppose that in his eyes it was a perfect warm-up).
1h before the race my wife finished her German and we could start getting out. However the manager of my support team declaresd that she's not going anywhere without our double pushchair (I should have foreseen it). The subsequent timing was as follows:
50 minutes before the race I'm struggling with folding down the bloody pushchair and swear profoundly.
45 minutes to the race - pushchair is folded, children in their seat - I struggle with GPS while Madzia (my wife) sprints home to get my wallet (after all I'm expecting to pay an arm and a leg for parking).
40 minutes to the race, we drive off. It's just some 11 km (c 7 miles) away so if the traffic is not too heavy and if we manage to find a parking place quickly I should make it to the start.
20 minutes to the race, we are almost there, I'm not sure if I should concentrate on finding a parking place or maybe I should start stretching? 15 min. to the race, a painful blow to my plans - the road to 2 large parkings is closed for traffic, I drive on passing on the way large numbers of runners.
Luckily after a few hundread meters I find a small space squeezed between road and a grove. I am not sure if parking there is allowed but I see a few other cars parked already and besides I hope that police today will be rather lenient.
10 minutes to the race - I'm quickly unfolding the pushchair this time it works like a dream. Short but difficult moment of explaining Krzys (my older son) that we cannot go all the way by hand and that for the time being he needs to be in a pushchair and we race towards a forming long column of runners. I start in sector C (the last one) so I can take place close to the end.
After a few minutes of waiting we start, or to be more exact top guys at the front start and we at the back begin to inch forward.
My main problem is that while I am sure that I am able to run 10k I have no idea how fast I can run? I practically never run on asphalt and I did not have a single training on that distance. After approximately a minute I'm crossing the start and slowly jog in a crowd of runners. I treat it as a warm up and wait how situation develops.
After a short while my group passes a nice old lady with a large umbrella hanging over her shoulder, everyone cheers her up (later on I learned from the list of results that she was born in 1939 and successfully finished the race).
A moment later we are passing a middle-aged gentlemen with a large German shepherd on a leash, from the dog's collar hang medals from several previous editions of the run and from the thickness of its owners glasses I guess that it must be a guide dog.
After a while we reach the lake. I run close to a man running inside an L-shaped box.
I'm really impressed by his determination. By the time we reach mark of a second kilometer I feel a bit tired. I try to stick to my original idea of waiting till the 5th kilometer with any decision of increasing speed but in the excitement of the race now and than I yield to an impulse to pass someone.
I couldn't find my Forerunner before the race so I can't control my pace. For a while I join a girl who has a GPS enabled watch and says that she aims for 55 minutes. We run together until the 5th kilometer, we reach it after 28 minutes of running, when on a downhill section I decide that it is time to increase speed.
My main thought during the next few kilometers is how long can I run from the moment when I feel like collapsing. I decide that it should be around 1500m and I try to manage my strength accordingly. I don't want to concentrate too much on how tired I feel to I try to occupy my mind watching other runners and deciding whom to pass next. Around the 7th kilometer there is much more free space around me and the runners on average look much thinner and fitter than earlier. Still I always manage to find a next target and it helps me to concentrate on running rather than pitying myself.
From time to time I pass those who overestimated their endurance and now slowed down to walk - it is a reminder that the race is not over yet.
By the time I reach 9th kilometer I breath heavily and run driven mostly by willpower, when I finally see the big sign META (Polish for finish line) I speed up passing another group of 5-6 runners and use the remnants of strength to get there.
When I discover that it is finish line for the water course not for my race I needed to scrap really the last bits of strength to make another 300m or so to the finish. There - the smiling faces of my family, a medal and bottle of cold water (not necessarily in that order).
And now time to analyze the race and learn from my mistakes. I run the first 5 km 28 min. and the next 5 24 min. I guess that it means that I could run faster from the very beginning even if it would mean that the last bit would be a bit slower.
During the next two weekends I'm running in two half marathons (in Warsaw and in Poznan) but I'm already planning to attempt a sub 50 min 10k race in 3 weeks from now in Gniezno :)
