Biggest Loser 5k

Ahhh the joys of running, doing things stupidly and hopefully learning from one's mistakes. Saturday morning I had my Biggest Loser 5k, something I had been looking forward to for more than a month now for several reasons. The first being the fact I haven't run a 5k race since November and in that time I have gotten vastly faster. And secondly as I would get to meet several of the contestants from the Biggest Loser, people I could relate to and wanted to talk to.

I have to admit the last several months of running since my half haven't gone very well at times and it has taken a lot to just keep plugging at times. I spent a week recovering from the horrible muscle spasms I suffered from that half and the moment I got better enough to do more than a slow miserable recovery run I got the flu which knocked me out for another week. Then another week recovery from the flu and then once I got better of course spring reared it's ugly head and my allergies set in with a force. But despite that I slowly increased my miles and actually have run seven straight weeks of 30+ miles.


But with training not going as good as I hoped and needing a shot in the arm mentally, I planned my last tempo and speed work for my race on Wednesday thinking I had a full two days to recover before my race. Many other runners called me out for this stupidity as I ran a 23:49 5k that day and followed it up by getting my full 5 miles in with another record pace of 41:31. The 5miler also resulted in a pretty good fall and tumble. Tired and about a half mile from my house my foot caught on a rock on the edge of the sidewalk as I was running past some of that rock landscaping. After several steps of trying to catch my balance you know your going down and there is nothing you can do about it. At that point it just trying to fall on the sidewalk rather than the darn rock landscaping. That wasn't to be my luck as I went down on the rocks instead. Bruised up and battered I got up and ran the last half mile home and a nice truck did stop to help and even offered me some water. So even with a minute lying on the ground stunned I still managed my best 5miler ever.

Ok on to race day details. I woke up about 10 minutes before my alarm went off at 6:50 am. Nervous like I always am before a race I only managed a banana and a handful of peanuts before heading out to get there before they closed the parking lot and to be eligible for early bird prizes. It was very cold I think around 28 degrees and I did not dress well for it only wearing a short sleeve tech t-shirt and shorts. Around 8:30 I went out and did a mile warm up run at an easy pace of around 11mm. And my hands were numb after just that one mile run.

Not to fazed about it I lined up at the front with a guy running about a 7mm pace and we kidded and had fun pre-race. Went out and everything went great first mile except I forgot to start my watch (so I had no idea how I finished tell Saturday night more on that later). After the first mile or so it was all uphill and not nice hills either. The gradual %2-4 grades that just wear on you after awhile. There is no mile markers so there is no clue how far you have gone at this point I said screw it lets just throw it to the wind and run what feels comfortable.


Around mile 2 somewhere who knows it was on the 2nd parking lot loop I am really starting to hurt and I decide to take a walk break but the guy next to me is like come on and encourages me and after walking for 3 steps I say screw it and pick back up running. I am cold and wet and miserable by this time but I go to the pain cave thinking I might still be in the range for a pr not knowing how long I have been on the course.

I finish and walk back up the stairs to get some refreshments and as I am getting my refreshments I notice they are calling out names and times and its been a minute or two since I finished and they are calling out high 26's and 27's. Now I know no pr there is no way I am likely somewhere in the 26 minute range and am totally depressed.

So I sit depressed and start to watch the runners finish. All the biggest loser contestants came in after me but I think they started at the back. But eventually watching all these first timers finish gives me a boost and I start cheering them on. It was so much fun to watch these runners finish something I barely found a love for just last August that it gave me the boost I needed. I sat there cheering in the rain and the cold and shivering with my teeth chattering for nearly 25 minutes tell I couldn't take it anymore as I was so freezing. I walked back to my car to get my phone to take some pictures.


And then I waited in each of the constants lines to talk to them and I showed them my before pic I had loaded on my camera pre-race. I waited in all 6 lines to get a pic with all of them and to get them to sign my bib. And since I waited in all the lines everyone else was clearing out because it was so cold and I got to actually talk with them quite a bit. Me and Ada a runner from season 10 I think who is doing marathons talked for a good 20 minutes and so did me and Daris another runner from season 9. It was so much fun to talk to them.

Still feeling depressed about my time I had to wait all day to find out my official time. Saturday night the results are finally posted and while the results are what I expected miserable I get a shocking surprise to see where I placed. My time was 26:37 but I was 22nd out of 572 runners. That was the huge boost I needed, it meant I wasn't the only one to struggled in the rain and the freezing cold and it was the first race I had ever run as a front runner one of the faster people. No awards but still wonderful to place 22nd.


I tell you what despite how miserable the race was and how cold it was and how I didn't even come close to my personal best time it was one of my favorite races I have ever done. to cheer on all those first timers and get to talk to former biggest loser contestants who are runners was amazing.