I Try

Sometimes ya gotta balance the bad with the good and then focus on the good and forget about the bad. That’s my intent in the wake of this year’s Blick Art Materials Railroad Days Run/Walk. For the second straight year I opted to run the 10K. 

Let’s start with the bad: my time. I finished in 1:08:42 (68:42 if you prefer). That’s 12 minutes slower than my time last year. Neither is accurate, as the Railroad Days Run/Walk is not a chip-timed race. But given the consistency of event conditions, and my predilection for starting near the back of the pack, the times are apples to apples. This year’s apples are sour.

I chronicled last year’s run – my first 10K – and I revisited the column I wrote for the paper, as well as my blog, and I was at a serious disadvantage last year. While I had trained better, I stayed out late the night before, enjoying the festivities of the Railroad Days beer garden and Budde’s Pizza and Good Spirits. This year I was in bed by 12:30 after a relaxing evening watching a movie with daughter Molly.

Maybe it’s the extra weight I’m carrying. Maybe it’s my lax training this year (though I have been running and I finished my first half marathon just three weeks ago). Maybe it’s all in my attitude. Something to work on.

Moll started ahead of me. I passed her. Then she passed me.

The good? Running with my daughter. Even if it was only briefly, before we separated, her pace being much swifter than mine. Nothing beats running with my girls. First was Amanda, during last year’s RR Days Run. Then we did the Bix (full 7 for me, Quick Bix 2-mile for her), and the awesome Chicago Monster Dash last October with ALL THREE of my beautiful girls! Moll and I did the Swedish Stomp 5K this spring in Bishop Hill, and I wondered if she or Amanda would be up for the Railroad Days Run. Not wanting to seem pushy, I didn’t press the issue. I was pleasantly surprised when Moll returned from church camp Thursday and asked about the run Saturday.

I think she doesn’t really like running, but she’s run cross country and track in junior high and is considering cross country in her upcoming freshman year. Like most teens, it’s a friend thing. Not really peer pressure, but a desire to be among friends and share in activities together. At least that’s how I see it.

Another bad: Sometimes I suck as a parent. I mean, I try, but too often my head isn’t in the game. My kids assure me I’m a great dad, and I’ll cling to that. I have a text from Moll from a few months back in which she declared, “You are seriously the coolest dad ever.” No longer recall what I did to earn that, but I’m thinking of having it tattooed across my back.

So, being the good parent I try to be – or something like that – I double and triple checked with Moll to ensure she had her rescue inhaler with her, just in case. Then I proceeded to lock it in the car, not grasping that fact until we were a few hundred yards into the run and she had pulled ahead of me and out of sight. Shit! The point was driven home after I finished and she told me how she realized too late herself (after she finished) that the car was locked with her personal accoutrements were inside. She also told me how the stud in the Bradley University T-shirt cleared the path for her to get some refreshing water after the run when others crowded around the ice chest and paid no heed to the miserable girl behind them.

Moll stretches before the race.

It takes a village…

Well, my girl survived, and was there to cheer me on at the finish. I saved enough (not hard at my lackadaisical 11-minute pace) to turn on the afterburners for the last hundred yards or so. In fact, I was cookin’ so hot my cellphone popped out of its shabby sheath onto the pavement. It, too, survived. But I am past due for an upgrade. Time to enter the smartphone age.

Allow me to finish with this. Since I started running three years ago, kicking it all off with the Couch to 5K plan, I’ve run several 5Ks, a couple official and several personal 10Ks and my first half marathon. I’ve also come nearly full circle in terms of weight. That’s only a small part of this grand equation, but it bears noting. For me anyway. And through it all, I’ve grown to enjoy running. Yeah, my knees hurt. Fuck, do they hurt. But running is an amazing release. So I rest when necessary and get back to it. When I started I had no intention of running a 5K. I just followed the program because it was a logical way to go about it. Then I realized I could do it and I decided to do it.

That took the logical (I suppose) step to 10K. I’d run that distance in my weekly efforts, so why not step it up at race time? Actually I did the Bix 7 before I did a 10K race, which sounds like nonsense, but I think you get me. After I labored through my first half marathon, I was asked (logically, I suppose) if I would work toward a marathon. Bugger off. I made a tasteless joke about marathoners ending up dead (this was post-Boston Marathon) and avowed to never aspire to such accomplishment.

And yet, here I am at this juncture contemplating that very notion. Maybe not too seriously, but maybe I’ll ask a couple running friends about it. Of course, the running friends I have who know of such things are absolutely nuts – the type of folks who run not only marathons, but ultra-marathons. They could run to the moon and back if the stars would provide a path.

Somebody stop me.

Today's Stats

Temp: 82 degrees F (75 degrees an hour earlier)

Distance: 6.2 miles

Weekly Total: 9.4 miles

Treasure: Nada. Passed a blue ball at the end of a driveway and a tiny troll doll in the street.

Race Stats

Time: 1:08:42 (not chipped)

5-Mile: 55:32

Place: 44 out of 50 overall

Weight: 208 lbs.

Moll

Time: 29:33

Place: 75 out of 152

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen (Nice thought to start the race)

The Fuse – Bruce Springsteen

I Can’t Let You Go – Matchbox Twenty

Yellow Submarine – The Beatles

Hung Up On You – Fountains of Wayne

Trip Through Your Wires – U2

And I Love Her – The Beatles

Hearts – Yes

Falling In – Lifehouse

Emotions in Motion – Billy Squier

Need You Now – Lady Antebellum

Someday – Rob Thomas

Hello World – Lady Antebellum

Hand Me Down – Matchbox Twenty

The Entertainer – Billy Joel

I Try – Macy Gray