Mission Accomplished

A great morning!...and I’m feeling pretty good after completing the Fleet Feet 4 mile run/walk at Bidwell Park in Chico.

I made a few mistakes this morning and those got me off to a bad start. First, I left the house later than I should have and the road construction on Highway 32 put me a little bit behind. Then, when I got off of the freeway near the park, I made right when I should have gone left. Now I was on the wrong side of the park and the road I was on ended in a dead-end. OK, so I parked the car and headed into the park and then I realized that I was a long way from the starting line. Without a watch, I wasn’t sure of how much time I had left so I decided to jog my way up to the Cedar Grove picnic area, where the registration packets would be located.

Jogging? What was I thinking? As it turned out, I had plenty of time left when I arrived and I soon had my number in place and began pacing around the area to stay flexible after that short 1 mile jog. I was also worried that I might have used up some reserves of energy. Energy I would need around mile 3.5.

The race started on time and I was soon near the back of the pack, as all good walkers are, though I did hear one person (behind me) remark, “If he can walk faster than I can run…maybe I should give up.” That was good for my ego. And as I neared the trail section of the course, a volunteer told me that I was the first walker he had seen so far.

I had seen a couple of Jeff Galloway devotees ahead of me and I passed the first one within 2 miles. The second one was tougher! She stayed about 100 yards ahead and then when we got to the trail section, she pulled even further ahead…darn! But with perseverance I was able to get close to her around the 3 mile mark. She was about 100 feet away, then 50 and then…she saw me closing in on her and took off. I was never able to get that close again and she finished about 100 yards ahead of me. The appearance of a fast walker will always motivate a slow runner!

I was pretty sure that I was on target for a good overall time in this event and when I finally saw the finish line I could just make out the first number on the clock, a “4”. That was good…I was still in the hunt for a sub-12 minute mile average. But then I saw that the number after the 4 was an “8” and counting up…oh no! I poured it on. Feet, don’t fail me now! And I crossed the line at 48:37. And I was the only racewalker. Would I have done better if I had some competition? I'm sure of it.

All in all, a good experience and it added to my endurance. And I ended up with a medal for being second in my age group; 65-69 years old.

(I also spoke to the runner that walked with me in Durham. He has recovered from his injuries and is back to running. He wasn’t in this morning’s race as he had already done 14 miles earlier this morning and was just jogging through to see someone he knew.)

I will post the official times here as soon as I receive them.