At the last second I decide to enter the 6.7 mile Shore Run on Sunday in Seattle. It is a splendid weather, a scenic course, a good cause, and unlike at the Seattle track workout everyone seems friendly.
I had been feeling strong on my runs in Tokyo and went out ridiculously fast - 5:32 for the first mile. (Whatever a mile is. I didn't realize miles were still used to measure running events and miles no longer means anything to me.)
Anyway this pace is unsustainable - my second mile is 5:40, my third is 6 minutes and then we start climbing some hills, I am feeling terrible in so many ways, and 3 women pass me in succession. The third lady to pass me is a woman I had chatted with before the race who looks very much like the actress Sarah Jessica Parker and (naturally) I make an effort to keep up with her.
As we approach the finish line I start to feel a bit stronger again. I briefly consider kicking past "Sarah Jessica" but I think to myself that I already look bad enough and I will really look like a dick if I start sprinting to the finish. So I cruise across the line in a time of 41:38.
Fortunately I still manage to finish first in my age division and 9th overall out of 540 runners, and win various prizes. God bless America - the running events are much less competitive.
All the local Seattle people are carrying on about how incredibly hot they think it is (about 25 degrees), and I feel like saying this weather is nothing compared to China IM or Suzu or Obuse, etc. but I bite my tongue. Still it is hot enough that I jump in the adjacent Lake Washington after the race. I seem to be the only runner that feels compelled to enjoy a swim in the lovely lake (I need training for Kamakura Swim) and to take advantage of the lakeside showers for shampooing and bathing. Running in Japan has conditioned me for public bathing (and this is good practice in case I become a homeless person).
4 comments:
always enjoy your postings ;-)
culture shock in the other direction seems to be even harder...
Americans don't know what a "meter" is. Even 5k and 10k races have mile splits.
(Notice, we say "k," not "km."
Everybody knows their mile pace, so posting kilometer splits will just confuse them.
Once I ran part of a race with a woman and couldn't bring myself to sprint past her at the end. My wife thought I did the right thing. I think in the future I'd likely pass her though.
1. Thanks Christian - the culture shock of being in Seattle was pretty unsettling - it is good to be back in Asia.
2. It does seem a bit odd how American 5 and 10k races have mile splits. In this case it would seem appropriate to shorten the Shore Run to 10k (from 6.7 miles) but it is a point-to-point course connecting two nice parks.
3. Anthony shouldn't the progressive male try to race the female runners? I am wondering if in your case you had gone out to fast and the woman had overtaken you? That was another key factor for me in feeling foolish about sprinting.
And don't you feel even more sheepish to find yourself sprinting against a young child at the end of a race?
5 of the top 12 finishers at the Shore Run were female - Seattle seems to have fast woman..
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