Category: Running

After my 10K race this morning I regretted not having used my Bodyglide.

Bodyglide is a product you use when participating in endurance sports that helps prevent chafing. Anywhere that you have skin rubbing against skin is a good place to use it. For me, and for many men, the common rubbing spot are those two little buttons we all have on our chest. Women wear sports bras to protect themselves. While you can use different products to prevent rubbing your nipples raw, I prefer Bodyglide.

If the chafed area is not too bad, you often don’t know about it until you jump into a warm shower.

I jumped into a warm shower.

Ouch.

I used to use Vaseline since it was cheap and easily available. One thing I found though is that on the tech material that many running shirts are made out of, the Vaseline causes the shirt to not soak up water. And Vasaline never washes out. Therefore, when I sweat using one of those shirts with the Vaseline spots on the nipples, I have a sweat soaked shirt with two lighter colored dots where my nipples are. Something that I would rather not highlight.

Then with two very sensitive spots on my chest, I had to go to church and preach. In a hearing church this would be less painful. I could have stood like a robot and spoke, but in a Deaf church I have to move my arms the whole time which moves the shirt over my … well, you get the idea.

This is a 10K race that I ran last year and was looking to set a course PR if not a 10K PR. My course record is 1:00:00 exactly. My 10K PR is 57:48.

I was considering not running the race last night, but then I Twittered that I was going to run this morning, so I felt obligated to do so. I did not sleep well last night and did not hear my alarm this morning. Fortunately my wife heard it and threw a shoe at me.

When I got to the race start about 30 minutes before the gun. There were only 100 people registered. But there were well over 200 who ran the race in the end. The registration tables stayed hopping the whole time.

The kilometer markers were not very accurate. According to the times on my watch I ran one kilometer at 4:19 and another at 7:01. I may not be able to stay exactly on pace, but I know it was not that bad.

I ran the first half in 27:28. That meant I was on track for a 10K PR, but I did not know it at the time. Though I looked up what my 10K PR was last night, I did not remember the number when I went to run this morning. However, I did know I was on track for a course PR.

This was an out and back loop. I ran by my house (within 1/2 a block) 2.5 kilometers into the race. Then again at 7.5. My wife and daughter came out to cheer me on when I was on my way back down the course. Our daughter came out in her Sunday dress wearing my neon yellow swim goggles. Quite a sight.

At 9 kilometers I latched on to 2 other runners who were going just a bit faster than me. I hung on with one while we dropped the other. Speeding up the whole time. I was not able to hold on into the final kick, but I finished far better than I would have on my own.

Final time was 54:11. A new 10K PR! I ran a negative split with the second half being 26:43 (first half was 27:28). I had a pace of 8:44 per mile.

I think this was the first time my bib number was a palindrome.

Today I ran a 6K race put on by KFC. The $2.50 entrance fee went to sponsor children with cancer.

It was a point to point race. From one KFC to another. My house is conveniently situated between the two. I thought about walking/running to the starting line, but found that the busses were running at 6:00 in the morning and happily paid the 50 cents to take a short ride.

There were a bit over 200 people there (just a guess). From what I could ascertain, there were 70 people in my age group. I placed 37 out of the group with a time of 33:14. The distance was 6.2K.

After walking around for about 20 minutes, I started my run home. Where the race was run at 8:37 per minute, my run home was 11:34 per minute. It was less than 1.5 miles.