Setting the bar low

So I ran my first race on Saturday, a 5-kilometer jaunt through the heart of Wausau.

I really didn't want to run this race. I had all sorts of excuses. I haven't been running enough lately. The runs I have been doing have been agonizing slow. I'm not in shape to waste $20 on an activity that will end in embarrassment, pain and low self-esteem. I always figure I can do all that for free.

But this race had a lot going for it. It was sponsored by Wausau's Bull Falls Brewery so I knew there would be beer at the end of it. I told myself that this would be basically a ramped up workout. There would be beer. My boss was walking, and I knew some of the others who would be there, so it would be a social thing. There would be beer. I could run it slow, and use it as a measuring stick for the rest of the season. And, there would be beer.

The money raised from the run also went to a good cause, a program called Never Forgotten Honor Flight. Honor Flight flies World War II veterans from the Wausau area, free of charge, to the World War II memorial in Washington D.C. And, there would be beer.

About running it slow. It's been more than a year since I participated in anything competitive. So I really had no idea where I was, fitness wise. A person needs to be pushed to see where his limits are, and I hadn't been pushed in any meaningful running way since ... well, I couldn't remember. But I do have a benchmark for this year. I'm thinking I may particularly want to focus on 5-kilometer races in order to make my (slightly insane) goal of running as fast as I did in high school. My idea was that this race would be the starting point. If I ran it slow, I figured, I would at least be able to see some improvement in my performances through the summer, even if I never get close to those high school times. It's my typical goal-setting strategy. Set the bar low.

About the beer. I am not a heavy drinker, although I on occasions enjoy beer, red wine, gin and tonics or expensive scotch. I've found the most satisfying time to indulge is shortly after exerting myself physically. The tiredness from a run or a bike mixes pleasantly with the effects of the alcohol. When I am in this state, one beer brings forth an incredibly deep feeling of relaxation and contentment, while setting off a very pleasant fizzy feeling in my head. I'm not drunk. It's much, much better. So I love, love, love runs which end with beer. And I must say, the beer at Bull Falls Brewery is particularly good.

So I started the run at what I felt to be a very casual, conversational pace. The great pack, at least 250 runners, were strung out in front of me. When I passed the mile mark painted on the street, I told myself, "Don't look at the watch, don't look at the watch."

I looked at the watch: 9 minutes. Ooo, I thought, that's a bit too fast. I didn't feel that fast. (Fast, of course, is relative. 9 minutes per mile is slow, of course. But I was aiming for 10 minutes per mile. So it was fast.) I told myself, hey, slow it down a bit. So I relaxed, and seemed to cut back on the throttle by a little.

Mile Two: "Don't look at the watch, don't look at the watch." Of course, I looked at the watch. It was almost 18 minutes on the head. Wow, I thought. That's kind of interesting. By this time I was feeling the effects of the pace, and my breathing was kind of hard. With about a half mile to go, I felt that old "my stomach is trying to crawl into my throat" feeling. But I kept going.

Mile Three: 27 minutes, almost on the button. I cruised the last tenth of mile to the finish line and looked at the watch. 27:48.

Now that's a long, long, long way off my goal of 21. And it's a good 10 minutes behind the winner. But when you run 3 minutes faster than what you expect, you feel pretty good.

It all made the Bull Falls bock taste better, and I stood there with some friends and enjoyed the fizzy feeling in my head.

Now, of course, I'll have to beat that time next time.