Komen Run: the old man does 5K under 25 minutes

For the 2nd year in a row, we did the Susan Komen Race for the Cure, a 5K run or walk or Josh at Komensleep-in (depending on your disposition). My son and I ran, raised money and had a generally good though hectic time (he needed to be back at the high school for a band contest very soon after the race was over).

img00056.jpgThe race was once again in downtown Houston. Several buildings still had plywood or plastic sheets covering the windows. But it was a blue sky day, low temps for Houston, excellent running conditions. The release of the birds for those that had lost their fight with the cancer was right before the race, a moving piece to contemplate why we were there. It made my son and I both think about the conditions, so soon after Hurricane Ike.

My brother (Mr. “Boston Marathoner”) had been ed-u-ma-cating me on interval training and also on the mental aspects of running. He noticed from my times that I was running the first half faster than the second, and suggested that I start slow and finish strong. This helped in my training, so I employed it in the Komen run, with the help of my trusty nike+iPod gadget (which I cannot recommend enough as a training aide).

I put together a mix of songs that would (in theory) start me out at a normal (read: non-aggressive in typical Larry fashion) pace and would pick up halfway through.

The mix:
Feel Good Time by Pink: nice and slow, so I would not overrun myself.
Time Stand Still by Rush; building up, but still slow enough. Great lyrics, I was singing and running.
Papercut by Linkin Park; a song from my son, got my pumped for the rest of the race.
Jailhouse Rock by ZZ Top (live!); excellent beat, got me moving faster.
Beat It (Fallout Boy with Jon Meyer); made me smile, since this is another track I got from my son but he didn’t know it was a Michael Jackson remix. That almost turned him from the song, but it’s an excellent running song.
3’s and 7’s (Queens of the Stone Age); from a Lance Armstrong interval training mix, the beat moves your feat on the faster intervals.
Kickstart My Heart (Motley Crue live); it is hard not to sprint when this one comes on. As with last year, the end of the race goes under an overpass on Allen Parkway, so you are coming up a hill at the end of the race (after training in flat Houston!). This song pushed me through the hill.
Cult of Personality (Living Color); got me over the finish line.

Depending on my iPod or the Komen race clock, I was either just over 25 or just under. Close enough for my goals, I had been finishing my training runs around 25:30. My son, who stayed out the night before playing in the band at the football game, did well too.

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1 Response

  1. Sara says:

    Congrats on the time… next year are you going to do better?

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