Oracle 5K Day

I had trouble sleeping last night and had a bunch of oatmeal cookies for breakfast in preparation to suck wind at today's 5K.

Scott, Kottresh and I drove over to Oracle HQ in Redwood Shores to run the Oracle 5K Fun Run. We picked up our bibs and timing chips and headed to the lockers to change. After I suited up with iPod shuffle, Garmin, and Timex HR monitor, we strolled out to the start line.

I walked the first quarter mile of the course while finding the right combination of songs in my playlist to start the race. I jogged back and went to my locker in search of my sunglasses. I didn't find them but noticed I was already sweating. I drank some more water and went out for a little stretch.

I ran into Leiping from my 2nd Wind days. He said he wasn't running much but as I would find out later, it must be enough to stay in shape.

We lined up at the front of the pack and the race official casually announced "Runners on your mark, set, RUN!" and I guess that means "GO! MOVE IT! YOU SLUGS!!!". At least that's what I heard as I ran hot 6min/mile in 3rd until the turn-around point. For a short time I heard someone's footsteps behind me and then nothing until the turn-around.

Well, there they all are! As I evaluated taking some water, I saw a large pack of runners closing in on me so I decided to just keep going! One guy really flew past me and it was obvious he poured his cup of water over his head. I thought to myself "Damn! Why didn't I think of that?!" as it appeared he had a second wind. Another runner approached and I tried to remain calm... I resolved not to lose anymore ground and we went back and forth for the 4th position. As we rounded the turn back onto the Oracle campus, he took the lead and all I could do was focus on the back of his shirt and promise to keep pushing. Leiping was part of the trailing pack and for a while right behind me but after my fight for 4th, I had dropped all the other runners. With no one behind me I tried to relax and breathe and maintained my 6:40min/mile.

I was now very familiar with this quarter mile of the course so it went by quickly as I focused on visual indicators telling me the end was near. I pushed hard at the end and came in only 3 seconds after the 4th place finisher.

Leiping came in about 30+ seconds after me, and Kottresh and Scott finished in 27 and 29 minutes respectively.

When medals were handed out, we all got bumped up a position because apparently the guy in 1st worked for RoadRunner Sports and not an Oracle employee. I guess he was there to market their shoes at a booth near the pool but also ran (and left everyone else in the dust).

Scott and I recognized one of the guys playing beach volleyball near the pool and decided to join their game. It was funny because the attitude from these guys was like "Oh, now these runners want to play volleyball" and one guy even said 5 on the court would be too many so we negotiated to rotate in. The court was so nice we couldn't help but play well. I mean, no sand pit to climb out of when going up to the net, no trees to avoid, no grass to trip over... It was a great court and we had a blast!

I jumped out of the game to pick up my medals as the guy called the top 10 overall and followed it with top 3 in the age groups. He commented that I was that guy from the volleyball court multitasking.

After a few matches, we hit the showers and headed back to base. We were all starving but because the cafeterias were closed at HQ we decided to eat in Pleasanton once we beat the traffic rush.

Once we arrived at Togo's and climbed out of Scott's truck, I noticed my achille's was sore on my right foot and my shin hurt a bit on the left. I'll have to ice it and go easy tomorrow.

<<<<PICS TO BE ADDED LATER>>>>

Business: 5K Race. Volleyball. Sleep.
Mile  1: 6:29.96 (0:06:29.96), 173bpm
Mile  2: 6:44.09 (0:13:15.05), 185bpm
Mile  3: 6:41.77 (0:19:56.82), 188bpm
Mile 3.11: 0:42.50 (0:20:39.32), 176bpm

2min Recovery: 178bpm -> 129bpm
AvgHR:  175
PeakHR: 192
MinHR:   103
TotCal: 190

Gut-check
TJ oatmeal cookies, water. water, water, orange slices, apple, Togo's BBQ Beef sandwich on wheat, water... alot of water.

Run. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

=RUMBLE