Dragons

As I sat down to write this up, I pulled up all necessary links -- including the official race results -- on my computer. It was in the official team results that I found out I had been placed on Team Grinders (as their #1 finisher, might I add) in the official race results. It was really the perfect ending to such a race.

Having not ran a race since my total meltown at the Spring Cross Country Classic, I felt surprisingly calm as I rode my bike to Reid Park yesterday morning. Unfortunately, the iBlax was again acting up so I could only access my Wesley Willis collection. Listening to Willis hits, "Taste a Panda's Ass", "Rock'n'Roll McDonalds", and "Fuck you" I began visualizing my race. Once to the course, I met up with Omni, Mike, Lucas, and Petie. It was here that I learned a few interesting points.

1. The Workout Group team (with whom we had teammed up with last year to win the Turkey Trot over Legends TC) had chosen the name WOGDragonSlayers. Obviously, a message was being sent. Later in the morning, WOG Mike would verbalize that message to me in a statement that sounded very much like, "You are an asshole."

1a. WOGDragonSlayers had recruited Olympian Abdi Abdirahman to ringer their squad. Given that race results would be based on accumulated time (as opposed to points), we were looking pretty foolish for not pushing harder to recruit one Bernard Lagat (or even a Robert Cheseret) for this race.

2. In response to WOG's addition, Dragons added Omni's older brother, Kyle Colavito, to the Dragons roster.

3. Abdirahman would not be showing for the race.

It was during warmups that I made my biggest mistake of the day -- changing my race strategy. I decided that a conservative start would be best in what looked like a deep field. You see, the first half-mile or so offers little open passing area and I thought it was best for me to not get caught up in the wave of high schoolers that would be going out in 5:10 before settling in to their 7:25 race pace. I was honestly fearful that I might end up over 19-minutes for this race if I went out too hard and failed to hold on.

I figured my best bet would be to go out and just try to keep WOG's #4 guy in sight. After the first half mile of the race, I could see that I was sitting in around 65th place but was not far behind WOG 4-man Randy Acceta. I just hoped our front three were pushing to give me a decent cushion. I spent the remainder of the first mile picking off wheezing high schoolers and underperforming guys from Mexico. Petie and I came through 1 mile in 5:40.

By the end of the first lap, I knew that I was damned if I did and I was damned if I didn't. I was stuck in a pace and, worse than that, I was alone. Petie was already making a respectable team move by at least going after Acceta. I just floated along as a couple dudes passed me somewhere around the 2 mile mark. I could not answer.

As I crossed the water again, I could hear everyone cheering for the winners coming through and I hoped that too much wouldn't be resting on my shoulders. I ended up finishing with Petie and worried that my 18:43 (over ten seconds slower than last year's race) would be Dragons' nail in the coffin.

After catching my breath I headed over to the scorers area and found my old teammate Manny Thomas. Understanding my worry, Manny told me that he'd let me know as soon as the team results were figured. I walked back towards the finish where I was blindsided by Kyle Colavito who told me that he had finished ahead of me by some 2 places, thus making my time irrelevant in team judging. Boy was I relieved to find out that if we lost it would all be Kyle's fault!

Just kidding, I was still pretty disappointed with my race but no one wants to see you sulking around or making excuses or being a little bitch after any race. You ran, you got a place and a time -- now it was time to chill, so I did and it was nice.

Manny then came over and told me that, even without Kyle's time being yet figured in, we had taken the team championship. It made me feel all warm inside. I am currently holding on to the gift-card we won (as I am, apparently, Dragons' player-manager) and look forward to chowing down with my teammates.


Dragon Mike Salkowski's Race Recap -- Official Results (Men) (Team) -- Omni's Race Report -- Another Race Recap -- Last Year's Race Recap