You must do the things you think you cannot do.
~
Eleanor Roosevelt

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Forest of Needwood 5 Miler

Yesterday afternoon was the 29th Annual Forest of Needwood 5 Miler. Last year at this race I met Hank's cross country/track coach, Coach Z. Getting to know Coach Z and his wife, Coach Anne, has been a lot of fun.

They have been running since, well forever, and they share a wealth of running/fitness wisdom as well as  some great stories. Like how they didn't train for the JFK 50 the first time they ran it. They figured they'd just go out and see what they could do...they finished. And then Coach Z turned around a couple of weeks later and ran his best marathon ever at Baltimore. Crazy!

I asked Coach why the race is called the Forest of Needwood since to my knowledge there is no forest nearby. Turns out the second Governor of Maryland, Thomas Lee, lived at the estate on Lees Lane which is part of the course, and he called it the Forest of Needwood. So there you have it!

The race goes right by my house so volunteering for it was a no brainer. We were going to help with registration and packet pick up but that was well covered so walked back to the house and stayed there until around 12:30. I wanted to chat with my friends beforehand since I wouldn't get to run with them.

I love the excitement before a race; even I was feeling a little nervous. It's not an easy course with lots of rolling hills and very few flat stretches. It's also a really small race so you don't have crowd support - or even the support of fellow runners next to you since the field stretches out - to keep you going.

Coach stationed us at the first corner. The course is a lollipop and at our spot we saw the runners at the very beginning and again at the end.

My fellow course marshall


I think with smaller races it's hard not to go out too fast. This race attracts some speedy runners and even being at the very back of the pack you can find yourself running much faster than intended - which is what I did last year.

My friends K & L looking good!

L's husband, who is crazy fast, was all set to run until he woke up that morning with a fever and wicked cough. Very dissappointing and I felt his pain. It's hard to watch a group of runners go by and not be able to join them. He brought his kids along to help Hank and I with our very important job of cheering and directing.

The winner, the very fast and locally (maybe nationally??) famous Karsten Brown. He makes speedy look very effortless and easy. To have even a molecule of that ability would be wonderful!

I let Hank take pictures again. You may remember the last time I let him have the camera we ended up with a lot of butt snaps. This time he took tons of pictures of the backs of peoples heads. Very strange.

L ran a 46 and change and K ran a 48 and change. Very good times for this course! And L won second in her age group. Woot!

He took this picture which I thought looked pretty cool

It was fun to see my friends.
It was fun to help out with another race.
It was fun to hang out with Hank and see him enjoy the excitment of running.
It was not fun to end the afternoon rolling my painful ITB

I have to keep reminding myself that it's just a season. I've talked to many runners who have had ITBS in the past and are successfully running now. Some were out just a couple of weeks and some were out for months. But they all were able to recover and return to running. And so will I.

2 comments:

misszippy said...

Karsten is from my neck of the woods! He's an amazing runner. Good for you for volunteering..and look at the history lesson you got!

Molly said...

looks like a great day, hang in there chickie!

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