300 Oaks Race Report

Friday did not provide me with much to write about, but Saturday did. Saturday was the 42nd running of the 300 Oaks Road Race, an annual event I used to look forward to. Now it marks my slow decline into advanced age. Hey, at least I am still out there.

Forrest began his comeback by showing up 
racing the fat lady.

I woke up at 6:00 after a frightful night of cat fights and poor sleep. CC was on a mission to stop River from even entering the room. He had slept on me the night before. In her place. There was no violence then, but she made up for it all and then some Friday night. She took her spot early and descended from her perch three times to fight River. Things got pretty bouncy.

 

My MDCC compatriot, Siram Nillani.

I ate my breakfast at 6:00 and then lounged a bit waiting on my food to digest and my bowels to move. I know, TMI. At 7:25, I started my walk over to the start at the boat ramp on East Claiborne. Once there, I began to look for Forrest. He arrived at the last minute without his race bib. I saw Katie, Cindy Saia, Vicki, and a few other people. We took some selfies and then the race started.

The three Grenada amigos plus one.

I really had no plan but to finish and try to have fun. Once we started, however, it became a race. Vicki was a little ways ahead of me and Forrest, whom I thought I would run with, was way out in front of me. Eventually, I caught Vicki and we ran together from there. If anything, she is steady. After about three fourths of a mile, we caught Forrest. He said he was running eight minutes and walking two, so we kept going. 

O'Ryan Patterson, the cycle legend, chef, and 
budding runner.

After a little over a mile, we saw a fat lady up ahead. When I pointed her out to Vicki, she responded, "We have to beat her." So we did a slow stalk, making up distance a little at a time, and we passed her at the two-mile aid station where she stopped to take fluids.

After that, I just focused on trying to maintain pace. I We did a pretty good job at that. In the past, I always started falling off at four miles. The legs wanted to this time also, but we held on. According to my Garmin, the splits went like this:

  mile one - 11:00

  mile two - 10:38

  mile three - 10:31

  mile four - 10:35

  mile five - 10:59

  mile six - 10:37

  last bit - 8:47

If you had told me ten years ago that I would feel good about those paces, I would have been suicidal. But I am proud that I ran hard and did not give in late in the race. You can see how I did slow in mile five. But look at mile six. I fought back and passed a guy I thought might have been in my group. Then I finished strong and felt good about my effort when it was all over.

I last ran this race in 2020. I was three minutes faster then. What about next year? What about it? Lord willing, I will be there. Slower? I don't know. I only know I plan to toe the line, and see what I can do. Thank you, Jesus, for what I can do.