Saturday, September 11, 2010

It's Never Enough, Numbers Lie

Finish Line

My second 5K is in the books. I improved, yet I didn't. How's that for a politician's response? By the numbers, I didn't improve my time and after all that's how races are judged. I felt faster, my body felt better, yet according to the records I was slower than my first race. What the numbers don't tell is this course was actually measured correctly and it was a true 5K unlike my prior race.

All I can do is guess at what my first race should have been and by my estimation, I improved by about a minute and a half. I'm pretty proud of that. It might not be possible, but I did finish in the top 5 of my age group, now I have a taste for earning a medal. The season is coming to an end, but next season's lofty goal is placing in a race 5K and completing a 10K. Hey, if you are going to dream, dream big! (Running a 10K is going to be much easier than placing in a 5K)

Lets be honest, even if I get 3rd place next year, it won't be enough. I enjoy having a goal and getting it, but the real fun is trying to accomplish it. The same can be said for learning something new, which I always like to do. I did just that racing today which only causes me to shake my head. Granted, this is only my second official race, so my opinion means less than a handful of beans, but the fastest person from the start line to the finish line should win. When racing, there are two times, the gun time and the chip time. The gun time is when the race starts and when you cross the finish line. The chip time is when your shoe (because the chip is attached to it) crosses the start line and then when your shoe crosses the finish line.

What's the difference? Well, in a perfect world there wouldn't be any difference, but the reality is a few hundred people racing all can't start at the same starting line. For an example, in this race, it took me twelve seconds to reach the starting line after the "gun" was fired. Now, logical me would say awards would obviously be based on chip time because that's the true time. My lesson, per the fancy race organization, awards are always given based on gun time. It would be kind of strange to break the tape at the finish line, yet not win the race. But even with that mental image, to me, the fastest person is from point A to point B. If one person starts before the other person, should they really win? I did some looking and this exact situation has happened before in large marathons. A person who started back in the pack actually ran faster than the "winner". I now have a better sense to why people crowd the starting line now.

Just as my first race numbers don't tell the full truth, every race is now somewhat flawed to me. One person did finish ahead of me, only because they started much closer to the starting line than I did. I ran faster, even had to pass and deal with getting around more people, yet in the final results he finished ahead of me. So, even numbers lie sometimes. Oh, and for the record, when I place next year, you won't see my gun time being close to my chip time, signifying I pushed my way to the front to get an advantage!