The Club

It's been a few years since I lined up for this race, four to be exact. Normally, I wouldn't know that off the top of my head, more on that in a minute. I also wouldn't have guessed it's been that long, but after finding out, it doesn't surprise me either because I've had some gripes with this race. Enough time has passed, not even sure if I bitched about them here, so sorry, pretend Alzheimer has hit (just a matter of time anyway), here they come again. Never been a fan of the course, last time I was on it, ended up doing something to my foot and I'm convinced it was from so many uneven surfaces. It left me hobbling for a while. That didn't make me happy, but the reason I stopped running this race is because of The Club. It really is a cool perk and the only thing like it in the area, but some rule changes happened to ruin the fun of not only getting in The Club, but wanting to be in The Club. Not being able to take your spouse into The Club, somewhat defeats wanting to be in The Club. That change has always left a sour taste in my mouth.

Once in a while, I make friends. As runners do, you chit chat about various races and goals coming up. Well, this friend, we'll call 5-0 (That's five oh, not five zero, not fifty, not fiffy (if you're hip), five oh) tells me he has this dream of getting in The Club at this race. Now, I've had one pacing experience and it went horribly wrong, so much so that it actually still causes me anxiety. Sure glad I don't have to do that again, is playing out in my head. At the same time I'm thinking that, CT who happens to be standing by us, announces "Sure, he'll pace you 5-0"! In five words, that quick, I got signed up for another race, committed to pacing, all without any of my own input. Any doubt left that CT is trying to kill me? Sure hope the police take a long, hard, look at her when I go missing or die of unusual circumstances!

How did I find out it's been four years? After signing up, it wasn't too long after an email notice came that my results couldn't be found and they were denying my entry into The Club. On the website, they are fairly specific about entry into The Club being based on last year's results. I admit, I applied my own logic to this because I think it's unrealistic to NEED to run this race every year to remain in The Club, my feeling it should be based on your last time running it, so it's been a couple years. Based on my previous gripes, their response denying me entry, my buttons had been pushed and it resulted in a sassy email response back and a Twitter post about the experience. Unexpected results, suddenly it became a full on flame war on Twitter with somebody I had never heard of or had any interaction before. The whole time this war is going on, get an email response back giving me entry into The Club from the race people. Once they realized I had ran it four years ago, with the explanation of their system only went back three years, good to go. Honestly, expected to get no response from the race people, now to end this stupid Twitter war. Once the Troll found out they let me in The Club, things calmed down, but couldn't resist poking one last time stating how silly this whole thing was because it wasn't like I was going to enter The Club, then wave to 5-0 from inside The Club gloating with my perks or stroll up to the starting line with my special entry bib only to have the person I'm trying to pace catch up to me. The whole point of this whole fiasco was getting the "special" bib to motivate 5-0. 

Pacer, is much different than trainer. We were both in different training groups this year. So, I really couldn't keep close constant contact through this training season, beyond (ha pun) spying on posted runs. 5-0 put in the work. Times we did speak, he did seem to have some doubt. A few days prior, 5-0 even complained about getting sick, something about coughing up a lung, and playing it almost off as if there were a chance he might not even do this race. Hearing this, made me really wonder if 5-0 didn't find and hear about my last attempt at pacing somebody this was his secret exit strategy.

The day of, 5-0 seemed nervous. Joking about him spending extra to get the fancy race shirt, made me feel better. Who does that? I guess somebody who really wants to get in The Club, which I learned that *if* 5-0 got in the Club, next year he was already planning arriving at 5 am, and he was staying there all day, and in his own words they'd have to kick him out at midnight! Hearing that, only makes me want to see that, we are getting into The damn Club!

Lining up, it's a mad house anyway. Not sure if the "special" bib even would have helped this year. It felt a bit like I crammed and now it was test time. The night before, studied paces and had miles and times memorized. Whether 5-0 knew this or not, but didn't have much of a plan beyond knowing exactly what we needed to average to get in The Club and two mile markers where in my head we should be at with times. If we fell off pace, my only strategy was going to take a page from CT's book where she just dishes out insults and threats. Hopefully, it doesn't get to that point.

Couuuugh! Where'd that lung go? Goes the gun. Maybe a mooooo would a better description because it feels like a stampede. Early thoughts, the official pace group did well this year. 5-0 would have been fine with them. In years past, I kind of remember them being all over the board with pace, figures the year I get roped into this, they actually do a decent job. This run always seems to start around mile 10. The mob finally thins out and 95% of your thoughts aren't making sure either to not get kicked or do the kicking. We were slightly ahead of schedule and this point, but it's also the make or break section of the course with the hills coming. I made a joke about this is finally being like back home, which also were about the only words I said to 5-0 up until this point. He must have like the thought of the terrain being like our normal training hills, because our pace got a little faster.

Mile twelve, was my make it or break target. Goal, wanted to be around 1:32. 1:34, would mean needing to get faster and hopefully, there was something left in the tank. We came in about 1:31. I'm sure 5-0 had a bit of a clue, but this was my first time putting my game face on to play the pacer roll to finally tell him a time "We are a minute up, all we have to do is keep this pace and can even slow a bit if needed". Motivation, energy of being this close to the finish, 5-0 even got a bit faster. At fourteen, we were up a minute and a half ahead of pace. This is about the same time I notice that 5-0 wasn't quite running as easy as in the hill miles. This is where a better pacer should have probably not let a couple of those hill miles sneak that far under goal pace, but I also knew the goal was in the bag at this point. While I didn't want to test it, carrying, dragging, anything moving forward got us to the goal.

The end is in sight, banked a little buffer, The Club is getting a new member! Crossing the line, not sure who was happier, 5-0 earning that shirt he paid extra for, or me for not failing again as a pacer! This race has me for one more year, because I'm not going to miss out on the perks of The Club...especially when they kick 5-0 out at midnight!