This past Saturday was a new race this year to Denver called the Undy 5000 5K to help fund colon rectal cancer research. The hook is that you get a pair of boxer shorts instead of a tee shirt, and there were probably 25% of the people “dressed up” in some form of underwear attire. Most were pretty tasteful, and at least the ones that were a bit risque, they had the bodies to pull it off.
I was hoping to do around an 8:00 mile pace for this run, and I ended up doing a 8:16 pace. I didn’t really prepare myself properly for this race, and it didn’t even start until 9:00 am which by then was already 75 degrees. Usually for a short race like this, I warm up with an easy 1 mile jog, and then I do some strides to get the heart rate going. But it was already getting hot so I decided not to do anything, which wasn’t too smart.
The first mile I started out and did a mile in 7:37 which really killed me right there. Between the first and second mile, I wore out and did it in 8:34. I even stopped at the water station and walked a bit. The third mile I did in 8:22, and the last tenth of a mile I smoked it at a 7:15 pace! Wahoo.
I was diagnosed with MS about 6 years ago and I am one of the lucky ones. I don't have too many problems associated with it, and the disease has actually slowed down. I took up running 4 years ago just to see if I could do it. So far I've run 4 marathons in 2 years and 12 half marathons.
July 7th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Love the name of that race! So did they get Hanes to sponsor them?
Maybe you can suggest that they start the road race sometime between 7-8 am for next year’s participants - That way, you won’t all be melting into the pavement by 9 am.
Sounds like you’ve very adequately analyzed your race performance, & know exactly what you need to do for next time. So, the only thing I’ll add to it is that I hope you had a good time racing & raised lots of money for charity/research!
July 7th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Hello,
I find your story inspirational. Running with MS! I was wondering if there was ever a discussion between the relation of you running and your MS slowing down?
I hope many many people read your story!
Regards,
RJ
July 10th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Hi Corey,
Hanes would have been a good sponsor, but I’m just glad that Speedo wasn’t!
July 10th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Hi RJ,
If there is a study or discussion, I’m not aware of it. Thanks for visiting.