Ohio River Greenway 5K - New Albany, IN - 09/24/11

One of the first things I do when I wake up on race day is check the weather.  Ideally, when I look at the Doppler radar on the Weather Channel's website, I would like to see my section of the country free of clouds, free of precipitation, and with it being autumn, a crisp, cool temperature.

The temperature I got.  And that was all.  The morning's weather map revealed a long, ugly band of rain that looked like it would stick around all day.

Dutifully though, I made the trek to New Albany for the Ohio River Greenway 5K.  The Ohio River Greenway is an ongoing project that would eventually have a paved running/biking trail along the river going from New Albany to Jeffersonville.  A worthy objective.   The project is progressing in bits and pieces due to red tape, different landowners, etc.  But the section they have completed, which passes by the beautiful New Albany Amphitheater, looks incredible.  It would be the course we were running today.

This event had an unconventional award structure; the first ten males and first ten females get a prize.  There are no age group awards.  As is my wont, I scope out my competition before the race to see if I have a chance of taking something home other than my bib number.  To me, it didn't look good. I kept seeing guys who look like real runners as opposed to wannabe runners such as myself.

One of my fellow runners looked shockingly like pioneering punk rocker Iggy Pop.  Same face, same hair, and, most importantly in terms of running ability, same physique.  He was even running shirtless.  Iggy Pop was, and still is, ripped:

As we made our way to the starting line, I noticed that the rain was holding off.  The track was still wet, but if it held off for another 25 minutes or so, we'll be okay.  The first part of the route would take us underneath the now-dormant Sherman Minton Bridge, which was recently closed under Governor's orders.  This development turned Louisville's already congested traffic problem into a flat-out calamity.  During the festivities before the race, the race director jokingly thanked New Albany's Mayor for closing the bridge on our behalf. Ho ho ho.

 

We were now finally ready to start.  I found myself near the front of the pack before the whistle sounded, and I cued up my running mix on the iPhone.  Normally I wouldn't listen to Coldplay while running.  Nor would I while doing anything else, for that matter.  My mom likes Coldplay.  That should tell you all you need to know.  However, this excellent unofficial remix of "Speed of Sound" by Karl G. is a notable exception.  It rocks, and Coldplay should consider Karl G. working with them on other tracks.

 

The whistle blew, and we were off!  Taking the lead was a young guy, followed by Iggy Pop, then me.  The pace was sensible, and I was feeling good after the first turnaround.  I felt like I could take the lead at any time, but I was content to track them.  Passing back by the amphitheater however, a couple of other runners passed me and had their sights set on the lead.  The cream was starting to rise to the top.

We were running upstream the river, where we would turn around one more time on the Greenway and finish back by the amphitheater.  Another runner passed me, then another and another still.  One of them was a young kid who was about as half as tall as me.  I later learned he was a fifth grader.  I felt embarrassed at the time that this little kid was kicking the crap out of me in a speed duel, but man, he could fly.  He ended up finishing third overall, so most everyone else in the field had to bow down as well.

We finally made it to the second turnaround, which would be just over two miles in.  I was laboring; maybe it was the rain, but I wasn't feeling as fresh as I normally would at this point.  Even worse, I was beginning to agonize over possibly not winning a prize, which go to the top ten men and women.  I kept counting the number of runners in front of me, and my prize cushion was getting thinner and thinner.  At the turnaround, I was in ninth, but then two runners passed me on the way back to the finish.  Blah.  I would finish eleventh, a good distance over the twelth place runner, but still prizeless...

But as I crossed the line in 23:51, one of the racing staff handed me an Ohio River Greenway cup.  I finished tenth after all!  Apparently one of the runners who finished ahead of me either dropped out or didn't have a bib number, rendering him ineligible.  Either way, tenth place it was:

http://www.ohiorivergreenway.org/documents/OhioRiverGreenwayProject-2011Results.pdf

Roger Kinder (Iggy Pop) finished sixth.

I'll take it.  I was completely gassed at the end, so I felt like I deserved something, even though my performance wasn't all that great.  Hopefully I'll do better next race.  But the cup I won really is nice: