Celiac Run

Five miles at Bear Creek Park went into the log on this pleasant morning, including the Celiac Run event:

Mile 1 -- 9:13
Mile 2 -- 13:22
Mile 3 -- 11:55

3.18-mile elapsed time per Garmin Forerunner 205 -- 36:05

The double-loop race course had to be altered to avoid a flooded area of the park, and everyone wearing GPS agreed the revised course was a bit long. But I wasn't worried about setting any new records today. It was all about just getting back into the swing of showing up and completing a running event after a three-month dry spell. And it was tough to pass up a 5K being held just a short drive away from home.

I feared that this race was going to turn out just like this past Heights Fun Run. I started fairly strong, then was hit with a bout of nausea in mile 2. Luckily, I was able to recompose myself in time to mostly jog the rest of the course in and claim that 36:05 time -- exactly ten minutes over my all-time 5K PR.

Speaking of thirty-somethings, I would have been an award recipient had I listed myself as "competitive" on my registration. This was a really, really small event (scheduled against the juggernaut downtown known as the Komen Race for the Cure) and only one male in my age group showed up. In a normally fiercely contested age/gender group with awards three-deep, only one guy was competing. To be honest, claiming hardware by default like this would have cast a hollow feeling on me during the short ride home.

The whole purpose of this event was to raise awareness of issues affecting and resources helping people with gluten allergies. Therefore the spread on the refreshment tables was a bit different from usual. The gluten-free brownies got my full endorsement, but I couldn't palate the bagels with a texture between angel-food cake and cornbread, but tasted like neither. The Redbridge beer I remember from a previous edition of the Celiac Run was nowehere to be found, but I give the organizers sweet props for putting out cartons of strawberries. Yum!

The last running-related footnote I'll add is that I've switched shoes -- finally. In recent weeks I've had periodic flareups of my dreaded achilles tendinitis, and I realized that the last time I bought new running shoes was six months ago. So this week I've been breaking in a pair of New Balance 1224s, and have been pretty happy with the results. This morning was wholly pain-free, and I'll take it!