Notes
RPI Saratoga Invitational.
I woke up in the morning unsure of whether or not I'd run the race. I decided my best bet was to jog the course in ~33-35 minutes. I started the day of with 45 swings of the irons, claiming victory over Joey Livote on the Par 3 course at SPAC. After golf, we went over to hang with the bois at the start line. This is the point where I realize I didn't bring any clothes besides the running shorts I was wearing underneath my pants and the polo shirt I wore to golf. After cracking a couple jokes I committed to wearing the polo shirt despite an offer from Matt Nafie to wear an extra singlet he had.
When it came time to warm up, I slowly jogged to the bathroom and back, and didn't feel any serious pain in my hamstring. I try a couple a "strides" and I'm feeling OK but not GREAT. The alumni grouped up to find our box and to no surprise we get the shittiest box out of the whole field, farthest from RPI as possible, thanks couch. When the gun goes off I'm almost immediately at the back. I look to my left and to my surprise I see Rob and Paul and a few other RPI guys going real slow. I take a SHARP left, the kind Joey would criticize from his armchair during a track race, and run over to them. I catch up to Paul and say "Hey it's me" and he responds with a laugh. I say no more in fear of throwing him off his game. At this point I've become immersed in the race and there is no chance I'll just jog the course.
Across the first field and down the hill I'm actually feeling GREAT! Light on my feet, painless running. I reach the top of the hill and hit the first mile in 5:30, DAMN that was easy, I think I might be able to hold these! Ryan Millar tells me I'm the fastest guy in a dress shirt: good looks couch. I ask couch Lynch "where's fazio". He says something like "He's way up there." To which I respond: "Not for long". 98% Joking, 2% thinking I might win the race at this point.
I'm still passing people through 2 miles, but I'm definitely slowing down. I start to hurt a little at the top of Ferndale, but once I hit the spectator friendly stretch of road I work the crowd a little bit; they're loving the polo. A half mile later I am REALLY feeling it. My hamstring is tight, I can hardly breathe, and my polo shirt feels like a winter jacket. I hit 3 miles in 17:49 and I start to think that running this race was a terrible idea.
At around 20 minutes I call it a day and stop to walk back. I get passed by a lot of RPI and Chas, Tim, and Nafie. After about a minute of walking I realize it's gonna take forever to get back and I'd rather have my pride then my hamstring. Turns out the walking break made the hamstring feel a lot better and I really started to cruise. I passed Nafie, then Colin (RPI rook) and had Okan in my sights. I decided to just phone it in on the last straight so as to not do serious damage to my hamstring, it would have taken a brisk last mile to catch Okan. I get to the finish and snag some ice. Overall it was a miserable race but I had fun with it. Hopefully I can come back next year healthy and in shape. I think my ultimate potential is somewhere in the 25:30's on that course.
Just to clear things up: I promise I won't ever do a running catfish again. Also noteworthy: I ran slower than marathon GP :(