Today (Sunday, December 16, 2007) was the final race on my 2007 calendar - the Jingle Bell Jog 8K in Rockville, MD. This is the final race of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club Championship Series. I had planned to participate in this but injuries and schedule conflicts kept me from making the 5-run minimum for consideration.
The race started at 9am and I was still in bed at 8am, unsure if I was going to run. The night before, I told Lynn that I would likely run if it was not raining when I got up. Turned out that the weather was a lot better then the sleet and rain mix they had been calling for 24-hours prior. A fine mist came down throughout with temps about 34 degrees and not much wind. When I got home it started to pour, so we were lucky. The biggest issue with the weather was that I dressed too warmly.
About 280 people ran this race which started at the Rockville Senior Center and wound through a number of parks and residential neighborhoods. The course was billed as one of “rolling hills” – in other words, just plain hilly. This was not an event to attempt a personal record. The ground was wet, covered with leaves and portions were run on uneven asphalt park trails and side walk with a lot of tight turns. There were also many single-file areas, so if you got behind slower runners, you had to wait to safely pass.
My plan was to be as competitive as conditions allowed but mainly run for fun. I was doing well with that plan until about 2.5-miles in when my Achilles started to hurt. The pain increased over the next mile and I thought I might have to walk (I didn’t). At first I thought it was something I could run through but eventually it became apparent that I had hurt myself. So I fought that mental battle until the end.
Other then that, the run was uneventful - as far as I knew. When I was back in the Senior Center, post-race, a guy came up to me and asked if that deer had scared me. I had no idea what he was talking about. Well somewhere on the course he was running about 50-yards behind me when a huge deer, according to him, came running out of the woods and apparently almost ran me over! He yelled, “DEER!!”, which I heard, but since my hat was low on my eyes, it blocked some of my peripheral vision. The guy said he was positive I was going to get run over and need an ambulance. He remarked that if the deer didn’t hit me, I surely felt the wind as it rushed past me. He said that I was running alone at this point so the deer probably thought it was safe to make a dash. Either that or it was just spooked. Anyway, I laugh at the thought of being broadsided by a deer. That would be a good story to tell.
With the results in, I ran the 8K in 37:10 (7:29-mile pace) which put me 44th out of 136 men and 14th out of 24 for my age group (the 40-44 year old men were booking!). My overall finish was 50th place out of 244. The only lingering issue is my Achilles, which is very stiff right now. Fortunately I don’t plan on doing another race until January 19, at the earliest, and I should be fine by then.
So the 2007 Jingle Bell Jog was a success and thanks to the race directors and volunteers who did their best to clear the paths and direct traffic.
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