Team Bloke 5-K

    I like racing in the summer. I like being comfortable at the start, not freezing, and heat just works better for me than cold. My schedule at the gym is also a little lighter, and I can get out a bit more to test myself in a 5-K.
    With that in mind, I tried a new race on Saturday, the second annual Team Bloke 5-K in Mendham.  The race is a benefit for Brain Cancer Awareness, and honors Doug Clark, a local Mendham tri-athlete battling the disease. Doug is native of England, thus the "Team Bloke" moniker.
     It was a competitive field, with many area tri-athletes and high school and college runners preparing for the season in attendance. I had no idea what to expect as far as my performance, as the arthritis in my knees seems to worsening all the time, right along with my training times.
    Fortified with an early-morning Aleve, the joints felt okay warming up. My warm-ups are a lot longer than they used to be, now consisting of about two miles of light running, followed by a variety of kicks and lunges to get all the muscles and tendons in the legs as supple as possible.
     The weather was hot and sticky for most, but perfect for me: low 80's, high humidity.
     Mendham is a hilly area, and the race did not disappoint in that respect. The first mile was almost all downhill. I knew what had to follow, so I took advantage, and passed the first mile mark in 6:36. I felt 14:00 would be a realistic goal for the two-mile split, as the payback for the downhills would come. The second mile did seem almost entirely uphill, and I edged past two miles in 13:58.
     At that point, I felt we were all even, and the course would flatten for mile three. In my perception, that wasn't the case, as I seemed to be lumbering uphill through most of it. There's a turnaround at the end of a court, with about 3/4 of a mile to go, and I tried to tough it out from that point.
    There was a grey-haired gentleman in front of me most of the way who I focused on, figuring he probably was in my age-group. We passed each other a couple of times, and I edged in front about 200 meters from the finish. The end comes quickly, around a turn, which doesn't prepare you for a long sprint to the finish.
    My finishing time was 22:10, and my heart rate was a high 171 at the finish. The grey-haired competitor just behind me was a very fit, 60-plus year old!
   While I've run faster this summer, my effort was there, and the time was what I could expect on a rolling course like that. There was a good, positive vibe to the race, and I hope to be back next year!