The Accidental Masters Championship Runner...

... or, "How being clueless let me feel like a "real" runner... at least for a few minutes."

Story, for those looking for something insubstantial and light:

My wife and I have been running more lately, and have had something of a run focus this winter.  I did a couple HMs and 5ks, and was targeting a 10k yesterday as my A race for the spring.  Kim's training up for the Boston Run to Remember HM as her A race (and I'll run with her), so was using yesterday as a tune up leading up to it.

Well, there's a great race in Mass that worked for our schedules, the James Joyce Ramble 10k, set for April 28th.  Too perfect, as we'd both run this as our last 10k race - 17 years ago to the day!  Harpoon still sponsors it, so what could be better?

We registered a couple months ago.  During this process, the website form had a box for your USATF number.  OK, just like lots of other races (and tri's with your USAT #), I figured, and entered my number.  Then, on with life for a bit...

A few weeks later, I got an email saying that to participate in the USATF National Masters Championship I had to send in my Passport, birth certificate, favorite color, etc. to the national offices for verification and so forth.  OK, easy decision to pass on that one, as I certainly hadn't qualified and wasn't really interested in seeing nothing but the entire field fading off into the distance as plod along like a pack mule.  Figured I'd start with the open group (and be in the same corral as Kim).  Cool.

Well, Saturday we go to get our numbers and they send Kim to the left and me to the right.  Hmmmm...  First eyebrow up.  Off to the right is the USATF table.  Cue second eyebrow.  They tell me that I either start with the masters, since that's where I'm registered (unbeknownst to me), or take a 3 minute time penalty on my official time and start with the open field.  Cue jaw drop.

Given that I wanted to really hammer at this one (for me) and hopefully PR - both against my 17 year old time (easy) and some recent time trials on my own (harder), I opted for the start with the masters.  I figured they'd pull me along in their wake and then the open field would start passing/motivating me after a mile or so...

Well, wouldn't you know, starting in the corral with a bunch of lithe, springy, bouncy, sinewy, muscle-y types from 40 to 75 was REALLY cool.  Like goose bump inducing cool.  They, all in their track team shirts and super technical gear (for running, at least - they don't know tech like tri folk or roadies!), were quite the group.  So, despite not having done a thing to qualify, I can say that I well and truly soaked up every bit of that feeling of being a real runner, if only in an almost vicarious way, while under the clear blue sky, saluting the flag, feeling the sun and about to start a Championship Race (thank you very much).

And then, of course, the gun (or gong in this case, for a variety of reasons) went off, and I was quickly reminded that I was still just me. 

I PR'd by about 4 minutes better than recent time trials and something like 10' from my old time - better than expected - and am very happy with that.  I also wasn't DFL in my masters group (18th out of 20 - I'm guessing the other two guys wound up there much like I did!), and only a handful of the wicked fast folks from the open field that started 3 minutes after us passed me.  Kim PR'd by a ridiculous amount and made the top 10 in her AG (in a huge field, too - something over 2,500 total this year). 

There were more hills than there were 17 years ago - funny how that happens - and the air was somehow a LOT thinner, but I felt pretty dang good coming across that line and going to cheer Kim across the finish...

... almost like a real runner after all.

Hope your spring seasons all go well.

Matt