Lake Merritt Joggers & Striders

5K, 10K, 15K / 9:00 AM Start

Oakland, California

Time for 5K: 26:42 (my GPS) / Official time on website: 26:40 / Pace: 8:35 or maybe 8:46*

Buddy runner: Jack Mingo

Again I decided to run a race at the last minute. My uberwife Lori promised she would go with me next time. That was contingent on giving her more than a few minutes of notice, of course. But ever-ready Jack agreed to get up and go with me to Lake Merritt in the center of downtown Oakland to do this 5K around the lake.

I had joined the LMJS (www.lmjs.org), “The East Bay’s Oldest Running Club,” as a way to enter into the local running community in an official way. The Club hosted a set of races on the last weekend of every month which sounded fun. Membership was very reasonable and the entry fees for the races were even more reasonable.

From 2000 through 2006 I drove to Lake Merritt with a friend to run around the lake most days of the week. So this was familiar territory to me. And I drive to “the lake” from my residence in Alameda infrequently, but I still do it because I like running the three mile loop around the perimeter of the lake and the park that bounds it on its west side.

It was very cool in the morning so I donned a sweatshirt and stayed warm right up until start time. Registration was quick and easy and I even had time to jog for a warm up. I doffed my sweatshirt and I am glad I did because it warmed up very quickly. My illusions of a fairly casual easy-going race were dashed when I perused a bulletin board with a printout of members and their best race times. For 2007 it listed distances and each age group. Out of fifteen runners listed in the 60-69 age division more than a third had run a 5K faster than I. Whew. Oh well, I would just enjoy the fun of the event.

Jack and I chatted with a few very welcoming and friendly members of LMJS and then lined up on the street for the start. There were probably about fifty or sixty runners. That included all of the distances (5K, 10K, 15K) because we were all starting concurrently. I was standing near the white chalk starting line and no one was joining me. That seemed odd and I commented on it to Jack. If I had waited a few seconds I would have seen that everyone moved right up to the chalk once the starter was ready to go. Maybe this was a Club ritual? His little horn went whoop whoop and we sped off. I was going too fast. I knew it, I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) slow down and all I could do was smile at my audacity. Jack was a bit ahead of me in his bright yellow shorts. I followed him on the right side of the course but he was going even faster than I was. But I decided to try to stay within visual contact of that yellow “flag.” I shut off my brain, willed all of my blood into my lungs and legs and kept moving. Eventually I got behind a tall older man and drafted behind him for the whole first mile. That first mile was a 7:46 mile. My mind was still blank but I was smiling because I hurt like hell and there was no way I could keep this up but I liked trying. And I could still see those yellow shorts bobbing along about thirty yards in front of me. Jack was gaining on me, of course, but not in great dashes but slight increments.

I lost my draft at the 1.5 mile mark but I kept pushing. At two miles the time was 16:10 so I had run the second mile at an 8:25 pace. I was running out of steam and eventually at the 2.5 mark I had to walk. But I walked for only 35 seconds. Then I started up and hit my stride fairly quickly. We had been running alongside the east side of the lake on the bike/running path. For a short distance we were back on a sidewalk that went around most of the perimeter of the lake and park. In about a hundred yards we turned off the perimeter sidewalk onto a street that was the major entry way into Lakeside Park.** I saw the yellow “flag” and could see that Jack was about a minute ahead of me or maybe a bit less than a quarter of a mile. (Jack finished in 26:13).

Since I had run this course hundreds of times during the years I lived in Oakland I knew what was coming. Our last third of a mile had a slight decline right back to the center of the park which was next to the Boat House where we had started. When I turned the last slow curve and saw the flags and electronic timer sign I took a breath and started to sprint. When the small crowd gathered around the finish line saw me sprinting they started yelling and whooping which spurred me on. I came through the chute so fast that the tag takers had to get out of my way. There had not been any runners ahead of me or behind me for that matter so sprinting was just me pushing my body, and having fun doing it. I love that finishing sprint; I hope I always will. I collected my yellow ribbon, dropped it once in my post race daze, Jack saw it on the street, I picked it up, and found myself smiling. Jack congratulated me and remarked that he hadn’t expected to see me come in so soon after him. That made me smile all the way home.

** Lakeside Park is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife refuge, designated in 1870.

PS: So this logo –without the oval- was printed on a beautiful RaceReady CoolMax long sleeve blue shirt, and with the member’s discount price I had no other option but to possess it immediately.

*For a 26:42 5K my Garmin GPS Foreunner 201 calculates the pace at 8:46 and the Cool Running Pace Calculator online calculates the pace at 8:35. I would like to know why the discrepancy but it is probably because they use different formulas for their calculations. It would just be nice to know why they use different calculation equations?