Dog Days 3 X 3k Relay

Dog Days 3 X 3k Relay

Aaron Tang waking up at 6:30 AM on Saturday. Must be race day. With the mornings here cooling down to the mid 70s, I sported my Savers' blue track jacket and skull cap to the shock of my team members.

The Wood Tang Clan team, made up of JoAnn Wood, Lisa Tang, and myself, found themselves in a standstill while waiting for our new permanent "chips" aka laminated bar-coded paper. When we arrived at the parking lot, the long line definitely made us rethink the notion of a small turnout. Seeing how this was our first relay, we had no clue if there would be baton passing or how the whole chip system worked. The only thing I knew was that I as the last leg got to wear the team chip and my own permanent chip. Luckily, I didn't have to run the first two legs of the race so I could just watch and see what was the right way of doing the relay.

JoAnn started the first leg off while we tried to make sure we knew how this whole relay process went. The fastest guy (who also ran the last leg of his own team) blurred by at around 9:30 and the partner had to maneuver around some cones and basically get tagged in to the race. Now that that was settled, we had to pick out JoAnn out of the crowd of runners (which I started to worry, thinking "What was she wearing again? Running shoes and shorts?").
And around 15:30, the 1st tag was made.

Knowing I had around 15 minutes before my mom showed up, I turned the stop watch on to approximate the arrival. I tried to warm up since I will have stood around for 30 minutes. Then I got tagged.

The man in grey was my pacer as he was ahead by 20 yards or so. We took the first turn around the pond and I think I, yeah, I didn't burn myself out in the first 5 minutes by not slamming on the gas. The good news of running last was that the usual crowding and bunching up of runners turned in to just a string of runners so that there wasn't too much swerving in and out of lanes, although I did have to jump out of the way for some speedier runners coming right at me on the out and back.

A guy wearing the Texas flag as his running shorts passed by me and grey guy and at the 2nd out and back, I saw a teenager gaining on me. I knew this kid would pass me (and pass the other two in front of me). In hindsight, this must have been revenge from that mile race where I passed the crying girl. Anyways, I tried to run within my own limits, not letting this upstart get me in to a sprinting machismo match of which I didn't have enough gas to even do so. There was a guy who ran the 1st leg for his own team that ran out to the half way point and actually gave me a word of encouragement, to which I uttered out, "thanks." I'm hoping this was karma for me cheering random people on at Dexter Park in Providence. While there is the small chance his teammate was right behind me and I did the running equivalent of waving at some stranger who's waving to their friend behind me, I think that this is pretty cool in that teams actually cheer on other teams.

Approaching the pond and nearing the end of the race, the grey dude was within a sprint's length away so I tried to save a final kick for the last 200 thinking he was a new runner and that I could beat him at the end. Of course, he also was saving his energy for the last 200. As he sprinted off, I was cheered on by my mom so I had to find the elusive 2nd gear. I was so gassed afterwards that I botched returning the team chip back and I accidentally returned my permanent chip instead.

This definitely wasn't my best race (or worst race, cough, the last 3k) so to my shock, we won 1st for our division which consisted of two females, 1 male teams of the 120-149 age group (adding all the racers' ages together). For you Rhody pharmacists, I was referred to as the "outlier" due to my age on the team. The race was won by the female side of the team for sure as I still can't breathe too well out in ozone alert orange air.


Notes:

1) I think the best part of the race was when the announcer had to say "Wood Tang Clan" for the divisional win and everyone chuckled at the team name.

2) The spread that was put out after the race put me in my place: bagels of all kinds, jam, pb, butter, vanilla ice cream, clementines, apples, and bananas.

3) The race was on the east side of Plano (as it always is) around a pond and with two out and back segments. It was pretty great that the organizer marked off every 500 meters since we don't normally train for 3ks.

4) The team may show up in planoprofile.com

I'm daydreaming in the back of pic 4 and we have pics 6 and 9

slideshow

5) Without fail, I must commit a cardinal sin before each race I take part in. I played Wii Baseball and threw out my left arm while throwing perfect games and homering in virtual reality, but losing in real life.

6) The fastest runner (who was the first and last leg of his team :bows down:) was apparently a college track star in Texas back in the day. Watching Speed in 3D, I was in awe. It's tough to gauge how fast elites are when they run with each other but seeing this guy dominate us mortals showed me what speed is.

7) Looking for my results on the Plano Pacers website, the mile ran in July was 0.3 off of my dream of being rated an above average runner in my age/gender adjusted score. (69.7 was my score, 70-79 is above average and 60-69 is near average). I don't think I'll be able to do that as a 24 year old and instead, will have to peak higher since the scoring gets tougher as I turn 25.

8) Every 3k race has me coming back from injury. I need to watch out for the end of December.