Bock Run

Apparently time changes a lot of things. At this point in my life I realize now that running 5-miles is relatively easy, drinking on and off for 12-hours is not. Things were not always so. On to the story.

Headed up to Stevens Point Saturday morning for the 5-mile Bock Run. Before I go on, I must say this is probably one of the best values in running. $15, nice long sleeve t-shirt, well run event, typical post race food and drink, plus free beer for 2+ hours after the finish. How can you go wrong?

Met up with Wade and his friends and headed over to the brewery. Nice weather, probably upper 20's, low 30's, no wind to speak of, and the sun even made an appearance. Course was nice, relatively flat, first (and last) 1/2 mile or so were snow covered, the rest was clear. It was out and back which I liked. Watching everyone ahead of me on their way back, and the few I was actually ahead of on my way back was a nice distraction mid-race.

Nothing spectacular to report about the actual run. Some strange characters, a casualty or two on the side of the road, but nothing I suppose hasn't been seen before.

Clock time was 49:01, my watch time was 48:30 (9:42/mile). I'm going with watch time, I started it when I crossed the start/finish line, and it was roughly 30-seconds to get there. The race was chip timed, so I don't know why the discrepancy.

The only thing more impressive than my overall time (in my mind) were my splits.

miles 1-2: 20:16 (10:08 pace) I don't recall seeing the one mile mark.
mile 3: 9:44 - picked it up some, took a brief walk break at turn around for some water
mile 4: 9:22 - still getting faster, not sure where this is coming from
mile 5: 9:08 - damn I'm fast.

Prior to this, fastest I've ran is 10:20/mile. In theory I should be thrilled, and I am. But I also realize how slow I am relative to the field. I don't really care, I have no ego, but still, 44/57 in my age group is somewhat deflating.

Post race I was capitol H hungry. 3-4 bagel chunks (so good), banana, glass of gatorade, and cookies, lots of cookies, I didn't count. Then beer, mmmmmmm beer. They had 3 or 4 different Point beers on tap. The Einbock was the best, but the others were good too. We stuck around until they closed up at 3:00.

From there it was an afternoon and evening of drinking, eating, and more drinking. Good time, but I'm definitely not as young as I once was. The pizza at 1:00am was great. I don't remember the name of the place, but if you're in Stevens Point at bar time, just follow the crowd, seemed like everyone came in. Not many actually walked by.

Big thanks to Wade and the family for having me. It was good to see you guys again. But if I figure out which one of your cats crapped in my mouth in the few hours I actually slept, it's in big trouble.