Germantown Bier Run 5K

It was still dark when I woke up on Saturday. That's never a reassuring sight.

I rolled out of bed, took my shower, fed my cat and searched through my dresser for one of my two pairs of compression shorts (I have chaffing issues). Before heading out the door, I grabbed a granola bar and my water bottle - I learned a long while back that working out on an empty stomach is not remotely fun.

When I met my friends and arrived at the course in the Germantown section of Nashville, the sun still wasn't out, but I decided to put on my sunglasses anyway. I wasn't going to be fast, but I was going to at least be stylin'.

Most 5Ks give you a t-shirt for signing up and this one was no different. While most of the time you'll get one that's at least acceptable enough to work out in...every so often you'll get one you can wear out in public. At the same time, every so often you'll get a shirt that should never be worn by anyone in society...ever. This shirt was one of those. Falling into the realm of the tuxedo t-shirt, the Bier Run 5K shirts were liederhosen t-shirts. It's a shirt I might wear to sleep in...but it's something I don't see myself ever wearing to a place where people can actually see me. Simply put, it's hideous...but that's not really the point here.

I turned on my Garmin Forerunner to acquire the satellites (a useful tool if I ever saw one) and we headed to the starting line. I cranked on my iPod and turned it to the new Pearl Jam album, which I had downloaded from a wireless signal I had acquired while standing next to the Germantown Cafe. Then, I opened up my Couch to 5K app, which provides audio cues while running to tell me when to run and when to walk so I don't have to constantly look at my watch. The app only runs 31 minutes...and I knew that I'd be taking far longer than 31 minutes (my goal, for 5K number 1, was to finish in under one hour), but I figured I had 31 minutes to come up with a solution.

The first week of the Couch to 5K plan consists of a 5 minute warmup, and 8 alternating 60 second jogging and 90 second walking intervals. The plan was to do a few more intervals until I finished the race...and then use Sunday and Monday as rest days before doing a normal 8 interval workout on Tuesday.

Anyway, the three of us (Amanda, her friend Flynn and me) got in line at the back so we were well behind the runners when the gun went off. Flynn had run a marathon earlier this year and Amanda had been running since January, but they were both a little out of training, so they were going to be taking it slowly as well...although not as slowly as I was. It took 3 minutes (according to the results sheet) for me to get from where I was standing to the actual starting gate. I clicked the little start button on my Forerunner and the start button on my iPod app and away I went.

The first portion of the 5K was mostly flat, through the area of Nashville that is called Germantown largely because of the architecture in the area. The entire neighborhood is really only about 3 blocks, but it's really beautiful and very scenic. When my app told me to run, I was almost directly behind a group of walkers...I took off at a very slow jog (my jogging pace was always around 13:30)...I pretty much blew by them...and got a little excited by it. So excited that the next time the app told me to run, I went a little faster, which was a mistake. My feet and my legs started hurting...I contemplated taking the next few intervals off, but the old adage of "no pain, no gain" came to me...and I just decided to slow down my intervals. I powered through and it took about 5 minutes for my legs to feel comfortable again, but I didn't encounter any more pain issues.

When the app ran out, I was running past the Bicentennial Mall...I decided to take one extra long 150 second walking break during the "warmup" portion when I rebooted the C25K app (unfortunately, it won't let you skip the warmup)...then I timed myself on the run and the walk before the app took over and started giving me cues again. Also, unfortunately, at this point, the video that came with the Pearl Jam album started playing. Since you can't exit the C25K app without shutting it off completely, I was stuck listening to that for the next 9 minutes or so.

The course took a bizarre turn once we ran through the Bicentennial Mall and actually ran indoors through the Farmer's Market (and through the food court...because you want to smell curried goat on your 5k run). I got a little frustrated by this because I came upon a group of walkers taking up the entire path during a running interval and it slowed me down...it took about 4 "excuse mes" to finally get around them.

After that, it was pretty much clear sailing. I came out of the Farmer's Market, up a small hill and back to the start finish line (thankfully during a running interval, which left me with a nice finish photo).

I finished in 49:55, beating my goal by a good 10 minutes and 5 seconds.

I grabbed a bottle of water past the finish line and got in line for my free 9am finisher's beer (for it was the Oktoberfest Bier Run).

All in all, an extremely rewarding run. Unfortunately, it left my legs so sore that I haven't been able to pick back up this week. I finally feel good enough to give another go tomorrow morning.

Until tomorrow!