Road rage in Pa.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

I was up and had my camping gear in the car and ready to go by 7 a.m. I drove back to State College to find the exact location of the race, but only after I got a hearty breakfast. I had packed my camp stove and oatmeal, but since I’d skipped dinner the previous night, I wanted something more substantial and I needed to open up the computer and make some notes for the blogs I’d yet to write, as well.

It’s been a little while since I’ve driven back roads in rural Pa., so maybe these signs I was seeing aren’t new…but they were new to me. Large, bright yellow signs with black lettering appear frequently on the landscape with two important and somewhat alarming messages. One says ‘Watch For Aggressive Drivers’ and the other ‘Do Not Tailgate’. Both are completely appropriate. Tailgating appears to be the state sport and the sign about watching for aggressive drivers seems to have inspired Pennsylvanians to try and live up to their reputation. They DO tailgate, keep their brights on while tailgating and when approaching from the other side of the road, pass only when they spot blind curves and double lines and all this while clipping road signs that say ‘Do Not Pass’ with the wildly, swerving tail of their vehicles. I made it back to town without incident, but barely.

I found a place called ‘The Original Waffle Shop’ just south of town and across from the Penn State golf course, which was the location on the race. Perfect. I thought they were a little steep for omelet’s, so I looked over the pancakes and French Toast. I thought it interesting that the menu promotes their French Toast as ‘four, thick half slices’. In Ohio…we call that ‘two pieces’. I went with the stack of Buttermilk pancakes, which were fantastic…particularly after I slathered them in butter and drown them in fake maple syrup.

Now I was feeling good. Full stomach and a race to see…doesn’t get much better. I made my way to the course, parked and began looking it over to determine the best places to position myself to see the action and get some pictures. The race distance was 6 kilometers or a little over 3.7 miles. I know…weird distance…and most of the race would be run too far from the finish to have any chance of seeing it and the conclusion. I picked my spot so that I could see Kim on 4-5 occasions. She arrived a short time later and we talked about what she hoped to do during the race. This was another opportunity for her to run with the best in the country with no downside. Regardless of her performance, there would be no impact on her chance to qualify to the nationals. What she hoped to gain was the conditioning that comes only from racing hard against quality competition. They would be going out fast and she knew it and would have to go with them if she was to be a contender in this, or any big race.

I heard the gun from my first vantage point and could see the field of over 200 women surging down the fairway towards me. I was in the course…the only place to stand if you want to get a great picture of the start…snapping pictures at a rapid rate. You need to be careful with this if you’re using a telephoto lens since you lose perspective for how close the runners actually are. I jumped out of the way when they were 50 yards from me and could see Kim was in good position at the front of the pack. They passed me and raced down hill and out of sight for the next two miles…or over half the distance they would run.

When I saw her again, she was laboring, but competitive and continued in this fashion to the finish. Though I did not get her place or time, she’d passed the 5K mark faster than she’d run it all year…when she didn’t have another 1K to run…and had won the meet! She told me later they’d gone through two miles in a little over 11 minutes…and then the leaders picked it up. “I wasn’t ready for that move from Villanova, John. The whole team went together. It was there plan. No wonder they’re the defending National champs,” she told me after the race. No wonder.

I drove the 4-hour ride home, but veered to the park when I was almost there. I needed a good run myself and knew I’d never do one if I went home first. Watching people run fast always makes me feel faster than I am and I ran well for 40 minutes. At least in my head, I did.

Run duration: 40 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 145 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 650.