What the hell did I just do?

April 10, 2005:  I'd like to think I'm in really good shape.  Today, I think I proved it.  And it boggled the hell out of me. So here's what happened: I found myself sitting at home Saturday night with nothing to do, surfing the web, and I found out about a road race in Morgantown on Sunday afternoon.  I really don't run too many of them.  I've done the Turkey Trot 2 Mile up in Warren, Oh. for the last ten years or so, but since that falls on Thanksgiving, it's usually a way to burn up all the calories in the turkey that I'm about to eat. Anyhow, I didn't have anything to do on Sunday, so I figured I'd hop in the car and go. The premise is actually pretty cool: It's a 5K Ambulance Chase for the WVU School of Law.  Law students dressed up in shirts, slacks and ties (and bibs, the things with numbers on them) actually run behind an ambulance to kick off the race.  And later, when the race actually starts, you really do run behind an ambulance. So I called Whitney up in Fairmont, and she and her friend Heather agreed to join me.  I got there, I stretched, I drank little bottles of water.  And then the gun went off, the ambulance started, and I followed.  And then, people passed me.  En masse.  Kids, old guys, women, the whole gamut.  I figured that it probably didn't help that I hit the stairmaster pretty hard the night before at the Y. The course also wasn't as flat as I'd figured.  The website said flat.  But the course IS in West Virginia.  Go figure. But the course also wasn't as long as I'd figured either.  Before I knew it, I rounded the corner and headed for home, and finished at 23:24, about 7:33 or so a mile.  Whitney and Heather came in about seven minutes later. It was later, after I'd had a hamburger and some chips that they started giving out the awards, and, much to my surprise, they called my name.  I ended up taking 3rd place in my age division, 39th overall. It was then that I realized that I had two things in my favor... First, I just turned 25.  Those 20-to-24 year olds would have smoked me.  In fact, they DID smoke me.  The winner won with a time of 16:15.  He's 20.  Evidently us old guys aren't nearly as fast. Second, it wasn't just that a lot of people passed me.  A very age and gender diverse group of people passed me. Like I said, old people, kids and women passed me.  But evidently, not a whole lot of people 25-to-29 passed me. Anyway, so I got a little medal and a mispronunciation of my name ("Let's here it for Jeremy Markoovickich!"), and a little satisfaction out of having finished fairly well in a race for which I really hadn't prepared for. Plus, I got to see the WVU monorail.  What the hell is up with that? -J