Jeux FADOQ 2015: 5 km

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Last year I became a member of FADOQ, an organization for people 50 and older. I became a member in order to play ping pong in one of their tournaments.

This year I registered again for ping pong and also for their 5 km race, which would happen at the Maisonneuve Park, very close to my house.

On the Saturday before the event they called me at home to inform me that because the weather forecast for Monday was full of rain, the event would happen at the Centre Pierre Charbonneau. For me this was even better, because I train there three months of the year, so I know the place.

This morning my wife and I walked there with our umbrellas, it was really raining.

I received the bib 349. It was a simple paper bib, no chip like the ones we receive at marathons. It's a much simpler event...

Little before 9 am the main organizer spoke a few general words about the many events of the day (there would be more running and walking after the main race).

Then the person responsible for the computer coverage explained how the 5 km would happen. As the track was 190 m long, we would do 26 laps. Nobody seemed to notice (or care...) that we would be missing sixty meters in our run...

The part that I didn't like too much was that the computer guy and his assistant would be in charge of counting the laps for all contestants. It's true that we were only thirteen runners taking on the 5 km, but still I knew that there would be trouble...

We got behind the start line. I started at the end of the group, I wanted to see all my competitors. There was a guy in a yellow t-shirt at the front (from now on I'll call him Mr. Yellow), he looked like a serious runner. When the whistle blew, he took the lead and kept it for most of the time.

Already in the first lap I passed most of my competitors. I "parked" behind an older man in a blue t-shirt (I call him Mr. Blue from now on). Mr. Yellow opened quite a good lead on the two of us, almost half of the track. But we kept going and after ten laps or so, we started bridging that difference. We also lapped all the other competitors, some of them multiple times.

My wife timed me in one of her devices. I was doing each lap (190 m) in less than a minute each.

When we had less than ten laps to go, Mr. Blue and myself were only ten meters behind Mr. Yellow, I thought we might pass him soon. But then I had to stop to drink some water and the two leaders opened half a track on me.

I was not able to close that gap again and at this point I was already quite tired. Eventually Mr. Blue passed me in his last lap to win the competition. I didn't look behind me, but Mr. Yellow was probably close behind.

I did my last lap and when I crossed the finish line I stopped my watch at 24m21s. But I didn't have much time to celebrate. The organizer told me "Mr. Jorge you have one more lap to go". I knew I hadn't to, I had counted all my laps and other than that the leader only passed me once. Surely they had miscounted my laps. But there was no arguing with the organizer at that point, so I did one more lap.

My official time was 25m24s. I went there to argue with them, but they would have none of it, my time stood like that.

Fortunately the fourth place finisher took 26m30s to complete his 5 km, so my extra lap did not change anything at all.

Here am I, after the race, tired but happy:

Even with the mistake by the organizers, I was quite happy with my result. I intend to participate again in future years.

 

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