This is my Strava screenshot from my first race since my Prostate Cancer Surgery.
It seems like it's been an eternity since I raced last, and that was early December at Mr. Toads in Bakersfield. This past Saturday, March 25th, 12 weeks and 4 days since my surgery, I ran a real race, even though I'm not fully back in race shape. The race was the Laughlin Runnercard 5k. The race starts and finishes at the Avi Hotel just south of Laughlin. There were eight of us that made the trip across the 58 and 40 to Laughlin, with two coming down and over from Fresno. Six of us, Robin, Trevor, Mark, Joan, Melissa, and I ran the 5k, and Andrea persevered in the 1/2 marathon also held on the same morning. Ray opted to watch from the leather comforts of his new Jaguar this time. The course is flat, but it is all on dirt and gravel, so I spent the race constantly changing my line, always searching for the best traction. The 1/2 marathon took off at 7, and we were sent on our way at 7:15. The weather was perfect, low 60's, no wind, and some cloud cover.
Trevor in his new cool shorty shorts
My goal was to run a consistent pace, and not run so hard as to be crippled and unable to train the following week. After the start, I hung back a little, watching Trevor in his cool shorty shorts take off. I slowly moved up as I tried to keep my pace at right around 7:00 minutes per mile to see how I felt. Soon I was around Trevor, and following along, picking off runners that went out too fast one by one until I was up to third. The course was very well marked, and the mile markers seemed to coincide with the buzzing on my Garmin watch. My first mile was 6:56 on my watch. It was a few seconds fast, but I felt pretty good, so I decided to continue along at that pace. After the turnaround, I began to see some familiar faces on my way back on the out and back course. Trevor was first to be spotted, and it became fun to see how soon I could spot the others. Robin and Mark looked like they were having a great battle for position, and then came Melissa and Joan, well before the back markers. Everyone was still smiling, and wishing me good luck as I ran the other way. With the runners going the opposite way disappearing, I settled into my mode of concentrating on my arms and just trying to maintain my pace to the finish. My second mile was 7:02, and my third was 6:59, so I accomplished my goal of a consistent race. My official finishing time was 21:45, a 6:59 average. I finished 3rd overall, and second in my age group. Trevor was the other medal winner in our group, nabbing first in his soon to be departed age group.
My stomach area didn't bother me at all during the race. I never felt like I was peeing myself, but my custom depends had plenty of urine in it after I was done. Not enough to warrant an immediate change, so I was happy about that. Of course, that changed as we went into the casino and had a couple of beers while waiting for Andrea to finish. All in all, we had a great time, the race is very well run, more people should try it. Next weekend Robin and I are going to Bakersfield to run the Casa Super Hero 10k on the bike path along the mighty Kern River.
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