Calm

After a 5k run the other day I realized that I had completed the whole run without thinking about anything. I think this means that I have successfully reduced the internal turmoil that has haunted me for the past 20 odd years.

Its an odd sensation not thinking, especially since my job is to think, over analyze and work trough issues to come up with solutions to complex problems, in some ways its almost like I make simple issues in my life complex because I am better at dealing with them that way,

I ran in the Melbourne sports summer sunset series Melbourne Zoo 8k run last Wednesday, and it was amazing. The run got me thinking about how most runners must experience a similar phenomenon when running, especially in a race.

In this case I drove there alone, as the race started at the kids bed time, so it wasn't going to work taking them to this one. I listened to music in the car, so there was constant noise, I didn't spend any time inside my head really, as it was also heavy traffic.

I was doing this one alone, no one I knew to meet up with or chat to while I waited, and given my need to be early for everything I had a fair amount of time to kill. I managed to secure a shady spot on the grass and just watched the people milling around, meeting up with friends, securing their kids while the registered or got their race packs, and generally preparing. It was during this time that I started to really reflect on the noise. 

There is constant chatter, some people get nervous and get chatty, some people are relaxed and chatty, and some are catching up with running colleagues and are chatty, not for me, I was silent, just observing.

The noise levels are magnified at the start line, as the nervous talkers anxiety levels bump up, the friends try to get in some last lines of conversation. The calm people tend to withdraw into them selves at this point, and you see them start to watch the chatters.

The siren sounds, and the runners are off. Everyone concentrates on their pace, not tripping and not running over the top of other people. 

For at least the first 100m there is only the sound of foot steps. This is such an odd time after so much noise, everything goes calm and quiet except for the thump thump thump of peoples feet.

This is a trap.

This is where people collectively form a rhythm and pace as a pack, instead of finding their own groove, and as a result its very easy to start too fast or too slow and upset your whole run.

At the start of a race its important to position yourself appropriately in relation to your expected time. Fast people forwards, slow people back, and walkers at the very back. This is really important and most event organizers realize this, but in the case of the Zoo run they kind of lost the plot. There was no marshaling, no advice for walkers to the rear, and they started the 4 & 8k events at the same time.

What happened was a mess. I put my self about 1/4 of the way from the start as this is usually a good place for me and it was a small field so it should have been fine. The issue with this is that being an event held around the zoo a lot of people planned to walk the 4k and do a spot of sight seeing, whereas several of us were there to run the 8k. 

The 4k walkers were way too far up the front, and a lot of us runners had to weave past them, on uneven ground around the outside of the zoo. What would have worked well would be, staggered starts 4k runners, 8k runners, walkers, but I guess they were trying to save blasts of the airhorn and avoid someone talking to the crowd.

At the end  of it all it was really cool to run around the zoo, past the gorilla enclosure was particularly rewarding, it got me wondering what it was like for them to see all the humans running past instead of stopping and staring.

My approach was to run all the way but I have to make comment about the dude taking photos. Clearly this guy was too tight to go to the zoo so instead he entered the race, got to the first animal stopped, took photos with his phone and then sprinted to the next animal and did the same. This was a pretty funny thing to see, and I hope for his sake he got some good pics.