Posts Tagged ‘buzz oates runsac race series’

The Week of No Running

Well, I can walk normally, and the pain is gone even without Advil, but the stiffness remains and I know from previous experience that I’ll only aggravate it if I start in again too soon. So I wait until both legs feel pretty much the same.

In the meantime, the updated standings from the Buzz Oates RunSac Race Series have been posted. You have to love an event that rewards you more for sheer dogged stupidity than for speed. Last Sunday I ran a reasonable 50:28 10k. It was age-graded to a 44:09… which was good enough for 39th place out of 46 runners!

Yes, I’m clearly out of my league. However, in the short term at least, I am kicking major butt because as long as you race, you get points. No matter how fast you are, if you don’t race, you get zero points. So my crummy finish still boosted me to 26th place in the overall standings, out of 153 participants.

That’s pretty impressive, until you check and discover that I’m 26th out of the 31 guys who have run all three races so far.

The next race is in two weeks, but it’s touch-and-go whether I’ll manage it. Until then, it’s massage, ice, rest and prayer.

Woody Allen Is Not a Runner

Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” He had a point, but his math was faulty.

The updated standings in the 2009 Buzz Oates Run Sac Race Series were released and my less-than-stellar half-marathon rocketed me from 64th place to 34th. How is that possible, you say? Well, if you don’t run the race, you get zero points. Though there are currently 136 runners in the men’s division, only 41 ran both races in the series thus far.

Just showing up and completing the race pushed me past dozens of runners. The bad news is that the series gives you 14 opportunities to complete 8 races – four of 5 miles or less, four of more than 5 miles. So as the year progresses, my advantage will mostly disappear.

The good news is that I’ve run one decent race and one crummy one, and will get better. The rankings use the scores from your eight best races if you run more than eight. I’m not in the same league as most of the other runners in the standings, but I know I can move up out of the cellar.

If Woody were a runner, he would recalculate success to 50% showing up, 30% grinding it out, 15% not doing something stupid, and 5% good fortune. That 15% is what trips me up.

Comeuppance

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had signed up for the Buzz Oates RunSac Race Series, which ranks runners (for prizes) who race in specified events during 2009. I’m one of about a dozen people who entered as independents; the rest come from local racing teams and running groups.

The Valentine Run was the first race in the series, and I finally got the age-graded results.

Ouch.

Of the 78 enrolled guys who ran the four-miler last Saturday, I came in 64th. The age-grading was actually a wash for me. Five older, slower guys got ranked above me, while five younger, faster guys slid below me.

Disappointing, but a fairly accurate gauge of where I fall among the area’s best runners. Work still to do.