One mile, then another mile,
and another mile onward,
All around the U S of A
Ran the thousands.
"Forward, Eagles!
Charge to celebrate freedom!" we said.
Into the American heartland
ran the thousands.
So, Tennyson I am not. Sorry Mila, there's no lordship in my future. Odd that a British poet immediately came to mind when thinking about a celebration of US veterans. Does that make me a loyalist? I sure hope not. I'd have some splainin' to do at work.
The Team RWB Eagle Charge took place yesterday, on the 4th. It's sponsored by Wal-Mart and proceeds go to Team RWB veterans outreach and assistance programs. (For my 2016 write up about Team RWB when I'd first joined the group, please see here.) Last year, over 1700 Eagles charged at 67 locations around the country and we got a pretty cool shirt.
Just as last year, our local San Angelo chapter decided to use the Christoval VFD Firecracker 5k for our meeting spot for the Eagle Charge. Last year, I didn't run in the 5k and had to do my Charge later in the day. Can't quite remember why I wasn't feeling up to it. I did volunteer and my write up is here. Christoval is a tiny village of 500 about 20 minutes south of San Angelo. The Concho river runs through it, setting up a nice river park, and the Christoval vineyard is a nice place to have lunch.
As a local tradition, the Firecracker 5k is one of the largest and fastest races in the area. Runners from all over the area (and Guillermo Rodriguez from San Antonio) start their 4th festivities with a run/walk and BBQ. Oh yeah, a BBQ lunch is included in the price of the race. How neat is that? The turnout was expected to be 180 this year and I wouldn't be surprised if that was undercutting the actual numbers.
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| the view walking up to the park |
I actually showed up on time for once and had time to leisurely grab my packet, do a light warm up and, wonder of all wonders, actually get in the Team RWB pic! (I'm always either too late or busy)
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| I saw them getting ready while grabbing my registration stuff so I snapped a pic in case I was left out |
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| there's our official shot. A big turnout for us! (photo credit: Allyson Lowther Roebuck) |
Of course, Good, Bad, and Ugly/SARL were well represented too. However, yesterday was about RWB for me.
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| Snapped this shot while taking my phone to the car pre-race. Lots of people filtering in! |
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| Blanca and Jennifer pre-race (photo credit: Blanca De La Rosa) |
The course was one of the prettiest and the hilliest I've done here since moving to San Angelo, just as the Fire Chief had advertised. It was also pretty warm, with a starting temperature in the low 80s. The course takes you through "downtown" Christoval on the main drag and it was nice to see people along the road cheering us on. My goal was 23:15, having run 23:28 in my last race. There was, of course, the initial 5k start chaos of people taking off at a dead sprint and quickly realizing that it's
That was the actual meme playing in my head when some of the people SPRINTED past me.
Eventually, we settled into a normal race rhythm. I could see Dennis' red head and Kent's red shirt not too far in front of me and planned to do my best to at least keep them in sight. The race went well through the first mile, a little ahead of pace but feeling pretty good. However, there was a decent sized (1/3 mile at 3% grade) hill and about halfway up, my legs started asking me questions. Mainly "Why did you think it was a good idea to bump up weight on your squat and deadlift Monday?" Cue RDJ again. I slowed to a 10 minute mile pace at one point going up that hill. Here's a dirty secret for you, during EVERY SINGLE RACE there comes a moment that I start considering just stopping and walking. Every single one, even 5ks. That thought entered my head while cresting the hill and the people ahead of me started pulling away. The rationale was that no one was very close behind me and I could just rest a second and then keep pushing. Then I muttered some things to myself and sped up. I'll just say that they weren't positive, uplifting mantras.
I am proud of the fact that my 3rd mile, although not quite as fast as I'd like, was run at a faster pace than the second. That's the salvageable "attaboy" I'll take from this race. I finished in 17th overall and 4th in my age group with a time of 22:28. Yep, 4th, the most annoying spot to be. The race was a tick under 3 miles long, so just about on pace for my goal. Yet, again, I got out sprinted to the finish line. This time by a high school track/XC runner. I'm such a horrible kicker haha. Oh well.
After grabbing a bottle of water, I jogged over to my car to take pics and cheer on the finishers. Unfortunately, these did not turn out quite as well as I'd hoped. Feel free to take any of these pictures.
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| ZOOM! |
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| Hey, there's Robin |
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| If I'm remembering correctly, he's one of our newer Eagles and his wife had previously said he's not a big runner. Glad to see him out there. I might be misremembering and totally fabricating that though. |
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| Go Jerry! |
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| Look at that hair flying |
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| It's Captain America! |
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| Look at him go. And he said he'd finish in 100th in his age group |
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| I feel like these kids are cheating |
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| The first place dog |
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| Mike and Jennifer gunning for the finish |
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| Ally, Georgia, and #shirtlessSam |
Times weren't kept, though there was a timer going at the finish line. Divisional top 3 was determined on who finished first. Joe Meza (#2 overall ranked 5k runner) was the overall male champion and Nicole Lindsey (#3 30-39 female) was the female champion, her first time at this particular race.
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| Robert placed in his age group, and also rolled his ankle so he broke even I guess |
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| Finisher's Medal (photo credit: Jennifer Schmidt) |
After the awards, most of us went to grab our BBQ plate, which was pretty good.
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| The race shirts, including the Eagle Charge shirt |
If you'd like to learn more about the Eagle Charge and what it means to certain veterans, check here. Additionally, my younger brother has resurrected his running/workout blog. He's getting back into running and writing about running. Some of our goals line up so we're going to be training together at least virtually as much as possible and hopefully doing some more marathons and his first ultras together over the next couple of years. His goal is to run a 100 mile race before his 30th birthday ( September 1st, 2020) and I'm going to do my best to either be there running with him or at least crewing for him. Follow his journey over at the Barefoot Boyce blog.
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