Jog for Justice

A couple weeks ago I happened to notice one of the hundreds of flyers posted around the law school. It advertised a 5K run/walk event on an upcoming Saturday morning. I checked my schedule and found that we would be in town that weekend. I immediately emailed the race organizers and signed up for the "Jog for Justice." It seemed like an apt name for a running event jointly sponsored by law school organizations. It even had a cutsey little logo with Lady Justice running along blindly, carrying aloft the scales of justice like the Olympic torch. I actually like the logo, but I don't think a blindfolded woman should be jogging anywhere other than a treadmill. That's just asking for trouble.

Race day was gloomy and chilly, but I wore warm-ups and gloves before the race, so I was pretty comfortable. The race brought out a wide variety of participants -- some walked, some jogged, and some ran. The race proceeds went to training for Guatemalan medical professionals on how to deal with victims of sexual abuse, so some of the participants were dressed up in costumes or carried banners with anti-sex abuse slogans. But for the most part, people were just dressed up to go on a little run.

I was a little nervous about this race, because it is my first race in 9 years. I've had some reoccurring hamstring problems that have prevented me from running competitively, so I usually take it pretty easy when I run. But I wanted to actually treat this like a race. I wanted to find an in-between pace that wouldn't aggravate my injuries, but would still let me feel like I was racing.

As it turns out, I needn't have worried. I just ran as fast as I felt I could, and slowed down a little bit when I needed to back it off. So my pace wasn't as even as I would have liked, but that doesn't really matter. Since this was just a benefit race, there were no really serious runners that were actually competing. Everyone was there for fun.

I went out with the top three runners, and stuck with them for the first mile. It was pretty clear to me that they were in very good shape, because they were keeping a pace a little beyond what I could do for three miles, but they were talking and laughing the whole time. I, on the other hand, was huffing and puffing. After the first mile I dropped my pace and let them slowly pull ahead. I ran the rest of the race essentially by myself, because the rest of the pack was quite a ways behind me. So I ended up finishing fourth, with a time just under 22 minutes. My time was slower than any 5K race I ever ran in high school, and almost most five minutes slower than my best time. I guess it's a little embarrassing that I ran faster when I was 14, but I was in much better shape then. Besides, I had a good time at the race. I even ended up winning a door prize (a free sundae from Ben & Jerry's).

I don't think I'll wait another 9 years to run in another race. This one was fun. In fact, I'd like to do the Music City Half-Marathon next spring. I'll be going a lot slower in that one, though. I was pretty sore the next day after the Jog for Justice; it would be pure foolishness to try to do that for over 13 miles.