Don't Be Cruel, Read This Race Report

August 16th is the alleged death date for the King of Rock N Roll Elvis Presley. So what is more fitting than to go out and run 5K race that starts at the gates of Graceland (which is basically In the Ghetto now)? The Elvis Presley 5K is now one of my favorite races and I think everyone reading this should go race it. I really have no excuse as to why in my 13 years of being a Memphian and a lifetime of being an Elvis fan, that I have never run this race before, but I guarantee it will be on my race list every year going forward.

**Fact, did you know that Heartbreak Hotel is actually at the end of Lonely Street in Memphis?



Em in front of Graceland

 This is one of the bigger 5K's in Memphis. This year there was 1,122 runners on the course. So naturally, I was not looking for a fast time or a PR. If you have read my blog before than you can imagine that I was concerned about following one of my race rules. Rule #2, No one in a costume beats me. There were plenty of people in Elvis hair, Elvis sideburns and Elvis gold glasses, so even though I was using this as a training run, I needed to keep the rules. My wife, Emily also ran with me and our main goal was just to stay together, which is so hard in a big race. But I am getting ahead of myself.

As we arrived to the race site that morning, the weather was great, there was no chance of a Kentucky rain comin downnnn, and I was shocked at how easy parking was. They had guards directing us right into a spot. One thing I hate about some races is simply finding a place to park. Once the car was parked, we walked right up to the race site and visited real bathrooms, not porta potties! Score!!!! We then just kind of strolled around looking at the sponsors booths and getting our picture taken!

We decided to roll up to the gates of Graceland and take a picture when they opened the gates! We got to walk up to the house, take pictures and visit the alleged grave of Elvis Presley and family. It was amazing to see all the flowers and mementos that people from around the world have left at the gravesite. You have to remember that this was the end of Elvis week, so there had been thousands of fans in town all week! So after paying respect to the King, we made our way to the start line, but first we had to get a picture with an Elvis, which left us All Shook up!

We lined up about a third of the way back from the start line. We did move up to pass the approximately 100 NAVY men running in formation carrying a flag. That was actually pretty cool to see. So before we knew it, the gun sounded.

Now many people started running, but we weren't close enough to the official start line that I had to hold Em back until we crossed the timing mat. Once we hit the mat, the watches were started and we were on our way. Like I said earlier, my main goal was to finish under 30 minutes and to stay with my wife. We are running pretty well, and we finally find that line where you do not have to dodge people anymore and we get into a good pace, and then we see him. There is an Elvis impersonator running in a full Elvis jumpsuit, wearing Blue Suede Shoes. He was throwing out Thank you very much and telling every dog that barked in the neighborhood he was nothing but a hound dog!

My wife was running great. She has come a long ways with her running. She will tell you I pushed her, but That's Alright Momma, she also pushed me. At one point I looked down my Timex and we were hitting around an 8 minute mile! We got in a great pace and held on. She did not wear her Garmin, so she only knew what I told her regarding pace, and I purposely did not tell her much. So much for my training run! I felt great also during the entire run. Once we hit mile 2, I knew we were heading for a good time. We ran on the last stretch, we knew it Was Now or Never and Emily said Little Less Conversation, Little More Action as we hit the final stretch to the finish line. We turned in a 27:25. Emily hit a new PR! I was very proud of her and she was stoked for herself! It's funny, you have one midset pre race, then it shifts and you have another mindset during the race! Here are some race shots.

 

As we crossed the finish line, we got a cool finisher's medal with the iconic "TCB" on it, which stands for Taking care of business, which Elvis was famous for saying. Gotta admit, it is one of my favorite medals.

Love Me Tender, Love me some finishers medals!

Next we spent some time at the booths, cause the warden threw a  party at the county jail (Jailhouse Rock Reference!) ate some donuts (seemed appropriate) and then we hit the results table for our official times. It was not a Heartbreak Hotel for either of us! Our official results were that Emily finished 7 out of 90 in her AG 216/1122 overall. I finished 24/90 in my AG, 215/1122 OA and our time was 27:25.



I know, a Hunk, a hunk of Burnin Love right there!

"Elvis Presley has left the building"

Am I a Race T Shirt Bully?

The other night at church, my bride told me she saw several people wearing the 2012 St Jude Marathon race shirt while she was walking the halls. For some reason, I always think that there is some kindred bond that we have when I see someone wearing a shirt of a race that we ran together. A marathon shirt none the less is extra special, because I know the time, effort and pain that can go into a marathon.

So my question to my bride was "who was it? Did you know him?" She then proceeded to name a few guys I knew that ran the race, but then she said this, and I am going to paraphrase. There was one guy I asked about it and he said that he did not run the race, his dad works for the race and he got a lot of free shirts. Automatically, I immediately turn into these guys:



Yes, I turn into Cedric and Bob when I see some wearing a race shirt they did not run (unless it is a spouse, they put up with the other spouse training, so they get a pass) or if I see someone wearing the race shirt prior to finishing the race. Call me superstitious if you want, but you won't catch me in that position!

So, as we were leaving church the guy was walking out right in front of us. My bride nudged me and said "That's the guy, that's the guy who is wearing the shirt who did not run the race!" So I wanted to walk up to him and say in my best Hispanic accent:

 So, are you the guy who is wearing the shirt without running the race?  Are you going to run the race in order to wear the shirt? I wear the shirt and I ran the race. He ran the race and he is wearing the shirt, we are all wearing the shirts and we all ran the race, so why aren't you going to run the race? I guess we are just going to have to teach him to run the race if he wants to wear the shirt!

But, I didn't. I mean, Yeah, it does bug me to see people wearing race shirts they did not run, or to see people wearing the race shirt before they actually finish the race, but it is a personal hang up of mine. My bride gets on to me because I will not donate race shirts to the needy because they did not run the race and earn the shirts! Maybe this is something I will back off of one day, and maybe I am just kidding about all this!(Not really)  Honestly, I am getting so many that I try to give them to my wife to wear, because let's be real, after about 4-5 years of racing, most shirts do not mean as much to me, and I only wear certain ones. I do like to start up a conversation with people if I see they have the same shirt on though!

So, what is your stand on race shirts and people wearing them before a race or wearing them when they did not run the race? Are you a race t-shirt bully like me?