Last year’s Autumn Breeze 5-K took place on October 4, and although Martha took first place in her age group and I took second in mine, no photos survive of us standing at the finish line afterward beaming proudly. That’s because we were huddled with all of the other runners under a tiny tent in a downpour that began almost as soon as we began running the race.
“Anyone who was here last year, raise your hands,” our friend and co-race-director Anthony called out at the start of this year’s race, and several hands went up. We looked around at all of the other proud veterans of insane weather conditions last year who had lined up in light rain, listened to Anthony describe the course and thank the sponsors in great detail while it began raining harder and harder, and decided that we were already wet so we might as well do this thing.
As if to make up for last year’s horrendous conditions, this year it was clear and cool, just perfect for a race on one of the most beautiful courses we know about. We both lined up close to the starting line because there was no chip timing, and almost immediately began climbing up a slight incline (which would mean a fast downhill finish). Despite the paved surfaces, there was plenty of uneven terrain, especially in the final mile where roots had swollen the asphalt pavement on the greenway trail. But whenever I could, I glanced to the side at the picturesque Tallulah River. We crossed several bridges, one of them a swinging bridge that swayed underfoot. The leaves were just beginning to turn. It was a very beautiful race!
I passed a man with a bright red shirt and double knee braces in the first mile who I thought could have been in my age group, and then he caught up to me again and we began talking. He said he was 79 – “Ah, not in my age group!” I said – and he told me that a man up ahead in a white shirt was 82 years old, and he thought he might be able to overtake him. He pulled away from me gradually, and ultimately both Red Shirt and White Shirt finished ahead of me.
I had wanted to finish in under 40 minutes, but as I approached
the finish line I knew that would not be possible. Still, I was happy with a time of 40:54. I had run my best, and that is reward
enough. This is one of those races where
they hand you a numbered card as soon as you leave the finish chute, and I wandered
around for a few minutes before dutifully filling it out with name, age, gender,
time, and home town. When a young lady
hung it on the big age-group board behind her, I was surprised to see that I was No. 1. I looked over at the Female 65-69 group and
found Martha’s name on the top, too, in a time of 30:50.
So it was an especially rewarding day at Tallulah Gorge, and we celebrated at a place called The Edge CafĂ© and Bar, located just up the hill from where the race had finished, in the old Visitor’s Center which had been vacant for several years. It turned out to be a very nice place – good food and good beer – and we sat outside watching children throw frisbee and play corn hole on a wide lawn and climb on a child-sized climbing wall.
