Race Reports/Encouragement/Kudos - 4 and 5 December

[Big Vic]

Saturday, 4 Dec

4 – FFigawi (John) Texas Trail Runs 50K, Huntsville, TX
4 - Pungodingy (Angie) Jingle Bell Run 5K Concord NH
4 - suzannews (Suzanne) OUC 5K, Orlando, FL
4 - wellesleyprincess (Jennifer) St. Jude 1/2 Marathon Memphis, TN

Sunday, 5 Dec

5 - AlohaNow () Las Vegas RNR Half Marathon, Las Vegas, NV
5 - cewait (Charles) The LaPorte by the Bay Half
5 - syko () West Palm Beach Marathon West Palm Beach FL
5 - verticalchoas (Beth) NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10K


GO! WISH Team GO!

 

[jmasgat]

Go WISH'ers!! Have great races, one and all.

I did a spur of the moment race today--Jingle Bell Run in Northville, MI. A nice little course, with a little bit of roll and a section through a park and on Hines Drive (anyone from around here is familiar with that road because the Martian marathon uses a stretch of it and it floods quite often!) Finished on the track of Northville Downs-- a horse track.

Started fast, slowed in the middle, picked it up at the end--I think. I didn't wear a watch or Garmin since this was supposed to be a fun run. Finished in 23:18, which is a PR assuming the course measures out correctly. Apparently, to run fast, I need to sign up for the race at the last moment and not wear any watch/tracking device!

Little samples of tortilla soup from Qdoba, nice rolls form a local bread company, coffee, cocoa. All in all, an enjoyable race.

Maura

 

[mousemgr2]

Maura - Thanks for posting about that race. We were going to do that one today, but I had an appointment I couldn't reschedule. So, we are adding that race to the list for next year. Are there other local races this time of year that you would recommend?

Hope everyone has a wonderful racing weekend!

Susan

 

[verticalchaos]

Well...I've got my stuff laid out for tomorrow. Tights, a long-sleeved shirt, my Front Runners singlet with number already pinned on to go over the long-sleeved shirt, hat with ponytail hole, socks and d-tagged shoes. Gloves are by the door.

Yes, it's going to be COLD!!!!!

I'm debating arm warmers under the long sleeves, but not sure if I'll overheat or not. I've traditionally "run hot", but I've noticed since losing 33 pounds I get colder a lot easier. I guess worst case I put them on, then take them off and tie them to my fuel belt (I don't always get thirsty on the course water station schedule, and sometimes it's too hard to get over to the table or I'm running at a good pace and don't want to slow to a walk) if necessary.

I need to empty the backpack of anything non-essential so I'll have room for a hoodie AND coat to roll up in there.

Given that this is a very hilly course (starts with the hill that doesn't quit and ends with another beast of a hill) and the temps, I'm not going to be down on myself if I don't beat my first 10K time of 1:17:19. But I've put 1:15:00 as my reach goal.

Whatever happens, breakfast with the other women in running club awaits me afterwards!

 

[verticalchaos]

(yes, I copied this directly from my blog)

Don't worry!! I didn't have seizures!!!

The Kleinerman 10K was not only my first 10K (and race) in Central Park, it was my first official New York Road Runners race! Woo!!!

I got up at 0 dark hundred hours to get ready and head out for the race. Socks and shoes, tights, long-sleeved pink shirt, Front Runners singlet, gloves, hoodie, fleece jacket, and skull cap with ponytail hole. Yeah, I was cute. Headed out to the G-train (to the L to the 4, 5, or 6).

That's where the stray dog comes in. Not on my platform, but on the other one, there was a really cute Staffie (aka Pit Bull) trotting back and forth. Not bothering anyone, just trotting back and forth and looking lost. Can't say the same for the jerk who was sitting on a bench complaining loudly about it but doing nothing (and sorry dude...if the dog was vicious, it would have chomped the heck out of you and I would have laughed). He was bothering EVERYONE. Some guy who looked like a security person for somewhere got the dog to follow him up the stairs, but the dog wouldn't go outside. Probably too cold. It wasn't long before the dog trotted back down the stairs. When the train came on that side, the poor baby was freaking out, not sure where to go at all. He ended up getting on the train just before the doors shut, so I have no clue what happened to him after that. I hope he is able to find a good home!!!!

The transfer to the L was not a problem. But the 4, 5 and 6 were running crazy slow. Like, hopstop said the trip should take me an hour and 8 minutes. It took over 90! I'm glad I left extra early. Next time I'll know to leave even earlier. At Union Square, a bunch of us just hopped on the 4, which came first, and then at 86th transferred to the 6 - which took FOREVER and we ended up with a train PACKED with runners. So FAIL on the MTA this weekend! And it's not like there was construction!!! Grr!!!!

Trotted over to Central Park and to baggage drop. Then hoofed it to my section of the starting area. By the time I got over people were moving up and colors were getting mixed in. People were just jumping in wherever. As they were doing pre race announcements, there were some snow flurries that drifted down! Yay!!!!

National Anthem was sung (not that this girl behind me knew it since she talked full-volume all the way through it even after she said "Why did everyone stop talking?" and then continued blabbering on) and the start horn sounded. We could see the front people start out and there was some movement at the beginning of the line. And then...

"We need an EMT to the starting line IMMEDIATELY!!" followed by "We need an EMT and a defibrillator to the starting line IMMEDIATELY!!"

Um, ***????? Already?????

Big thanks to the woman beside me who kept me from freaking out - reminded me that there are people who will take care of whoever it is and just to focus on my race. I still got off to a shaky start with all that. I couldn't really tell what was happening when we passed the area, but from what I understand, a spectator collapsed right as the race was starting and was apparently having a seizure, then stopped breathing or something. SCARY!!!!!!!!!

I decided to try the 4:1 ratio again. It wasn't my smartest decision with the cold and the hills right to start, but I ran as much as I could. Did more walking than I had planned for sure - especially on the hills. I did have some fellow Front Runners doing some awesome cheering on the course and a little coaching as well, so that rocked!!!!!

I did have that weird experience - not sure if it was exactly a runner's high or what - where I remember being on Harlem Hill and the next thing I'm aware of, I was at the other end of Central Park near Columbus Circle. Like around the time I started wondering where the 102nd St. transverse was or where the Delacorte was, etc. Apparently what I thought was the 102nd in my little bubble was actually the 72nd St transverse. Very weird! Obviously I kept on running!! There's no other way I could have gotten there. I was either concentrating so hard on what I was doing I didn't notice or else I just sort of went into lala land mentally. LOL. So basically I'm not sure about Miles 2 and 3 until I got to the bottom of Central Park.

More awesome Front Runners (well, the same ones but in different places) appeared around onto the bottom of East Drive. Linda ran me to Mile 4, encouraging me and coaching me all the way there. Somewhere around 4.5 or so I HAD to take a pit stop. I didn't want to, but with my cough, the fact that I had to KIND OF, maybe go to the bathroom meant that yes, I HAD to or things wouldn't have been pretty. Shortly after that I passed (again since they'd moved) "Koach Kelsey" and another of our guys (sorry...my ID is off a little right now) who were really encouraging. Once I'm done with the WDW Half I want to do some of Kelsey's workouts. I just don't want to mess up what I've got going right now.

Got to Mile 5 and felt pretty good. I knew the end was in sight, and I felt like I might be able to pull out a PR. Probably not my stretch goal of 1:15:00, but an improvement on my 1:17:19 from October. But I was a little conservative at that point because I didn't want to look like death warmed over crossing the finish line. LOL. I hit my last walk interval kinda close to the finish - but I decided I was just going to run through the last part of it and keep going to the finish.

Per my Garmin, which I stopped for the pit stop, my time was 1:16:18. I just looked at my results and the official chip time is 1:17:45. So I guess technically I can't count it as a PR (I don't know the rules on that). But I feel good about how I did.

Then it was off to BGB (Big Girl Breakfast) with the women of Front Runners. We had a bit of a goof-up at the restaurant in that while we had reserved a big table, another running club showed up first and the restaurant assumed they were us. Oops! But it was all good. And proving how my brain works or doesn't when I'm tired and hungry, I ordered...

A bacon, EGG, and cheese omelet.

Yeah...confused the waitress for a moment there. I rule!

But yes. I have now completed a 10K in Central Park. I have now completed a 10K in the cold - oh, and learned that apparently I need to dress for like 20 degrees warmer than it is as I ended up shedding the gloves and hat before or within Mile 2 as I was overheating. SOOOO glad I didn't put the arm warmers under the long sleeves!

Next Saturday? The Jingle Jog!

~beth

UPDATED INFO: The person who was down at the start had a seizure and a heart attack. I'm fuzzy on if he was a spectator, course volunteer, NYRR person or a racer. Several racers (it was in/around a higher corral) sacrificed their own times in the race to help him before the medics could get there. Word of mouth as of the end was that he's "ok", but there's been no official word. Given how many people (like pretty much all of us racing) are aware of a little of what happened, hopefully we'll at least get an update on "the person's" status.

 

[cewait]

I can’t remember what came first, the desire to enter the Toughest 10k in Texas last September or the multi-race discount package that coupled the 10k and today’s La Porte by the Bay Half Marathon. Both have Texas DOT hooks… The Toughest 10k has four crossings of the Kemah Causeway and the LP Half has a double crossing of the Fred Hartman Bridge that was until this fall the fourth largest cable stayed bridge in the US. The RD sums it up well with his hook line, “The Highest Off-the-Ground Half Marathon in Texas w/ 177 feet water clearance) Simple math would place 350 feet of climbing in the half marathon… the Garmin claims about 700 feet, I guess that if the Garmin were in a vehicle and not on a swinging arm that the exact number approximates 420.

The morning exercise was focused on what to wear. It really would not have been a hard decision with race start temps around 50F. the complicating factors were the wind which was fresh around 15 mph with gusts to 25 mph, 5 miles of the course being not on ground allowing the full force of the wind to push on you and the fact that while in the air, the wind was influenced with water from the bays and ship channel. I finally decided that the better choice was to dress for 45, layer for 35-40 and throw a sweatshirt in for trips to get the chip and porta potty.

I arrived at the race start site around 6:45 or about 1:15 pre-race. I immediately went out to grab my chip and then decided to nap for a few moments in the car. I made a couple trips out and about to see how the wind felt in the bayside park and decided that I would add a short sleeved jersey over my long sleeved shirt. Dang, all that fretting and the shirt was still on my desk. Well, I reasoned that I was really just a little overdressed for the actual temps so I would be OK. Around 7:40 the RD called/pleaded for runners to come to the line. It was not until about 7:50 or even 55 before the corral filled. I was beginning to think I was running this race alone with a few elites.

The gun went off and thankfully the first mile was with the wind. That allowed a nice 9 minutes or so to warm prior to facing the wind. But even as we went rounded the southern block and headed back into the wind the trees and house allowed us to keep warm. The first 3 miles were great. I was on a 2008/9 season race pace. I knew that I needed to pull up a little so I slowed up a bit for the fourth mile. The fourth mile also brought us to the La Porte Freeway and the approach to the Hartman Bridge. I gelled at mile 4 in anticipation of needing a boost once we were actually on the structure. At mile 4.5 we crossed a jersey barrier using a triathlon swim ramp and were now on the freeway and headed up. The bridge has two distinct pieces. The approaches are sloped at about a 2-3% incline and the channel span slopes at about a 6% incline. On the initial assault of the hill I had a nice run up to the top and then put a small walk break in to not hammer the legs as long on the steeper down section. Once on the approach slope I set the pace at the flat land pace and pushed on to the end of the bridge. Once on ground we made a one mile loop and then hit the approach again. This time, the wind was behind and the bridge seemed a little taller. I think it had a lot to do with the fact there is a 45 degree bend in the approach lanes that we were on and you got a full side view of the structure. Again up with little issue… this time, I played a little pied piper and brought a crew up the bridge. As we neared the bottom I noticed that the EMS folks were working feverishly on a young kid. He was not looking too good so I have been searching the web to see how he faired. What’s really cool about out and back races like this is that I met the caboose around mile 9.5. I am sure that she received a free ride back from the other side of the bridge but the group around me cheered her on nonetheless. Having been on that end of many races in my day I have a great deal of empathy for what they are thinking as they face the endless faces of folks approaching. We exited the freeway on the same swim ramp but going down it seemed so much steeper.

The run back from the bridge was flat and really uneventful…other than a funky set of calf cramps. They were not a real issues until the last quarter mile when I wanted to be sure of not getting photographed walking in the last mile. Time wise I ended up within a couple minutes of the Wine and Dine, RNR SA and a couple 13 mile training runs. That is great news as the other halfs were FLAT.

On the ride back to the start area, we were asked if this was a do again race….i think unanimously it was. The RD who does a lot of the events in that area of the Houston metroplex does a great job. His courses are fun, he has great aid stations, and he has surplus supplies so if a shirt is not sized correctly, a hat is dirty, etc, he has no issue making it right. Oh, he also always has beer and some other great food to munch on at the finish and has enough lines so that the wait is minimal.
Well only one other race this year; or is it next? The next door subdivision has a resolution run that starts at the strike of the New Year. I think it is the first race of 11, but results come in as the last race of the year.

 

[verticalchaos]

Sounds like a great race Coach!!

NY Road Runners do a midnight run in Central Park at midnight on NYE. Apparently it hasn't counted towards their 9+1 arrangement for guaranteed entry into the marathon the next calendar year (as in, if in 2011 I run 9 NYRR qualifying races and volunteer at 1 I'll have guaranteed entry into the 2012 NYC Marathon), but this year it will - and you could pick at registration which you wanted it to count towards. Since the races I'm doing in 2010 aren't counting for marathon entry, I opted to count it for 2011.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

December 4 - Girls on the Run 5K

As some people know, I have been involved with Girls on the Run for a couple years, now. Girls on the Run is a national program for elementary school girls that teaches girls about healthy living habits and emotional health, while training to run a 5K race. I coached for the last few seasons at one school, but can't coach this season because of my young son. However, I did volunteer as a running buddy and ran the practice 5K a few weeks ago and the "real" 5K yesterday. The race is not huge, but respectable - about 500 girls, 500 running buddies, and 1000 other runners who sign up for the race. It makes for a pretty exciting first 5K for the girls.

The weather wasn't too bad yesterday morning, but the place where the check-in/meet up area was set up was right next to Lake Washington and there was a frigid wind coming off the lake. Running buddies were supposed to be there by 9:00 and I couldn't feel my toes by the time the race started at 10:00.

Though I have coached a few times, I had never run the 5K with the girls and so this was a new experience for me. My girl that I was paired with was Stacy, a 4th grader that I coached last season. She's an extraordinarily loud and bouncy girl (I gave her the "Wild Child" award at the end of last season ) and she was really excited to have "the coach" as her running buddy. She insisted at pushing up to the front of the starting pack, and took off really fast once the race started. After a few minutes, we were passed by another girl from her school, Avery, who was the overall winner for last year's 5K. Stacy insisted at keeping pace with Avery for a few minutes and I nearly died when we started up a really steep hill at about a 7 minute mile. Fortunately for me, Stacy also tired out quickly and started to walk, but she blamed me for slowing her down.

Stacy did really well and kept up a pretty steady pace with no encouragement until about 2.25 miles. At that point she started complaining about a sore knee and needed a lot of encouragement to keep going. We kept finding funny-looking trees to run to, and then taking "walking with purpose" breaks. At about 2.9 miles she started hearing people cheering at the finish line, and suddenly her knee felt better and we sprinted to the end. Our final time was 42:15, which is a pretty awesome time for a 9 year old. Stacy got her medal at the end, and I returned her to her parents.

Girls on the Run is a fantastic program and it's a lot of fun to work with the girls. They particularly enjoy having the one-on-one attention of their running buddy, and it's a lot of fun getting to experience the race with them. It's not he fastest I've ever run a 5K, but it's definitely the most satisfying race I've run in recent memory!

 

[verticalchaos]

Sarah ~ Sounds like a great experience! Thanks for sharing and for all your work with the program!