The Race: 30th annual Mercy Heart Mini-Marathon 15k (www.heartmini.org ) in Cincinnati, OH. There is also a 5k race and a 10k non-competitive walk.
The Course: Out and back along a scenic parkway, with some pleasant river views but no shade (on hot days) and no protection from the wind (on cold days) and no flat portions (every day). Always a challenge.
My Goal: Pre-race I am thinking a 1:22 would be nice. This proves to be more than a bit ambitious…
The Reality: Lack of training and a hot day conspire to give me a 1:28:52. Okay, at least it’s faster than the year when I was recovering from knee surgery, but it’s slower than last year and that’s not good!
What I bought at the Expo, where all apparel was 70 percent off and shoes were $40: A pair of Smartwool base layer tights, a winter running hat with ear flaps, a regular running hat in bright blue (I can’t run without my hats) and a pair of Adidas Supernova Cushions in Creamsicle Orange. Spent about $76 for all this stuff, not bad.
How hot was it?: I don’t know about the exact temperature at the start, but when I finished I saw a thermometer on a bank read 74 degrees. It did climb over 80 in the afternoon. When you’ve just come out of some of the coldest temperatures of the winter, it’s hard to heat-acclimate to 70-plus degree temperatures overnight.
I took the doggies out for a little walk around the block in the morning before driving down to the race, and I broke a sweat then so I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. I was already down to shorts and singlet so I couldn’t really take much more off!
Drove downtown about an hour before the 10 am start. It’s bad news to start a race at 10 am on a day when the temps are going to climb to the 80s! Went out for my warm-up jog around 9:30, perhaps a bit early but I was getting bored. I did two laps of one block, then two blocks of another block near the start, thinking all the while that downtown is really gross and no wonder I don’t come down here anymore if I can avoid it. It’s sad but it’s true. Even the Tiffany’s is gross. Bet they’re sorry they moved here.
Lined up with people who looked like me, for lack of a better idea. I guess there were pace signs but I didn’t see them. This year for the first time, we had chip timing, so it wasn’t going to matter so much where I started from. Took me around three minutes to reach the start line, which was the longest ever for me in this race. But, didn’t have to run around many people even though it was crowded, so I guess I was in the right place.
Last year I managed to run a fairly even pace despite the hills. This year I did not:
Mile 1 – 8:45 – hey right on pace but not for long
Mile 2 – 9:24
Mile 3 – 8:36
Mile 4 – 9:18
Mile 5 – 9:19
Mile 6 – 10:24, actually I forgot to stop my watch at mile 5 and had to figure this one out later. This mile included the little side stretch up the steep hill that they throw in just for kicks, and I was pretty fried.
Mile 7 – 10:17
Mile 8 – 9:38, I spot two people I recognize and actually pass them. The first is an old geezer who generally runs about the same pace I do. Today he is wearing an ancient red cotton singlet which I guess is a race t-shirt from maybe 30 years ago when this race first started. The second person is “tan guy who doesn’t wear a shirt and should” --- today he is without shirt, naturally. He beat me in that 5k a few weeks ago so passing him today is at least something. Since I am seeing these guys that I recognize from other races way back here with me I guess I am where I am supposed to be, and it isn’t just that I’m having an off day. They are probably thinking, there goes “heavy-breathing fat woman,” damn she is passing me! I am having a bad day!
Mile 9 – 10:01
Last .3 – 3:09, no reason to do anything more than jog it in.
Cross the finish line and some other old geezer shakes my hand, thanks me for pulling him along. I was unaware of his presence during the race. What is up with these old geezers?
Most disheartening thing, at least three times in the last three miles, various women asked me how I was doing and tried to say something encouraging to me as they passed me. Did I really look that bad? What is up with this? Look, when you’re going to pass me, just pass me. Especially if we don’t know each other. Jeez. They are lucky they didn’t get hit.
Okay, so my finish time put me 41 of 152 women in my age group and 442 of 1443 women---although due to some error at the time of registration they had me listed as “male,” seems to be a trend for me at this race since last year they did not record my finish time at all. Doesn’t matter since the age group awards only went to the top 11 women in my age group anyway. I was 1397 of 3038 runners overall. Among the women who kicked my butt were my Congresswoman (www.jeanschmidt.com ), she of the big mouth and diminutive stature, and another friend from my dog-training club, who just started running last summer.
Post-race, I skipped my planned cool down jog since the area around the finish was so congested and I just wanted to get out of downtown. So, had a banana, disgusting Quaker rice cake, tasty fake lemonade (did not realize it was fake until later), the traditional hot dog and some water and headed for home.
Was going to use this race to help me decide whether or not I should still go to St. Louis for the marathon in a couple of weeks. Have decided the unusually warm weather prevented an accurate judgment, so despite lack of training am heading to St. Louis anyway, for another five hour slog through my state number 26.
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