Lady Distance Classic 2011

Catching up and writing about some recent races.

Thinking about how it’s kind of funny that although I am not really a fan of women-only events, in running or in life in general, two of the races I ran in August were exactly that.

First, about the Fleet Feet Lady Distance Classic, which I ran all the way back on August 7. This is an annual event that I have done every year since its inception. There is a 10k and a 5k. The last few years I have done the 10k.

The good things about this race are:

• They give you a technical top

• There is a great “fitness festival” after the race that is mostly a “food” festival and not even so much about fitness

• It is reasonably well-organized.

Not much that I don’t like about it, really. It starts pretty early but on a hot August day that is not such a bad idea. The course is not too boring even though half of it runs through an office park. I guess the only thing I’m really not crazy about is all the women who know each other and are part of the same training groups or whatever, so when I show up all by myself I have nobody to talk to. But I don’t have time to join those training groups so what can I do?

Last year I ran a 55:15 for 4th in my age group. This year I am a little thinner and a little fitter, so I was hoping to take a chunk off that time and possibly get a placement. But realistically, I should have been expecting a slightly more modest improvement based on my recent 5k times.

It was warmer and more humid than last year, so that didn’t help.

I “warmed up” (as if that were necessary) by jogging to the start from the parking area (half mile? Or less?) and then jogging around some more.

First three miles go mostly around an office park, and then back to the starting area. I went through the first two miles in 17:13. There is a “stroller” division that starts after the regular runners, and each year I gauge my progress by how long it takes the strollers to catch up to me. This year I was almost to mile three before the first stroller passed me, which was better than last year. Mile 3 was 8:56.

I saw Judy Harmony around there somewhere, but she turned off to finish the 5k.

The second half of the 10k is hillier. You run around some subdivisions and then back to the Blue Ash Rec Center. Mile 4 was 9:16 (uphill), mile 5 was 8:08 (downhill), mile 6 was 9:43 (uphill, but at least I didn’t blow up like I did last year) and then 1:41 for the last .2.

My official, chip time was 54:42, which was only 33 seconds better than last year, so I was kind of bummed out about it. But as I said earlier, that was really what I should have reasonably been expecting. I did beat one of the trail running women who always beats me out on the trails, and I beat her by over a minute. I also beat Jennifer Black (sister of my Congresswoman) by about 45 seconds, and it has been a long time since I finished a race ahead of her, so that is something.

Afterwards, it took me awhile before I was ready to eat. They had a sno-cone stand. I had two sno-cones. They were very good. Later I made my way to The Cake by Margo. I told the volunteer that I had been looking forward to The Cake all week long.

Looked like it was going to be awhile before they gave out the age group awards, and I didn’t think I had won anything, so before too long I was jogging back to the car, ending up with about 8 miles for the day. Was 7 of 31 this time around, and 82 of 387 runners overall. Didn’t recognize the names of most of these women, so I wonder where my usual competition went. Numbers are down a bit from previous years, what is up with that? I wouldn’t think the economy would affect entries at this event, and it is the type of race I would expect to keep growing in popularity.