Conquer the Hill

I went back to Evendale as I do most years for the traditional 4th of July 10k race. I can remember when this was basically it if you wanted to do a 4th of July race around here, but now there is a lot of competition, mostly from 5ks. This race features a challenging 10k course with two significant hills, and a separate 4-mile walk course that avoids the first big hill.

The race starts and finishes at the Evendale rec center. The event is a fundraiser for the community youth group. For your entry fee, you get a tee-shirt, a marked course with several water stops (Gatorade at half way, too), lots of cut-up cold fruit and bagels at the finish, prizes for age group winners (I've never come close because there's always some fast chick in my age group) and a chance at a door prize if you stick around.

Last year was a miserably hot one and i finished about five minutes slower than I expected. This year we had about as good weather as I can remember, cool and overcast at the start. Still, I expected to be slower than last time because I am significantly heavier and not in as good shape as last year.

Did my warmup mile up and down the first big hill. On the way down, my knee started bothering me and I began to wonder if it was even worth running. Wished I had brought along a cooler of ice for after the race.

One nice thing at the start is they have little pace signs set up to give you a suggestion of where to start. it doesn't matter much in this race with just a couple hundred people, but it's something that more races should do.

I was thinking that I would be lucky to break an hour, so I put myself in the 9:00 group. Saw only two people I recognized in the crowd---a couple of the old geezer guys (older than me, that is). Stood next to a couple of thirty-something women having an annoying, but impossible to ignore, conversation about how to persuade your parents to get serious about estate planning.

Instead of the cannon that I remembered from previous years, there was just a starting pistol fired to get us going. There were probably just a couple of hundred people so it didn't take me long to get across the start line. I took it easy for the first mile, which is basically all uphill coming out behind the rec center and up Glendale-Milford Rd. I hit the first mile marker in 10 flat. I knew it would be my slowest mile of the race so i was not worried.

The second mile is mostly downhill through a pleasant subdivision. People are always out on their lawns, some with hoses if it is a hot day. That is one of the things that makes this a nice community event. What it lacks in excitement and hoopla it makes up for in genuine good feeling.

I grabbed a cup of water at the aid station, and my watch said 8:43 for the second mile. That seemed just about right.

The third mile is mostly flat and straight down Reading Rd. through the commercial section of Evendale. I grabbed a little more water at the next aid station but I didn't drink it. Just poured it on my arms. I was starting to heat up. Mile three was an 8:44.

The fourth mile takes us up and around another subdivision. It's not as steep as the hill in the first mile but it is long, and it hits you when you are getting fatigued from the previous miles. At this point on the course I tend to hook up with the walkers, so it can be falsely encouraging to suddenly be passing a bunch of people until you realize that they are walkers! Also saw the race leaders on their way down the hill. Mile 4 was a 9:39. Felt better than last year at this point in the race. It had started raining but that felt good and the roads were not getting slippery (which is always a concern for me when it begins raining during a race).

I had some Gatorade at the aid station, and I was grateful that it was there. Mile 5 was an 8:42. i was pleased with the consistency of my pace. The last mile is back up Reading Rd. towards the rec center. I felt good and wanted to get the race over with so i picked it up and tried to see how many people I could pass. First up I had to pass those two irritating women from the start. That was the main thing. Passed a few others along the way as well. Mile 6 was an 8:23.

The last .2 is through the parking lot of the rec center and there is just a slight incline before you reach the finish. I pushed hard (even though my time was not spectacularly fast) and crossed the line just before what was apparently a teenage girl running with her dad (I realized after I passed them). It's hard to tell sometimes how old people are when you're running behind them. All I knew was that she was a woman and what if she was in my age group. I had to cross the line ahead of her! Anyway 1:52 for the last .2.

They still go really old school with the results at this race, by handing out the little place cards that you fill in with your time if you know it. And then you put the card in a little plastic bin for your age group. Newbie road racers, this is the way all our local races did it twenty years ago. The cards are aso color coded so maybe the top fifty or something get one color, and then it switches to something else. i assume this makes it easier to sort out the awards. Anyway i saw right away that there was already at least one card in my age group box and it was a different color from mine so there was one fast old lady there and I didn't need to stay around for the awards unless I really cared about a chance at a door prize.

And by now it was starting to rain harder. By the time I left the parking lot it was pouring. So the best thing for me was to head home to ice my knee. It hadn't bothered me during the race but I knew that ice would be a good idea.

Final results: my time was 56:02 (8:53 pace). I was 3rd of 9 in the age group and 15 of 80 women. But I was almost three minutes faster than last year, which did please me since I had expected to be slower despite having better weather to race in.

Next race will be the East Fork Backpack Trail run, assuming there are not many woman entered in the 5.6 mile handicapped event, and assuming that the trails have a chance to dry out a little before race day. I'm not going if it won't help me improve my Dirty Dozen standings or if there is a risk I'll get hurt trying to run on another ridiculously muddy course.

A Few Little Race Reports

I have been bad about writing these lately so I am going to do a few short ones from my last few races.

May 17: Kilgour 5k

A Love-Hate Relationship

This is the little 5k that raises money for the sports program at Kilgour elementary school. The course is through the neighborhood around the school and Ault Park. It's an evening race and always on the first day of the Hamilton agility trial, so I end up rushing to get home, then I jog up to the race to get my shirt, jog back home, and then finally back to the school for an extended warmup.  This year got to chat with my old friend/former co-worker David Jones and we discussed our love-hate relationship with this race. It's a tough course and often hot so we generally run worse than we expect to.

This year I thought it would be great if I could break 28 minutes and that is just about what happened. Splits were 8:44,8:41, 9:25 (not sure what happened) and 53 seconds for the last .1 for a final time of 27:43, which was enough to win my age group but as usual I did not stick around for the awards. They did have some Yagoot frozen yogurt after the race and that was really nice. I was 80 of 421 runners and 16th women overall.

May 19: Mt. Airy Trail Race

Should Have Taken the Offer

It rained a lot in the days leading up to this race so the trails were a mess. In previous years I have run relatively faster on this course because the hills are not as steep and it's less technical. Before the race began Bob Roncker warned us about the rough trail conditions and offered free entry to another race to anyone who wished to withdraw.

I should have taken him up on the offer. I started off okay in the grass but as soon as we hit the trails it was deep, solid mud the entire way. Mud scares me lots so I had to slow way down. I actually ended up getting passed by a woman who generally finishes quite far behind me, and I ran most of the second half of the race behind her. it was nice to have somebody to chat with but disheartening to finish 25 minutes slower than last year. I did manage to pull ahead of her over the last half mile or so. Final time was 1:20:58, and place was 30 of 46 women, 87 of 112 runners and 66 of 112 age-graded. I had to ice my knee and my butt before getting in the car to drive home.

June 16: French Park Creek Crossings Trail Race

I Get Out-Kicked

My knee has continued to bother me ever since the stupid Mt. Airy outing in the mud. But this is my favorite trail race and I didn't want to miss it. I thought the trails would be in decent shape because the weather had been drier recently.

I chatted some with Brenda W. pre-race. I was ahead of her until about halfway, where there was some mud and I got scared and had to ease up. After that I probably was babying myself a little but better safe than sorry. I was surprised to see Brenda not far ahead of me coming up the steps near the end. I caught up to her and said "Now we're racing." This tunred out to be a fatal error. At first, she gave up and told me to go on. Then somehow she found her second wind, and she kicked past me to beat me by two seconds! The photographer got some great pictures of what I look like when I am getting outkicked.

Final time was 41:33 (last year was more like 35 minutes), 46 of 73 women, 153 of 189 runners, and 101 of 189 age-graded.

June 22: Heel to Heal 5k

Third Place Woman Wins a Real Prize

Signed up for this first time event to get a time to base my speed training paces off as I got ready to begin speed work the following week. This little race was a benefit for Healing Touch. Healing Touch is an energy healing technique. I attended a seminar on healing touch with Libby years ago. I think, bottom line, is that it is a bunch of hooey, but the practitioners are nice people and sincere.

I did not expect the race to be very big, but they did have a somewhat professional web site that made it sound like there could be a good sized crowd. I picked up my technical shirt and race number the day before at Mojo Running in West Chester. There's a running shoe store in West Chester? Who knew? Anyway, it didn't look like they had very many packets to give out .

The race course was on a paved path around the lake in Voice of America Park. We did a lap of the small parking lot, then two laps of the trail. it was a hot, sunny morning and there was no shade on the course. But the field was a tiny one. I guessed about 50 people (there were actually a total of 57, including the walkers). This was one of the smallest races I've ever done.

I didn't recognize anybody there. They told us that we should line up in front only if we thought we would break 20 minutes. In fact, nobody in the race broke 20 minutes! Not even they guy who won!  I lined up next to a woman who looked to be about my age, and tried to suss out if she was competition for me. Figured out that she was not. The race began, and as we left the parking lot I counted just 10 people ahead of me, including a couple of women.

I ran the first mile in 8:01, which was proabably too fast. I did manage to pass one of the women. We got passed by an old man, though, so there were still ten ahead of me. Mile two was an 8:49. There was a water stop about half way around the lake so we hit it twice. I didn't drink the water but I swished it around and dumped it on my arms.

In the last half mile or so I passed a guy, but he passed me back right before the finish. Whatever. But I ran most of the way by myself.

There were no mile markers so I was glad to have my GPS watch. Second and third miles were each 8:49. The course was fairly flat with a couple of small hills and some twisty turns.

Post race they had bananas, trail mix, granola bars and water (not cold, it was sitting out in the sun).  

I wasn't going to stay around for the awards unless I thought it was something good like a coffee mug, but I decided to stay anyway out of respect for the people putting on the race. I felt bad that it was not better attended, because overall it was a nice little race. In the meantime, I had a healing touch session. This took about 15 minutes and required me to lay flat on my back on a massage table. This turned out to be a mistake because I didn't get a chance to stretch. I almost fainted when I finally sat up. The Healing Touch did not do anything for me. What i really needed was a healing bag of ice. There was an EMT van there but they did not have any ice. If you had a heart attack they could help you, but if you sprained an ankle you were SOL.

It took them awhile to figure out the awards since they were doing it all by hand. I actually heard a couple people complain about not having chip time! Seriously. They could have handed out popsicle sticks. They could have had a chimpanzee handing out popsicle sticks and another chimpanzee recording our times.

Anyway, they got it done, and turned out I was 1 of 2 in my age group (no surprise there) but also third woman overall. This last was a bit of a surprise because I thought there was another woman ahead of me. Even better my prize was a $20 gift card to Roncker's. This was actually better than the second place prize which was a sportsbag and I definitely don't need any more of those. So I was glad I stuck around.

Final time was 26:35. Three of 14 women 11 of 28 runners overall. Final funny thing, a few days later in the mail they sent me the prize for 3rd place MALE and another $20 gift card, which I am returning to them. Not sure why the cards were for Roncker's instead of Mojo, another mystery.

June 29: Hyde Park Blast

Another Love Hate Relationship

I have only missed this race one time, but most years I have spent a lot of verbiage dissing it. I think I'm finally through with that because it has evolved into a nice race. And they are finally starting to contribute what I consider to be a respectable amount to charity, considering what they must bring in.

i expected to be slower than last year because I am so much fatter and have been slower lately. I have come to terms with that. It is what it is. The rest of this training cycle, I will just try to do my best and not have overly ambitious goals.

The weather was nicer than usual this year (just a little cooler) and they moved the start up to 7:30 am which helps a lot. I jogged to the Square from home as my warmup. At the last minute before leaving the house I decided to try wearing my iFitness belt so I could carry my phone to take some pics and log in a post-race beer to Untappd (sadly, that was the real reason).

The ifitness belt felt okay even though you it is designed so the phone rides on your belly rather than your backside, although I did have some bad cramps later when I got home and I wonder if it was from the belt.

Jogged down to the start, snapped a couple pics, tried to line up in an appropriate spot not too far back. Almost 2300 runners and I only saw three people the whole way that I recognized (Jean Schmidt and Jennifer Black at the start, Judy Harmony as I passed her at mile 3).

Splits were fairly consistent: 8:32, 9:05 (uphill), 8:31, and 8:29, for a final time of 34:37. This was better than I expected but I guess in line with the 5k from last week. Actually just 29 seconds slower than last year, so that's not too horrible. The race results site only has times listed by actual age (not group) but I think I was 11th in my age group, 280 of 1322 women, and 721 of 2292 runners.

Post race I did have a few sips of a Coors Light so I could make strides toward my All-American Badge on Untappd. It was very cold and actually didn't taste bad, but it didn't seem like a good idea to finish it.