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.
No comments:
Post a Comment