I'm going to try to start blogging again. I'll begin by posting this one I wrote last year. Then maybe I'll post about a few recent races. And then if I ever have the energy or discipline I'll return to finish up some I started last year and the previous year and never finished!
I wanted to switch to the Three-Way, which is what they call it if you do the half instead of the full marathon, but they told me that it was sold out. I could switch to the half marathon but it wouldn't count towards the Three-Way. I was confident that I could finish the Three-Way somehow but I was not so sure that extra half-marathon would be a good idea for me. But I really hate skipping races I've signed up for, so I decided to take it one race, and then one mile, at a time.
Little Kings Mile
This is the second race of three races in the beer series. If you do all three races in one year, you qualify as a "Brew Hog" and they give you a special prize. I don't know what the prize is but assume it is a beer related item. I signed up for all three races, and I did the Bockfest 5k back in March already. Won my age group in that one even though I wasn't really trying. And there were over 40 women in my age group, and that would really be something if most of them weren't smoking and drinking during the race. Well, I didn't actually see that but Susan says she saw people drinking before the race and smoking at the start line.I love mile races but I was debating the wisdom of this because 1) my knee has been acting up; 2) I am not sure that I will be able to do the last race in the series, and if so then there was less reason to do the mile; 3) I had a lot on the schedule already for this weekend with that ridiculous four-way idea plus houseguests arriving Friday night.
If the weather wasn't good I was definitely going to skip it. Drove down Friday afternoon to the Flying Pig expo to pick up my four-way packet and was thinking about just staying down there even though I would have to move my car to a more convenient lot. But then decided I had time to come home and change.
Packet pickup was 6:30 pm at the Lager House. Could not find parking near the Lager House because there was a Reds game starting at 7:10 and it was a pretty nice night for a ballgame. And we haven't had a lot of those yet. Drove around The Banks for a few minutes and finally gave up and parked under the Westin. Found the ramps a little tight with my wide-ass new cargo van but there was plenty of parking below.
Jogged down to the Lager House to get my number and tee shirt, then jogged back to the car to drop off the shirt. Jogged back to the Lager House and considered trying to take the bus to the start, but decided to just jog there, along with many other runners. The race ran straight down Main Street, from Over the Rhine back to The Banks. I might not feel so comfortable trotting through Over the Rhine by myself in the evening but with dozens of other runners keeping me company it was just fine.
I was wearing a red shirt I had purchased in Grand Rapids that said "Runs on Beer" in big letters on the front. I had my longsleeved red tech shirt from that marathon underneath. On the bottom I wore black capris and a sparkly red shirt that I had purchased that afternoon at the expo. Only one person complimented me on the shirt, and nobody said anything about my skirt. Am I really that invisible? I guess I am.
Because it was somewhat cool out and we were only going a mile, I decided to be more vain than usual and did not wear a hat. Too bad I still need my glasses in order to see, and it was too dark for my sunglasses. But still I was a tad bit less unattractive than usual, maybe. Didn't matter.
Oh yeah, and I wore the iFitness fanny pack so I could carry my phone, so I could log my post-race beer.
I got there far earlier than necessary (so what else is new?). I felt sad that I did not have any buddies there to chat with. I was, as usual, probably one of the only people there by herself. I was not the oldest, at least. It was a pretty mixed bag age-wise. I took some pictures of the Little King and sent whiny texts to Tommy and Susan. I was wishing Susan had come along.
They were sending us off in waves (A-F, plus male and female elites). First they sent off wave A, and then wave B, and finally it was time for we runners of wave C.
By this time I had really lost all the benefit of my earlier warmup. My plan was to run at a comfortably fast but controlled pace. My knee felt okay but I was a little worried about the last quarter mile when we would drop downhill towards the river. But if I still felt okay when we got to that point and the spirit moved me, I was going to kick it in hard. It was only a mile.
Wow I love the mile. I think it is my favorite of all the distances I've tried. So much concentrated pain.
Well, given the shape I am right now, maybe not so concentrated. Okay, so they let us go, and right away I was in the back of the pack. I tried not to let it bother me too much. I always run the first quarter mile a little slower anyway even when I am warmed up. And sure enough by the end of the first quarter mile some of the overly ambitious and inexperienced were coming back to me.
By the half mile, I started catching up with walkers from the previous waves. I concentrated on seeing if I could catch any people just ahead of me. There was a dark-haired woman in particular that I thought I might catch.
We got to the last quarter and the downhill and my knee still felt okay. I picked it up. I was gaining on the dark-haired woman. I kicked it in and passed her comfortably. Did she even know we were in a race?
I was wheezing and gasping for air but I did not embarrass myself by throwing up. I got my medal (like the Bockfest one, another bottle opener) and headed to the beer tent, where I had a Hudy Amber Lager. Was not very good, kind of on PBR level or maybe not even as good as that.
My watch said a few ticks over 8 minutes, but when I checked the official results it said 7:55. Yeah, like almost two minutes slower than my mile PR. But I did not destroy myself doing it and I did have fun. And much to my surprise, I was 1 of 13 in my age group. Was 105 of 544 women and 455 of 1162 overall, not too bad for an old lady. I am not fast, really, but I guess compared to other old ladies who drink beer, I am.
So now I have won my age group in the first two races of this brewery run series, and it will be hard for me to skip the third one by going to Omaha for the marathon. OTOH, there are no age group awards in these races so maybe that is why I am beating the "competition" such as it is. So it's not like I will get anything if I show up for the 14k and win my age group in that one, too.
Toyota 10k and Tri-State Running Company 5k
Saturday morning I was up before dawn and back downtown for the first two races in the four-way challenge. I did not feel any damage from the night before, so that was a good thing. For these morning races, I wore a fresh set of black capris under the red sparkly shirt, but on top I wore one of my yellow Marathon Maniac shirts plus my Maniac hat. I put a thin longsleeved shirt over my top, planning to take it off and tie it around my waist when I got warm. What was that shirt? Oh yeah, it was a red tech shirt from the Milwaukee Marathon.Decided not to mess around trying to find a spot at The Banks, and was going to just head back to the Westin, but instead pulled into the Queen City lot on third street under the Great American tower. That is a nice new lot and there was plenty of space. It was just about a quarter mile from the start, which was good since I would have to go back to the car in between races to switch my race numbers.
Found the portapotty lines, which fortunately moved pretty fast. I wasn't desperate but it didn't hurt and I didn't have anything else to do while I waited. I wasn't going to bother with a warmup jog. The first few miles would be my warmup jog.
We were assigned to corrals so the faster runners (based on self-reported expectations) could go off first. I was in corral D. I could not remember what I had written down for a time but I know that I was very conservative. I was planning to basically jog the whole thing at a comfortable pace. I would follow that system that worked so well for me recently in longer races that I am not trained for, which is that whenever I find myself breathing hard or exerting any kind of effort to simply slow it down.
The corrals made it a lot better organized than last year. I did not have to run around as many people to get into my planned pace.
The start of the race is in front of the Reds Hall of Fame on the west side of the stadium. The course is basically on the streets around the stadiums and over the river to Kentucky and back. The 5k and 10k use the same finish line as the marathon on Second Street, but the 5k starts around the corner from the 10k and sticks to downtown.
I did the 10k last year. Did I write about it then? Oh yeah, it's here.
The first mile ends on the other side of whatever bridge that is in Newport. Ok, Taylor Southgate bridge, I looked at last year's report. I got there in 11:20, which was just about right. The only irritation in the first mile was the people suddenly shooting off to the side to hit the portapotties when we ran down the ramp to Second Street. What was wrong with those people?
So hey, there is a pretty good course description in last year's report so I won't go into too much detail. Loop of Newport, into Covington, cross the Clay Wade Bailey, up Third Street, around the Eggleston area, and back Second Street to the finih.
Mile 2 was an 11:04. Felt warmed up. Took off the long sleeved shirt. Some people noticed I was a Maniac. There were a few other Maniacs there. Also a surprising number of people doing the three and four ways. In particular I noticed a couple of fit-looking women in bun huggers who I kept passing and getting passed by. I found them irritating. I thought their attire was rude and unneccessary. Maybe they were not quite fit enough or fast enough to justify wearing those shorts with their butt cheeks hanging out.
Mile 3 was 11:35. Somewhere in here I found myself chatting with a woman named Tawni who told me she was also a Maniac although she wasn't wearing the gear. This is what I learned about Tawni: she runs a lot of local marathons so is not trying really to do the 50 states, although she does try to run a marathon whenever she goes on a business trip and there is one available. She travels a lot on business. She recently ran a 2:17 half which was good for her (so she is not that fast). Yeah, she for sure wasn't holding back as much as I was, slumming back there in the 1:10 group. But she was quite able to carry on a conversation at 11 minute pace, nonetheless. Tawni has done the Goofy Challenge at Disney. She is from Akron. And that is all I learned.
Tawni started in Corral C so she must have given her actual average race time rather than a conservative jogging time like I did.
Miles 4 and 5 were 21:58. I missed that 4 mile marker talking to Tawni.
I told Tawni that the main thing we needed to do was beat the bun hugger girls. She found them irritating as well. She said it was nice to know that even thin people have cellulite. So in the last mile we focused on that. Mile 6 was a 9:09. Or maybe my watch just hit the split on its own, it does that sometimes, because the last .2 came out as a 3:07 and I'm pretty sure we were not going that slow. It is so hard not to kick at the end of a race.
I was hoping for some chocolate milk or some form of protein at the end but they just had sad green bananas and Dole fruit cups. They would not give us four- and three-wayers our medals because we were supposed to wait until after the 5k.
I headed back to the car. The dicey part about this I had not planned on was that I had to climb up the stairs on the side of the stadium and go all around the building to get to the intersection where I could cross over to Third St. This made it more like a half-mile to the garage. And then I got confused about which garage and went to the wrong one first, which added more distance.
When I got there, I stressed out and scrambled around some but finally emerged with my correct 5k bib and a Picky Bar. Back at the start, I decided to get on the portapotty line again. I really didn't need to pee but thought it might help ward off a bladder infection.
I had felt great all through the 10k and immediately after, but by the time the 5k was ready to go things had changed. I didn't have any pain but I was significantly more tired. Those three little miles felt almost like the last three miles of a marathon.
There were a lot more people in this race and in my corral, or so it seemed. I started slower, but so did they. There were a lot more little kids and other possible obstructions to worry about. For instance, a couple of motorized wheel chairs with old fat men in them, I kid you not. Not sure what corral those started in.
The 5k started in front of the residential building across the street from the stadium, and we ran to the west. Here's the course map. You run down Second Street towards the bridge, then back on Third St. basically following the last couple miles of the 10k but it's a longer stretch on Third St.
This time bun hugger girls pulled ahead of me almost immediately and I just had to let them go. I guess they were in my corral. I felt pretty flat and was not going to push at all. Mile 1 was 11:45. I got serious about my walking breaks in this one. I looked around for Tawny but didn't see her. Well, she was in the corral ahead of me and maybe she did not slow down as much for the second race. Mile 2 was 11:59. It was going to be a seriously slow one. I didn't see a 3 mile marker, but the last part was 11:27. Did not feel as much urge to kick it in this time, plus the street was so crowded with slow runners and little kids I really couldn't.
My official time for the 10k was 1:08:09 or 11 minute pace. For the 5k my time was 35:09 and 11:21 pace. I was 30th in my age group in the 10k and 35th in the 5k. Complete results aren't up yet so I don't know how many women were in my age group but I think I was near the back.
Post race I had a near fiasco with my wide ass car when I pulled out of the lot and scraped the outside of my right mirror slightly on the edge of the garage door. I was actually feeling a little flaky after the race so I am lucky it wasn't worse. I think I was bending down to pick up another Picky Bar and didn't realize how close I was to the side.
Jeez, no wonder I was so tired Saturday night. I am getting tired just writing about this.
Anyway, back home I spent some time with the frozen peas as a precautionary measure. I did not have pain, just felt very tired. Had a bite to eat and then felt quite recovered. Enough in fact to join Tommy and Ken and Robin for lunch at Jersey Mike's followed by a trip back down to the expo! Where I stood around more than I should have! And bought a pair of Sketchers! And a purple skirt for Susan!
Saturday night we dined at Bella Luna. It was not that good. The service was slow and we were seated late. Ken and I both had a pasta dish that we ordered off a special menu for runner and it was mostly pretty bland pasta with a tiny bit of sausage and cheese and tomato. It was terrible. I think we need to rethink this place as our pre-race tradition, because it is really not that good.
I thought about this some more and next year I am making lasagna. Seriously. If I make it the day before it won't be a big deal.
So we got to bed later than was ideal, considering I would be up at 4 am for coffee the next morning.
The Marathon
Fortunately I did not feel any soreness or stiffness on Sunday morning. I was just horribly tired. Still am! It took awhile for the coffee to kick in.We left a little after 5:30 and picked up Susan on the way. Tommy dropped us off as close as he could get us to the start and we followed the other runners down to Paul Brown Stadium. Susan was assigned to corral E but she joined me and Ken back in G.
It wasn't too long before the race officially began but it was quite awhile, maybe 15 minutes or more, before our corral started moving. And then it was another 1:42 before we crossed the start line, according to my watch.
Ken and Susan took off but I hung back (Susan said her first mile was an 11:02 vs. my 11:41). A highlight of the first mile was passing the bun hugger girls, and I never did see them again (although maybe they were doing the half, I don't know).
Mile 2 was an 11:42, mile 3 was an 11:51. Dropped down to a 10:43 in the fourth mile. Passed Bob Platt, on his way to finishing his 150th marathon. There were messages dedicated to Bob all over the course, and these gave me a little lift along the way.
Then we got into the hilly section of the course. Splits were 12:07, 11:26, 12:56 and 12:23 through Eden Park and East Walnut Hills. I remember being irritated with the people who were slowing on the DOWNHILLS. What is wrong with some people? I was glad when the half marathoners peeled off around mile 8.
Miles 9 and 10 were back to 11:35 and 11:42. I was disappointed by what seemed like really low turnout in Hyde Park Square. But there was so much crowd support throughout the rest of the course that it didn't matter. It was just sort of curious. Anyway, it is always fun to race through the neighborhood you do most of your training runs in. Mile 11 was my fastest of the day, a 10:21.
Mile 12 brought me by our previous residence. People were sitting on the porch and I wanted to tell them that I used to live there but they did not look up. Mile 12 was 11:18. Around the corner, I saw my new neighbors walking down the street but they didn't notice me. I yelled out to the crowd that Hyde Park East is the best neighborhood in Cincinnati but I don't think anybody understood me. And then I felt a knee twinge from the sudden lateral movement and boisterousness, so I decided no more of that.
Saw Tom and Robin at the corner of Brentwood and Erie, with Eddy and Maggie. I threw my Disney shirt to them and continued on my way. At the Ault Park Ave. curve, I noticed that the portapotties did not have a line, so I ducked in there. It was kind of weird to be using a portapotty less than a quarter mile from my house but I got over it. I had a tough time getting my compression tights pulled back up and it probably cost me a minute. Hit mile 13 mark in 12:04.
Just about there I got another knee twinge, almost like a cramp. Damn. I was feeling good otherwise but did not want to continue if I was going to be doing damage to my knee. I slowed down a little and it went away. I think it is a bit psychological, that whole passing the house thing.
At the bottom of the hill there were signs that said "Mile 14 Beer Mile" but there wasn't any beer at the aid station. I was disappointed. But around the corner on Bramble, sure enough there were people giving out little cups of ice cold brew, so I had one. Mile 14 was an 11:39.
The Fairfax/Mariemont/Madisonville sections were slightly different from what I remembered from the last time I ran the full Pig. Seemed like we spent a little more time in Mariemont, and that was nice. In fact, I would say that the Mariemont crowd support is now far superior to what you get in Hyde Park Square. Since I spend a lot of time driving these streets to and from the dog training club, and also traverse them on some of my long runs, I really enjoyed this section of the course.
Mile 15 was an 11:53, followed by 11:52 for 16 and 11:54 for 17. I am so consistent. Then we dropped down to Linwood and the sun came out and things got a little rougher. Miles 18-21 were 12:03, 11:57, 12:48 and 12:47.
Around mile 22, we passed by Susan and Ross' apartment. I was hoping to maybe see them outside because I thought that they should be back from the finish by now, and when they were not there I got a little worried about Susan. Turns out they stayed downtown to have brunch at the Lager House, so I needn't have worried.
Mile 22 was a 12:30. Around this point I was surprised to see Jean Schmidt (our former Congresswoman) and her sister, Jennifer Black. They are generally a lot faster than I am, as they qualify for Boston and run it every year. Even though they are older than me they are still faster. Back when I was at my best, I could maybe beat Jennifer once in awhile in a 5k, but I have never come close to beating Jean. They seemed to be having a rough day. Well, I know they did just run Boston two weeks ago, so that could explain it. Anyway, thought about telling Jean that I always voted for her even if I didn't always agree with her on everything. But she and her sister sometimes seem so cranky I decided to skip it and just passed them by.
Miles 23-25 were my slowest of the day (13:06, 13:23, 13:09). What can I say, the heat was getting to me a little. I knew I was going to be under 5:30 but by how much I wasn't sure. I just didn't want to push it or do anything to mess up my knee.
Saw Robin and Tom waiting at the usual place near the Eggleston lots. Managed to pick it up a little and mile 26 was 12 minutes even. And then I picked it up a little more for the last .2 in 2:03, which is just about 10 minute pace so pretty good for me at the end of a slow marathon.
Got my medal, had a few pictures taken, and caught up with Tom, Robin and Ken just outside the finishing area. Ken had finished just a minute or two ahead of me. I hustled over to the 4-way awards table to get my special medal and my plaque. I was actually kind of worried about it because I had not heard any beeps when I went over the timing mats along the course, and I had not bothered to get my chip checked at the expo. I knew my earlier races were recorded but I was worried about this one.
My official time was 5:14:59 or 12:02 pace. I think I might have been as much as ten minutes faster if it hadn't gotten so sunny in the second half. I was 35 of 68 women in the age group, 1155 of 1703 women. Don't know how I did overall because they don't give that summary stat on the web site.
They did just publish results from the 3-way and 4-way, and I was 98 of 148 in the 4-way. I am satisfied with that considering I really didn't train for it!
