This morning was the Lake Pflugerville Triathlon. This was the 5th year for the race, and I’ve done every one of them. The first 4 years, my times got better. Unfortunately, this year I think was the slowest of them all. I say that because as of 9pm the official results are still not posted anywhere. I'm not very happy about that as I would love to know the official time; however, the unofficial time is somewhere around 1:33:00.
I knew going in it would probably be a slow race. First of all, I haven’t been doing a lot of tri training lately. I’ve been focusing more on my run training for later in the year. Second of all, the forecast for this morning called for 15-20mph winds at the start and at least 20mph by the time I would be on the bike. The forecast did not disappoint.
I woke up at 4:15 this morning and started getting ready. When I headed outside to load the car and raised the garage door so I could put my bike on the bike rack, I realized it would be a tough day. The wind was already really strong. By 5am I was out the door and on the way to the race. This race is open racking and I like to get there before everyone else so I can basically have my choice of rack spots. When I got there I was able to get an end spot about 4 racks from the bike exit. I can run faster without my bikes shoes on, so this is my preference. I was joined on the row by a couple of friends and a former pro triathlete.
I hung around in transition visiting with other friends, hit the port-a-potty’s and mentally prepared for a tough race. At 6:50 I headed out of transition and over to the swim start. On the way, I saw Joel and Roscoe and got a few licks from Roscoe. He was a happy boy to be out at the lake. I then continued over to the start and stood amongst friends until I headed down to get in the water. My wave went off at 8:03, 33 minutes after the start. Only two waves were after me.
As I stood on the “beach” waiting for my wave start, it appeared the swim would be a difficult one as well. I saw at least 4 people come back in quickly after starting. The waves were rocking. When they called our group I raced into the water and got close up front and on the inside. With one minute to go, I started my watch. Then it was time to swim.
As we started swimming I was taken back to my ocean swim in Florida. The waves were coming and I was rocking. I was also getting a face full of water quite often. I knew I would not have a fast time for the swim. I managed to keep a fairly straight line despite the waves trying to push me every which way and was actually surprise when I got out of the water to see about 13:XX on my watch (remember, I had started it early so this meant a 12:XX - although it was a ways to the timing mat).
I ran (ok, jog may be more like it) out of the water, skipping the pools they had there to wash feet off in. As I ran up the sidewalk one of the volunteers kept saying “slow down”. I know he was doing this in case the sidewalk was slippery but I was thinking “um, this is a race, I’m not slowing down”.
I headed into transition and to my spot so I could get ready for the bike. I expected to see an empty row, but instead I saw the former pro’s bike on the rack. Either he had dropped out, or he had already finished the bike. I found out later, he had already finished the bike. That’s what happens when you got off in a wave start so close to the end.
Anyway, I got my socks and shoes on, then my gloves and glasses, and finally my helmet. I grabbed my bike and ran as best as I could in the bike shoes toward the bike exit. I crossed the mount line and got on.
Remember, the race course is a route I ride regularly in training. I am very familiar with the course so I knew where I would have a tailwind and where I would have a headwind. I knew that right out of the start I would have a tailwind so I decided to push it here. I would have plenty of time to slow down later in the course.
As I rounded the first curve, I began to slow. The winds were a strong crosswind here, so I just tried to go as hard as I could and stay upright. As I passed people I would say “on your left” like I am supposed to. I said that one time and the girl said, “I’m trying to stay to the right.” I told her I understood because it was hard to stay right since the wind was blowing from that way. I knew at the next main turn, we would have a headwind for a while and I wasn’t looking forward to that.
I finally got to the corner and turned into the headwind and it smacked me in the face. Ugghhh. This is also where you have one of the biggest “hills” on the course. My speed dropped dramatically. I shifted into an easy gear and pedaled away. I even got up out of the saddle so I could keep SOME speed. I just did what I could do and told myself I’d have to be ok with the outcome. The good thing was that I was actually passing quite a few people and wasn’t getting passed very much.
We went around a few more curves and were just about to turn back west when I realized a girl was on my wheel. I think she had been there for a while and she would continue to stay there for a while as well. I told myself I would drop her when I could, but with the wind I just didn’t have any more in me than what I was already doing. Well, if she wanted to be happy with her race after drafting for a large part of it, so be it.
I kept playing leap frog with another lady and was actually impressed with her. She was younger (which meant she had gone off in a wave before me), but she was on a road bike with regular shoes and cage. Most people in races have clipless pedals. Clipless pedals make it easier, but she was doing just fine without them.
As we got closer to the toll road, I got excited. I knew I could fly on this part. It’s a slight downhill and we would have a tailwind. As I made the turn, I shifted appropriately and hammered. At one point I looked down and was doing 28mph. A lot of people were taking advantage of the wind here and coasting so they could rest, but not me. I wanted to make up some time. I went as hard as I could the whole way down the toll road until just before the turn.
The turn from the toll road onto the country road back to the lake is a pretty sharp turn. Last year I was going so fast through the turn that I almost hit the median. I learned my lesson and slowed down this year. The only problem with that is that as soon as you made the turn you were right back into the wind. It took a while to gain some momentum again. It’s also deceptive because you think at this point you are almost through and you are still a little more than 2 miles out. I just kept grinding away.
I was really excited to make the last turn back toward the lake. Tailwind!!!! I went hard until the finish and then slowed down to turn into transition. I rode right up to the dismount line before getting off. I “ran” my bike back to the rack and did a quick change of shoes, removing the helmet and gloves and grabbing my Gatorade and race number.
As I ran out of transition I put my Gatorade in my top so I could redo my ponytail and get my hair out of my eyes. As I started the run I grabbed a cup of water to down and then set off to run. And boy was it hard.
The first part of the run crosses the dam and the wind was straight into my face. I felt like I was trying really hard but barely getting anywhere. Joel was there with Roscoe again and yelled “go, B, go”. My response was “I’m trying”. I knew it would not be a fast run so I just made a decision to run the whole way. There were a lot of people walking into the wind because it was just sapping the energy out of them. I didn’t want to be one of those people. I will admit there were times I probably could have walked faster than I was running, but I kept running anyway.
At the first water station I dumped water on my head. It felt good because the sun was starting to pop out and it was getting hot. Even the wind was a hot wind. I was glad to turn north on the lake path and have a little wind at my back for a while, but with the final turn toward the finish we were fighting the wind again. I could see the finish but it felt like I couldn’t get there. Finally, I crossed the line. I was very happy to be done.
At the finish, there were some nice touches: they had freezer pops for us as well as an ice cold towel and a bike bottle full of cold water. The freezer pop was awesome!
After cooling down a bit I grabbed a piece of pizza and then waited around for transition to open up again. When it did I took some stuff to the car and then came back to wait for a friend of mine to finish.
Overall, despite the wind, it was a good day. I just wish I had some official results by now.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Texas 4000 Atlas Ride
Today was the Texas 4000 Atlas Ride. This ride is the first leg of a 4500 mile journey that students from the University of Texas make each summer to raise money for cancer research. Although I am an Aggie, I strongly agree with the basis behind this ride. Plus, who can argue with a ride that ends at a winery?
The ride starts in Cedar Park. There are several options of ride lengths, the longest being 70 miles. Since I haven't been on the bike much this year, I knew going in I would only do the 50 mile route.
This ride is also one of the few rides where most people actually enjoy the ride and don't go blasting off the start in a race. I like that because when you have that many people leaving an area at once, it can get a little tight. When you have showboaters out there it can get dangerous.
I took off at a pace that felt comfortable. I didn't want to blow up early. The good thing was that there was a little bit of a tailwind and it was still a little overcast early. Plus, the roads early in the ride are good, smooth roads, so you can build up some speed. This helped get me to the 2nd aid station (about mile 26) in around 1:30. I stopped to potty (as usual) and refill one of my water bottles and then took the route for the 50 miles (this is where the 50 and 70 milers split off). Last year I had done the 70 mile route so I was unfamiliar with the rest of the ride. And leaving that rest stop, it seemed like the next several miles were all uphill. Nothing big, but a long gradual climb. Ughhh. But onward I went.
The sun started poking out a little bit and I knew I was slowing down some, but that was ok with me. I was there to enjoy the ride (and the wine at the end). Just before the last aid station at around mile 40, there was a guy up ahead who had stopped. He kind of circled back and I thought maybe he had dropped something. Then he did one of those "I'm going to slow, I've lost my balance and I'm going down" crashes. I wondered if he was ok. As I got closer I realized he was trying to alert us that there was a snake in the road. And it wasn't dead. Yikes! From what he said,it was a water mocasin, but I have no idea. I didn't get close enough to find out.
After a brief stop at the aid statin to dump some cold water on my head, it was off for the last 10 miles. Or what I thought was 10 miles. It turned out to be more like 13, which in the grand scheme isn't that big of a deal, but I had it in my head I was doing 50 and by 50, I was mentally done. Those last 3-4 miles were hard. And they were even harder because they take you through a neighborhood with bad roads and then through the city park and on a hike and bike trail for a a bit. You have to really slow down a lot.
When I pulled in the vineyard for the finish, I was happy. I was ready to be off the bike and it was getting hot. After changing clothes and grabbing a coke I went to get some food. This is one part of the ride I really like as well. I'm a vegetarian and most races do not offer a vegetarian option. This race does and if you have meat on your plate, you don't get the veggie option. They want to make sure there is enough for the vegetarians. It was catered BBQ,so I got some bread, pickles and potato salad before heading over to get my veggie kabob. And that's when I realized they had made vegetarian beans! Wahoo!!! I love beans but usually can't eat them because most BBQ places cook them with bacon or ham. But today I could.
Several friends joined me while eating and when we were done, we headed inside the winery for the wine tasting. The bar was full at first so they sent us to the back where a "secondary" tasting was going on. The vineyard we were at this year was different than last year, but right next door. Turns out the two vineyards are owned by brothers, so the brother from next door had his wines in the back. We sampled all of his wines and then went into the main room and sampled the wines from the main vineyard. Nice! After buying a few bottles it was time to head home.
What a great day!
The ride starts in Cedar Park. There are several options of ride lengths, the longest being 70 miles. Since I haven't been on the bike much this year, I knew going in I would only do the 50 mile route.
This ride is also one of the few rides where most people actually enjoy the ride and don't go blasting off the start in a race. I like that because when you have that many people leaving an area at once, it can get a little tight. When you have showboaters out there it can get dangerous.
I took off at a pace that felt comfortable. I didn't want to blow up early. The good thing was that there was a little bit of a tailwind and it was still a little overcast early. Plus, the roads early in the ride are good, smooth roads, so you can build up some speed. This helped get me to the 2nd aid station (about mile 26) in around 1:30. I stopped to potty (as usual) and refill one of my water bottles and then took the route for the 50 miles (this is where the 50 and 70 milers split off). Last year I had done the 70 mile route so I was unfamiliar with the rest of the ride. And leaving that rest stop, it seemed like the next several miles were all uphill. Nothing big, but a long gradual climb. Ughhh. But onward I went.
The sun started poking out a little bit and I knew I was slowing down some, but that was ok with me. I was there to enjoy the ride (and the wine at the end). Just before the last aid station at around mile 40, there was a guy up ahead who had stopped. He kind of circled back and I thought maybe he had dropped something. Then he did one of those "I'm going to slow, I've lost my balance and I'm going down" crashes. I wondered if he was ok. As I got closer I realized he was trying to alert us that there was a snake in the road. And it wasn't dead. Yikes! From what he said,it was a water mocasin, but I have no idea. I didn't get close enough to find out.
After a brief stop at the aid statin to dump some cold water on my head, it was off for the last 10 miles. Or what I thought was 10 miles. It turned out to be more like 13, which in the grand scheme isn't that big of a deal, but I had it in my head I was doing 50 and by 50, I was mentally done. Those last 3-4 miles were hard. And they were even harder because they take you through a neighborhood with bad roads and then through the city park and on a hike and bike trail for a a bit. You have to really slow down a lot.
When I pulled in the vineyard for the finish, I was happy. I was ready to be off the bike and it was getting hot. After changing clothes and grabbing a coke I went to get some food. This is one part of the ride I really like as well. I'm a vegetarian and most races do not offer a vegetarian option. This race does and if you have meat on your plate, you don't get the veggie option. They want to make sure there is enough for the vegetarians. It was catered BBQ,so I got some bread, pickles and potato salad before heading over to get my veggie kabob. And that's when I realized they had made vegetarian beans! Wahoo!!! I love beans but usually can't eat them because most BBQ places cook them with bacon or ham. But today I could.
Several friends joined me while eating and when we were done, we headed inside the winery for the wine tasting. The bar was full at first so they sent us to the back where a "secondary" tasting was going on. The vineyard we were at this year was different than last year, but right next door. Turns out the two vineyards are owned by brothers, so the brother from next door had his wines in the back. We sampled all of his wines and then went into the main room and sampled the wines from the main vineyard. Nice! After buying a few bottles it was time to head home.
What a great day!
Ironman Texas 5/21 - Spectator and Volunteer Report
For those of you who follow the triathlon scene, you know that this year Ironman introduced a new race - Ironman Texas. The race took place in The Woodlands on May 21st. Let me tell you, it was tempting to sign up since it was so close to home, but I resisted because I know what May can be like in Texas. However, I knew a couple of people who did sign up and many members of the triathlon forum I frequent had signed up as well. Because of this, I wanted to go and spectate and decided that if I was there I might as well sign up to volunteer as well.
We drove to The Woodlands Friday after work. After checking into the hotel we made some signs for my friends, made sure we had things ready to go and got in bed. The alarm went off really early Saturday morning so we could get to the race start before the swim start.
We arrived at the race location, somehow managed to find one of the parking garages and began the walk to the swim start. The transition area and swim start were probably close to a mile apart, so we got some decent walking in. As we got toward the swim start, we saw another friend on the bridge who was also there to spectate and volunteer. We decided to stop and stay there with him on the bridge so we could see the start. While we were standing there, I was fortunate enough to see BOTH of my friends who were racing as they were on their way to the start. That was cool.
As it got close to the swim start, there were still a lot of swimmers on shore. I was wondering if they would delay the start until all of them got in the water, but this is Ironman. You have 17 hours to do the race. There would be no delay. Either you were in the water or you weren't when the gun went off. If you weren't in, the time just counted anyway.
As always, the swim start of an Ironman race is a sight to see. Over 2,000 athletes all starting to swim at once and arms moving in the water like crazy. When I did IMFL, I thought the swim would freak me out, but it was actually one of the funnest parts of the day. Being in the midst of that many athletes is amazing.
At IMTX, once the swimmers start you really can't see them much until they come back to head down the canal to the finish. Because of that we decided to walk back over to the swim finish and find a spot to wait for my friends to get done. I knew both of them expected to be out of the water between 1:20 and 1:40. The cutoff is 2:20. We found a nice little spot on a hill and waited.
The first pro swimmer came out of the water in 50-something minutes. He was several minutes ahead of the next swimmer. Truly amazing. Then a few more pros came before a few of the fast age groupers started coming out. True to time expectations, we saw my first friend come out. Because of where we were, I got to see him exit the water and then I ran to the chute right before he would enter the change tent and got to high-five him there. Then I went back to our spot to wait for my other friend. And wait we did. We were not sure at the time what happened, but he did not come out of the water until a little after 2 hours. We were a little worried. I was able to give him a high-five as well before he enterred the change tent, but I could tell he was upset. I just hoped he would shake that off and not let it affect his day.
After we knew they were both out on the bike it was time for us to fuel up. Madison wanted some Starbucks and I wanted to go to the expo and do a little shopping. The only thing was the "big" expo was closed and the "little" expo wouldn't open until noon. Bummer.
Once the kids had their Starbucks, I needed food. We walked down the shopping area and found a little Mexican food place that had breakfast tacos. Perfect. It really hit the spot.
By the time we had done all of this, we knew the pros would be coming in from the bike soon so we walked back over there and found a spot on the curb. By now it was getting hot and the humidity was high. I was sweating through my shirt just sitting on the curb. We got to see the first bikers come back in. It was amazing watching the way they dismount their bikes. I want to find a nice piece of grass and practice that!
At this point, we were all hot and Dalton was getting bored, so we headed back to the hotel for a little pool time. The water was cold, but it was nice to chill out for an hour or so. My other friend who was their spectating had gone out on his motorcycle and called to tell me that he had seen our friend on the bike course at mile 100. We decided to try and make it back to the bike finish in time to see him. We quickly changed and headed back. We set ourselves up at what we thought was the run exit. After being there a while and not seeing our friend, we started getting worried again. And then we found out we were actually at about mile 8 of the run course. Well shoot. We still had to eat dinner before our volunteer shift and we knew we would not see him. We decided to go ahead and go eat.
After filling up on Chick-fil-a we headed out to our volunteer spot - Aid Station #4 on the run course. We quickly found a table that needed help and went to work handing out coke and ice and water. Ice was a big favorite. People would take a cup and dump it down a top or shorts or put it in their hat. Pretty much every person that came by was soaked - either from sweat or from dumping water on themselves or a combination of both. I coudn't imagine how they felt doing an Ironman in the heat and humidity like they were. There was a reason I picked Florida.
We finally saw both of my friends come by and both were on their second lap, so we knew we would see them again. Dalton switched to handing out wet sponges and really enjoyed that. And as it got later, more people started asking for chicken broth. Hardly anyone asked for the Ironman Perform drink which is like gatorade. I don't blame them. I had tried it during training and it did not taste good to me and it upset my stomach.
We were at our aid station from 6:30-11:30pm. As some of the later runners came through, you could see them calculating times to see if they would finish. The last "official" runner came through around 11. We never went back to the finish line, so I don't know if she made it or not. All I know is after she went past us and we were told we could pack up, we did. And then we headed to the hotel for a quick shower and crashed. It had been a long day, but a fun one.
I don't know that I will ever do IMTX unless they change the time of year they have the race, but I would love to volunteer in some capacity every year. It was a lot of fun and is a different perspective from racing. One thing I thought was interesting was all of the things I saw on the run. Almost everyone was walking through the aid stations - I'm sure because of the heat. One lady stopped to pat some dogs who were out for an evening walk. A couple of people stopped for a few minutes and just sat on the park bench near us. No one seemed to be in a hurry.
Like I said, the weather wasn't ideal, but I think The Woodlands is a good place for an Ironman. It seemed to be very spectator friendly and there are lots of shops and restaurants near the transition and finish lines for spectators to occupy their time. I think it will only get better.
We drove to The Woodlands Friday after work. After checking into the hotel we made some signs for my friends, made sure we had things ready to go and got in bed. The alarm went off really early Saturday morning so we could get to the race start before the swim start.
We arrived at the race location, somehow managed to find one of the parking garages and began the walk to the swim start. The transition area and swim start were probably close to a mile apart, so we got some decent walking in. As we got toward the swim start, we saw another friend on the bridge who was also there to spectate and volunteer. We decided to stop and stay there with him on the bridge so we could see the start. While we were standing there, I was fortunate enough to see BOTH of my friends who were racing as they were on their way to the start. That was cool.
As it got close to the swim start, there were still a lot of swimmers on shore. I was wondering if they would delay the start until all of them got in the water, but this is Ironman. You have 17 hours to do the race. There would be no delay. Either you were in the water or you weren't when the gun went off. If you weren't in, the time just counted anyway.
As always, the swim start of an Ironman race is a sight to see. Over 2,000 athletes all starting to swim at once and arms moving in the water like crazy. When I did IMFL, I thought the swim would freak me out, but it was actually one of the funnest parts of the day. Being in the midst of that many athletes is amazing.
At IMTX, once the swimmers start you really can't see them much until they come back to head down the canal to the finish. Because of that we decided to walk back over to the swim finish and find a spot to wait for my friends to get done. I knew both of them expected to be out of the water between 1:20 and 1:40. The cutoff is 2:20. We found a nice little spot on a hill and waited.
The first pro swimmer came out of the water in 50-something minutes. He was several minutes ahead of the next swimmer. Truly amazing. Then a few more pros came before a few of the fast age groupers started coming out. True to time expectations, we saw my first friend come out. Because of where we were, I got to see him exit the water and then I ran to the chute right before he would enter the change tent and got to high-five him there. Then I went back to our spot to wait for my other friend. And wait we did. We were not sure at the time what happened, but he did not come out of the water until a little after 2 hours. We were a little worried. I was able to give him a high-five as well before he enterred the change tent, but I could tell he was upset. I just hoped he would shake that off and not let it affect his day.
After we knew they were both out on the bike it was time for us to fuel up. Madison wanted some Starbucks and I wanted to go to the expo and do a little shopping. The only thing was the "big" expo was closed and the "little" expo wouldn't open until noon. Bummer.
Once the kids had their Starbucks, I needed food. We walked down the shopping area and found a little Mexican food place that had breakfast tacos. Perfect. It really hit the spot.
By the time we had done all of this, we knew the pros would be coming in from the bike soon so we walked back over there and found a spot on the curb. By now it was getting hot and the humidity was high. I was sweating through my shirt just sitting on the curb. We got to see the first bikers come back in. It was amazing watching the way they dismount their bikes. I want to find a nice piece of grass and practice that!
At this point, we were all hot and Dalton was getting bored, so we headed back to the hotel for a little pool time. The water was cold, but it was nice to chill out for an hour or so. My other friend who was their spectating had gone out on his motorcycle and called to tell me that he had seen our friend on the bike course at mile 100. We decided to try and make it back to the bike finish in time to see him. We quickly changed and headed back. We set ourselves up at what we thought was the run exit. After being there a while and not seeing our friend, we started getting worried again. And then we found out we were actually at about mile 8 of the run course. Well shoot. We still had to eat dinner before our volunteer shift and we knew we would not see him. We decided to go ahead and go eat.
After filling up on Chick-fil-a we headed out to our volunteer spot - Aid Station #4 on the run course. We quickly found a table that needed help and went to work handing out coke and ice and water. Ice was a big favorite. People would take a cup and dump it down a top or shorts or put it in their hat. Pretty much every person that came by was soaked - either from sweat or from dumping water on themselves or a combination of both. I coudn't imagine how they felt doing an Ironman in the heat and humidity like they were. There was a reason I picked Florida.
We finally saw both of my friends come by and both were on their second lap, so we knew we would see them again. Dalton switched to handing out wet sponges and really enjoyed that. And as it got later, more people started asking for chicken broth. Hardly anyone asked for the Ironman Perform drink which is like gatorade. I don't blame them. I had tried it during training and it did not taste good to me and it upset my stomach.
We were at our aid station from 6:30-11:30pm. As some of the later runners came through, you could see them calculating times to see if they would finish. The last "official" runner came through around 11. We never went back to the finish line, so I don't know if she made it or not. All I know is after she went past us and we were told we could pack up, we did. And then we headed to the hotel for a quick shower and crashed. It had been a long day, but a fun one.
I don't know that I will ever do IMTX unless they change the time of year they have the race, but I would love to volunteer in some capacity every year. It was a lot of fun and is a different perspective from racing. One thing I thought was interesting was all of the things I saw on the run. Almost everyone was walking through the aid stations - I'm sure because of the heat. One lady stopped to pat some dogs who were out for an evening walk. A couple of people stopped for a few minutes and just sat on the park bench near us. No one seemed to be in a hurry.
Like I said, the weather wasn't ideal, but I think The Woodlands is a good place for an Ironman. It seemed to be very spectator friendly and there are lots of shops and restaurants near the transition and finish lines for spectators to occupy their time. I think it will only get better.
Armadillo Hill Country Ride - 5/14
I'm finally getting around to updating the blog, so there will be a few posts close together even though the events were not.
On May 14, I did the 40 mile route of the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. This was only the 2nd or 3rd time I've been on my bike outside since Ironman Florida in November. I wasn't expecting much.
The ride was tough for me. It actually started out a little chilly (high 50s, but that is chilly for us that time of year). I started out with arm warmers and a jacket. And not only was it chilly, it was really windy. The winds have been really strong this spring and the winds on this day were no different. There were probably between 15 and 20mph.
The first part of the ride wasn't too bad, but coming back was not so much fun. My knees started hurting and there is a part of the course where there are 3 pretty tough hills in quick succession. It wasn't fun.
The ride took longer than I had hoped, but I was back out on the bike and I finished. It's a start to getting back out on the bike.
On May 14, I did the 40 mile route of the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. This was only the 2nd or 3rd time I've been on my bike outside since Ironman Florida in November. I wasn't expecting much.
The ride was tough for me. It actually started out a little chilly (high 50s, but that is chilly for us that time of year). I started out with arm warmers and a jacket. And not only was it chilly, it was really windy. The winds have been really strong this spring and the winds on this day were no different. There were probably between 15 and 20mph.
The first part of the ride wasn't too bad, but coming back was not so much fun. My knees started hurting and there is a part of the course where there are 3 pretty tough hills in quick succession. It wasn't fun.
The ride took longer than I had hoped, but I was back out on the bike and I finished. It's a start to getting back out on the bike.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Shape Diva Dash 2011
I've been a regular subscriber to SHAPE magazine for a few years now. I enjoy the magazine and when I saw an ad in the magazine for a Diva Dash, I decided to check it out. This would be the first year for the race, but it looked like fun. The Diva Dash would be a 3 mile run with obstacles about every half mile. Since this is suppose to be my year of "fun", I decided to sign up and do it.
For a first year race, it had some good and some bad parts to it. So, I'll break it down for you.
Registration
Registration was fine. It was done online and was just like signing up for any other race. The only thing was there were different waves and once they were full, your only option was a later wave. I waited too long to actually decide to do this, so the first available wave for me when I signed up was the 10:45 am wave. I knew it was risky with the heat, but I figured this was for fun, so who cared. Eventually 3,000 women signed up to race.
Packet Pick-Up
Originally, packet pick-up was just going to be on race day. It said to pick up your packet an hour before your wave. Well, I guess with 3,000 women doing the race, someone got smart and they decided to open a packet pick-up option on Friday night. This was good. The bad, however, was that they decided to hold the Friday night packet pick-up at Runtex on Riverside. Those of you from around here know that there is NO parking at Runtex on Riverside. Pick-up started at 5pm. I got there around 4:30 and there was not one spot to be found. I had to pay for street parking on Barton Springs and walk over. It's not a long walk by any means, but by the time I got back over there, a line had formed.
Usually, packet pick-ups will start a little early. Not this one. I don't think they even had the bags stuffed yet. And there is no space inside Runtex, so we were all standing outside in the 90+ degree heat. I will give props to Runtex, however, for bringing out free water for all of us. The water may not have been cold, but it was very welcome.
After standing in line in the heat for 20-30 minutes the line finally started moving. Then we found out the line to the right was for merchandise. If you didn't want to buy anything, you could walk (through all the store merchandisse) to the place where they were handing out bibs. I made my way to the 10:45 line. When I reached the front, I signed the waiver and was handed my bib. And that was all. No bag, no goodies, nothing. Just my bib. I saw some stuffed bags to the side, so I went over and grabbed my own before making my way out of the mad house and back to my car.
Once I was back at my car, I checked out the contents of the goodie bag. Of course, there was a SHAPE magazine in there. There was also a Luna bar, a pair of cute socks, and our pewter finisher necklace. I thought that was a little strange to get the finisher necklace in the goodie bag instead of at the end of the race, but oh well.
Race Morning
The race venue was at Walter E Long Park aka Decker Lake. This is also the sight of the Danskin Triathlon and the Austin 70.3 triathlon, so I am very familiar with it. The race info had said there would be shuttles to take us from the parking at the Travis County Expo Center to the park. This is nothing new. The same thing happens at the triathlons. I figured it would take a while and I like to be early, so I had arrived at 8:40am. And it was a good thing I did.
The best we could figure out, there were only 3 buses in the shuttle rotation. And there were tons of people in line to catch them. Racers and spectators. Some of the ladies around me were in the 9:30 or 9:45 wave. I knew they wouldn't make it. I stood in line for an hour before I climbed on the bus to be shuttled over. If I would have known it would take that long, I would have walked the 2 miles. It would have been faster. Next time, they need to have a lot more buses in the shuttle rotation.
Since I had gotten there so early, I made it to the park by about 10am. I saw many girls enter the starting chute that were past their start time, however. I watched the 3 waves ahead of me take off and then I got in the chute and headed to the very front. I knew there were a lot of first timers and a lot of people doing this just for fun and I wanted to be ahead of the crowd going into the obstacles.
The Race
When it was our time to go, I took off with the other ladies at the front. A few of them really took off. I just settled into a good pace ahead of the crowd. I felt pretty good about where I was at and hoped that when I reached the obstacle there wouldn't be a line. I had carried my bottle of water with me as well because someone had mentioned there wasn't much water on the course (and they weren't kidding - more on that later). As I rounded the corner to approach the first obstacle, I saw that it was really pointless for me to have carried my water as I would need both hands for this one. I ditched the water and hit the obstacle.
Obstacle #1: walk across an approximately 2" diameter rope (probably 15-20ft long)while holding onto two very thin ropes about waist high. I thought this was kind of fun. I wasn't speedy fast, but I wasn't slow either. I hopped off the other end and continued on my way.
The other thing about races out at Decker is that the runs are always VERY hilly. It doesn't matter which direction you are headed, you will be running up several hills at some point. Joy.
After we got up the first hill and turned to the right, we found our second obstacle.
Obstacle #2: the "maze". I wouldn't really call this a maze because there weren't any wrong turns, but you did have to duck down the whole time and follow the twists and turns until you came out the other side.
As I exited the other side I kept running. At this point the sun is starting to poke out from behind the clouds and I am missing my water, but I pressed on. I kept running until I saw the third obstacle.
Obstacle #3: the balls. This one wasn't hard either. They had an area full of big balls, taller than people. They were packed in pretty tight, but all you had to do was push them aside and run through to the exit. I was out of there quickly and on to the next one.
Luckily, somewhere in here we had some downhills. It made me feel good at one point to run past some walkers and hear one of them say, "she must be a runner" because I was running at a pretty good pace. As I got down the hill and turned the corner, there was the next obstacle.
Obstacle #4: the rope/Survivor one. For those of you that watch Survivor, this one seemed like something on one of their challenges. It was a big A frame with rope cross-crossing in every direction. All you had to do was find the big holes in between the ropes and crawl through to the other side. It was maybe 3' wide, so not hard to do. If it had been longer, it would have been more challenging. From what the volunteers told us, we were at mile 2. We still had not seen a water stop. The heat was getting unbearable.
The real challenge at this point was the hill that faced us as we left the obstacle. Uggghh. And all we had to do was run up it, do a u-turn and head back down to where we were. I will admit that I did a little bit of walking up this hill. But, as I turned that corner, I started running again. I knew I only had about a mile left to go.
Probably a quarter mile later we came across the one and only water station of the whole race. This is definitely an area that needs to be improved on. There needs to be more water in a race like that. I stopped, drank a glass, dumped a glass on my head, and then drank some more. Then it was time to tackle the next challenge.
Obstacle #5: the tubes. In this area, they had lots of intertubes (like tires) next to each other. You had to run (or walk) through them kind of like football players do in their drills. I decided I wanted to run through them. I did pretty good at first, but to run through them, you really have to pick your feet up and run with high knees. This is NOT how I normally run, so before I got to the end I got tired. It was a fairly long distance of tubes, so I was not surprised I got tired. When I got to the end, there was a medical staff attending to a racer, probably from heat exhaustion. Hello, more water would be nice.
I left that obstacle and ran toward the next one. As I rounded the corner I thought "there goes my time". I was doing well up to this point, but the lines for the last obstacle were huge.
Obstacle #6: water trampolines. You know those big trampolines they put in the lake in the summer? Well, there were about 5 of those, but on a smaller scale, tied together close to the shore. You had to make your way across all of them and back to the shore a little further down. There was a possibility you could fall into the water, but it was probably only a foot deep here.
I could have skipped this obstacle and no one would have ever known, but I came here for fun and part of that fun was completing all of the obstacles. There were only two stations for this one, and only one person could go at a time, so like I said the lines were LONG.
As I got in line I looked at my time. I wanted to know at the end how much time I spent waiting in line. I will admit that they wait was kind of welcome. There was a nice breeze blowing which helped to cool me off just a bit. By the time I got to the front, however, 14 minutes had passed. Ouch. That really hurt my time. I quickly made my way across the trampolines and got off on the other side. I was headed to the finish line, but not before climbing one last hill. Have I mentioned how hilly this course was???
The Finish and Timing
After crossing the finish line you were coraled into a narrow path where you walked passed a table. One lady was calling out your bib number and another lady was writing it down on a yellow notepad in the order you were in line. No times. Did I mention this race was not chip timed? I have no idea how they are going to determine who the overall winner was or who the age group winners were without knowing what times the people finished in. And on top of that, it would have been very easy to skip the long line at the last obstacle. As it was, the finish time on my watch was 47:04. Take out the 14 minute wait and my time was pretty respectable at 33:04. But how would anyone have known whether I did the obstacle or not? I didn't expect to win anything, but it's the principle. The overall winner received a 5 day trip to Aruba and I can almost guarantee the winner was in the first wave of the day and didn't have to wait at obstacles. I definitely think it should have been chip-timed and there should have been mats at places to account for the wait time.
Shuttle Back
I had a soccer game to get to, so I did not hang around. After leaving the finish area I grabbed a cup of water and walked back to the shuttle area to catch the shuttle back to the parking lot. There was a line again, but it didn't take as long as this morning to get on a bus and make my way back.
Overall
Overall, I like the concept of the race. There are definitely things that need to be improved upon and personally, I would like to see the challenges a little more challenging, but I know they were trying to attract women of all abilities for this race. The goal of the race was to have fun and I did, so mission accomplished.
For a first year race, it had some good and some bad parts to it. So, I'll break it down for you.
Registration
Registration was fine. It was done online and was just like signing up for any other race. The only thing was there were different waves and once they were full, your only option was a later wave. I waited too long to actually decide to do this, so the first available wave for me when I signed up was the 10:45 am wave. I knew it was risky with the heat, but I figured this was for fun, so who cared. Eventually 3,000 women signed up to race.
Packet Pick-Up
Originally, packet pick-up was just going to be on race day. It said to pick up your packet an hour before your wave. Well, I guess with 3,000 women doing the race, someone got smart and they decided to open a packet pick-up option on Friday night. This was good. The bad, however, was that they decided to hold the Friday night packet pick-up at Runtex on Riverside. Those of you from around here know that there is NO parking at Runtex on Riverside. Pick-up started at 5pm. I got there around 4:30 and there was not one spot to be found. I had to pay for street parking on Barton Springs and walk over. It's not a long walk by any means, but by the time I got back over there, a line had formed.
Usually, packet pick-ups will start a little early. Not this one. I don't think they even had the bags stuffed yet. And there is no space inside Runtex, so we were all standing outside in the 90+ degree heat. I will give props to Runtex, however, for bringing out free water for all of us. The water may not have been cold, but it was very welcome.
After standing in line in the heat for 20-30 minutes the line finally started moving. Then we found out the line to the right was for merchandise. If you didn't want to buy anything, you could walk (through all the store merchandisse) to the place where they were handing out bibs. I made my way to the 10:45 line. When I reached the front, I signed the waiver and was handed my bib. And that was all. No bag, no goodies, nothing. Just my bib. I saw some stuffed bags to the side, so I went over and grabbed my own before making my way out of the mad house and back to my car.
Once I was back at my car, I checked out the contents of the goodie bag. Of course, there was a SHAPE magazine in there. There was also a Luna bar, a pair of cute socks, and our pewter finisher necklace. I thought that was a little strange to get the finisher necklace in the goodie bag instead of at the end of the race, but oh well.
Race Morning
The race venue was at Walter E Long Park aka Decker Lake. This is also the sight of the Danskin Triathlon and the Austin 70.3 triathlon, so I am very familiar with it. The race info had said there would be shuttles to take us from the parking at the Travis County Expo Center to the park. This is nothing new. The same thing happens at the triathlons. I figured it would take a while and I like to be early, so I had arrived at 8:40am. And it was a good thing I did.
The best we could figure out, there were only 3 buses in the shuttle rotation. And there were tons of people in line to catch them. Racers and spectators. Some of the ladies around me were in the 9:30 or 9:45 wave. I knew they wouldn't make it. I stood in line for an hour before I climbed on the bus to be shuttled over. If I would have known it would take that long, I would have walked the 2 miles. It would have been faster. Next time, they need to have a lot more buses in the shuttle rotation.
Since I had gotten there so early, I made it to the park by about 10am. I saw many girls enter the starting chute that were past their start time, however. I watched the 3 waves ahead of me take off and then I got in the chute and headed to the very front. I knew there were a lot of first timers and a lot of people doing this just for fun and I wanted to be ahead of the crowd going into the obstacles.
The Race
When it was our time to go, I took off with the other ladies at the front. A few of them really took off. I just settled into a good pace ahead of the crowd. I felt pretty good about where I was at and hoped that when I reached the obstacle there wouldn't be a line. I had carried my bottle of water with me as well because someone had mentioned there wasn't much water on the course (and they weren't kidding - more on that later). As I rounded the corner to approach the first obstacle, I saw that it was really pointless for me to have carried my water as I would need both hands for this one. I ditched the water and hit the obstacle.
Obstacle #1: walk across an approximately 2" diameter rope (probably 15-20ft long)while holding onto two very thin ropes about waist high. I thought this was kind of fun. I wasn't speedy fast, but I wasn't slow either. I hopped off the other end and continued on my way.
The other thing about races out at Decker is that the runs are always VERY hilly. It doesn't matter which direction you are headed, you will be running up several hills at some point. Joy.
After we got up the first hill and turned to the right, we found our second obstacle.
Obstacle #2: the "maze". I wouldn't really call this a maze because there weren't any wrong turns, but you did have to duck down the whole time and follow the twists and turns until you came out the other side.
As I exited the other side I kept running. At this point the sun is starting to poke out from behind the clouds and I am missing my water, but I pressed on. I kept running until I saw the third obstacle.
Obstacle #3: the balls. This one wasn't hard either. They had an area full of big balls, taller than people. They were packed in pretty tight, but all you had to do was push them aside and run through to the exit. I was out of there quickly and on to the next one.
Luckily, somewhere in here we had some downhills. It made me feel good at one point to run past some walkers and hear one of them say, "she must be a runner" because I was running at a pretty good pace. As I got down the hill and turned the corner, there was the next obstacle.
Obstacle #4: the rope/Survivor one. For those of you that watch Survivor, this one seemed like something on one of their challenges. It was a big A frame with rope cross-crossing in every direction. All you had to do was find the big holes in between the ropes and crawl through to the other side. It was maybe 3' wide, so not hard to do. If it had been longer, it would have been more challenging. From what the volunteers told us, we were at mile 2. We still had not seen a water stop. The heat was getting unbearable.
The real challenge at this point was the hill that faced us as we left the obstacle. Uggghh. And all we had to do was run up it, do a u-turn and head back down to where we were. I will admit that I did a little bit of walking up this hill. But, as I turned that corner, I started running again. I knew I only had about a mile left to go.
Probably a quarter mile later we came across the one and only water station of the whole race. This is definitely an area that needs to be improved on. There needs to be more water in a race like that. I stopped, drank a glass, dumped a glass on my head, and then drank some more. Then it was time to tackle the next challenge.
Obstacle #5: the tubes. In this area, they had lots of intertubes (like tires) next to each other. You had to run (or walk) through them kind of like football players do in their drills. I decided I wanted to run through them. I did pretty good at first, but to run through them, you really have to pick your feet up and run with high knees. This is NOT how I normally run, so before I got to the end I got tired. It was a fairly long distance of tubes, so I was not surprised I got tired. When I got to the end, there was a medical staff attending to a racer, probably from heat exhaustion. Hello, more water would be nice.
I left that obstacle and ran toward the next one. As I rounded the corner I thought "there goes my time". I was doing well up to this point, but the lines for the last obstacle were huge.
Obstacle #6: water trampolines. You know those big trampolines they put in the lake in the summer? Well, there were about 5 of those, but on a smaller scale, tied together close to the shore. You had to make your way across all of them and back to the shore a little further down. There was a possibility you could fall into the water, but it was probably only a foot deep here.
I could have skipped this obstacle and no one would have ever known, but I came here for fun and part of that fun was completing all of the obstacles. There were only two stations for this one, and only one person could go at a time, so like I said the lines were LONG.
As I got in line I looked at my time. I wanted to know at the end how much time I spent waiting in line. I will admit that they wait was kind of welcome. There was a nice breeze blowing which helped to cool me off just a bit. By the time I got to the front, however, 14 minutes had passed. Ouch. That really hurt my time. I quickly made my way across the trampolines and got off on the other side. I was headed to the finish line, but not before climbing one last hill. Have I mentioned how hilly this course was???
The Finish and Timing
After crossing the finish line you were coraled into a narrow path where you walked passed a table. One lady was calling out your bib number and another lady was writing it down on a yellow notepad in the order you were in line. No times. Did I mention this race was not chip timed? I have no idea how they are going to determine who the overall winner was or who the age group winners were without knowing what times the people finished in. And on top of that, it would have been very easy to skip the long line at the last obstacle. As it was, the finish time on my watch was 47:04. Take out the 14 minute wait and my time was pretty respectable at 33:04. But how would anyone have known whether I did the obstacle or not? I didn't expect to win anything, but it's the principle. The overall winner received a 5 day trip to Aruba and I can almost guarantee the winner was in the first wave of the day and didn't have to wait at obstacles. I definitely think it should have been chip-timed and there should have been mats at places to account for the wait time.
Shuttle Back
I had a soccer game to get to, so I did not hang around. After leaving the finish area I grabbed a cup of water and walked back to the shuttle area to catch the shuttle back to the parking lot. There was a line again, but it didn't take as long as this morning to get on a bus and make my way back.
Overall
Overall, I like the concept of the race. There are definitely things that need to be improved upon and personally, I would like to see the challenges a little more challenging, but I know they were trying to attract women of all abilities for this race. The goal of the race was to have fun and I did, so mission accomplished.
Friday, April 8, 2011
2011 Cap 10K
Yeah, I'm a little late, but I have another race in the morning, so I thought I'd better write my race report from the Cap 10K race a few weeks ago. I've done the Cap 10K race for several years now. It's the larget 10K race in Texas and a lot of people dress up for it, so it's lots of fun.
This year, race morning turned out to be a beautiful morning for a race. Temps were in the high 50s and it was a little overcast. It was a little cold standing around before the race, but I knew it would be perfect once we started running. As always, I had gotten to the race start early and hit the port-a-potties. Then I stretched for a bit because I was still having knee issues. After stretching for a while, I hit the port-a-potties again and then I headed for my coral.
Standing in the coral waiting for the race start, I started talking to an older gentleman. Turns out he was from Bryan (in fact he use to be the mayor) and he was an Aggie graduate. We talked some more and he told me he was 77 years old and didn't take any medication. He runs to stay healthy. He also competes in the senior games. I want to be like him when I grow up!
The gun went off and I wished him good luck. It took a few minutes to get to the start, but when I did I took off and tried to settle into my pace. I knew I wouldn't get a PR in this race, but I hoped to come in under an hour. I wasn't going to push the pace with the knee issue.
I felt pretty good running up Congress. As I approached the first mile marker and hit the split button, I saw an 8:53 pace. I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain that, so I slowed down a little bit. Besides, I had forgotten how hilly the first few miles could be. Note to self: get back to hill training.
Mile 2: 9:12. Ok, that's a little better and now with the uphills are a few downhills. Mile 3: 9:16. Keeping a fairly good pace here. If I can get through the hills, I should be ok. The spectator support at this race is good and it kept me focused on moving forward. Finally I was through the majority of the hills. Mile 4: 9:03. Just 2 more to go. Mile 5: 9:09. I'm hanging in there and confident I can finish with a decent time. Mile 6: 9:10. I thought about pushing it the last .2 miles, but knew at this point I would not PR, so I decided it wasn't worth it. I cruised on in to a 56:36 finish time. The last .2 took me 1:50.
After I finished, I grabbed some water and stretched my legs out. I know I need to get better at stretching and make it more of a focus after all my runs and races. I started getting cold as I was sweaty from the run and the temps were still in the high 50s.
Another great race was in the books. I found out later that many of my friends had done the race as well and I didn't see anyone down there. I guess with 23,000 runners, that's to be expected.
This year, race morning turned out to be a beautiful morning for a race. Temps were in the high 50s and it was a little overcast. It was a little cold standing around before the race, but I knew it would be perfect once we started running. As always, I had gotten to the race start early and hit the port-a-potties. Then I stretched for a bit because I was still having knee issues. After stretching for a while, I hit the port-a-potties again and then I headed for my coral.
Standing in the coral waiting for the race start, I started talking to an older gentleman. Turns out he was from Bryan (in fact he use to be the mayor) and he was an Aggie graduate. We talked some more and he told me he was 77 years old and didn't take any medication. He runs to stay healthy. He also competes in the senior games. I want to be like him when I grow up!
The gun went off and I wished him good luck. It took a few minutes to get to the start, but when I did I took off and tried to settle into my pace. I knew I wouldn't get a PR in this race, but I hoped to come in under an hour. I wasn't going to push the pace with the knee issue.
I felt pretty good running up Congress. As I approached the first mile marker and hit the split button, I saw an 8:53 pace. I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain that, so I slowed down a little bit. Besides, I had forgotten how hilly the first few miles could be. Note to self: get back to hill training.
Mile 2: 9:12. Ok, that's a little better and now with the uphills are a few downhills. Mile 3: 9:16. Keeping a fairly good pace here. If I can get through the hills, I should be ok. The spectator support at this race is good and it kept me focused on moving forward. Finally I was through the majority of the hills. Mile 4: 9:03. Just 2 more to go. Mile 5: 9:09. I'm hanging in there and confident I can finish with a decent time. Mile 6: 9:10. I thought about pushing it the last .2 miles, but knew at this point I would not PR, so I decided it wasn't worth it. I cruised on in to a 56:36 finish time. The last .2 took me 1:50.
After I finished, I grabbed some water and stretched my legs out. I know I need to get better at stretching and make it more of a focus after all my runs and races. I started getting cold as I was sweaty from the run and the temps were still in the high 50s.
Another great race was in the books. I found out later that many of my friends had done the race as well and I didn't see anyone down there. I guess with 23,000 runners, that's to be expected.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Diva 5K Run
One of the local high schools put on a Diva 5K Run. Madison and I decided to sign up and run it together. Race information said it was an all female race (ok, well there were a couple of men who dressed as ladies and snuck in) and you even received a tiara and a boa toward the end. What could be better than that?
After a week of beautiful afternoon temperatures, we woke up race morning to cold and rain and wind. LOTS of wind. Luckily, this race wasn't until 4:00pm, so maybe it would warm up. If only we could have been so lucky.
The overcast doom of the morning did give way to sunshine, but the wind stayed at gusts of 20-30mph and the temps stayed in the high 50s and low 60s. The temp was perfect for a 5k, but not with the wind.
Madison and I had ordered matching outfits - hot pink running skirts and a matching top. Afterall, this was a DIVA race and we needed to look the part. We did decide that with the wind, we would wear an UnderArmour top underneath.
Once we got to the race site, we headed toward the start. We tried to stay warm, but it was just impossible. We lined up at the front of the pack. This wasn't necessarily on purpose, but no one else seemed to want up front. We just hoped that someone who knew where they were going would pass us real quick. The start of the race was in the football stadium, but after that we weren't sure. Since this was the first year for this race, I wasn't sure how clearly the course would be marked.
Once the horn blew for us to take off, it didn't take long at all for us to get passed by a few people. In fact, the one woman that really jumped out front stayed out front the whole time and eventually won the race.
We ran around the track and out of the stadium onto the school grounds. Most of the race was weaving around the parking lot and around the school. There was one little section where we went onto a neighborhood street, but then we were right back in the parking lot again.
The race course itself wasn't bad, but the winds proved to be brutal. Especially when they were in your face going uphill. I started to get hot about a mile in and wished we hadn't worn the long sleeves. Plus, with it being a 4pm start and Dalton having a soccer scrimmage at 12:00, I never really ate lunch, so I was feeling that as well.
The one and only water station wasn't until mile 2, which I thought was a little far into the course. This is one thing I have to admit could have been done better. They had the tiny cups instead of the bigger ones and they had them FULL. You couldn't pinch the top together to keep the water from spilling. Because of that, I ended up with water up my nose and not a lot of it in my belly where it needed to be. Oh well, I had to keep going to keep up with Madison who was doing very well.
Onward through the parking lot and back toward the start. About a 1/4 mile out, we were handed our tiara. I tried to put it on, but doing that while running proved to be difficult, so I just carried it. At the next corner we were handed our boa. I quickly wrapped that around my neck so it wouldn't fly away. And then, as we entered the stadium again, we were handed a rose. It was a little tricky running the last bit with all of that, but I made it to the finish line.
Madison beat me by about 20 seconds. I still can't find the "official" results from the timing company, but I estimate her time around 26:40, because my time was right at 27:00. There were not a lot of people who finished before us, so we decided to stay and see if either of us placed. At one point they posted "unofficial" results on a bleacher. It appeared that Madison got 3rd in her age group and around 14 overall, and I got 7th in my age group and 21st overall. Dang, I hate my age group!
We had to wait about an hour before the awards ceremony, which I thought was way too long. And because the wind still hadn't died down we were freezing again. We huddled as best we could to keep warm. And when they got to Madison's age group, she did indeed get 3rd. Not bad for her first official 5k.
Overall it was a great day. There are things that need to be improved upon (earlier water station, water at the finish, awards sooner, etc), but for a first year race they did a good job. We had fun and that was what mattered.
After a week of beautiful afternoon temperatures, we woke up race morning to cold and rain and wind. LOTS of wind. Luckily, this race wasn't until 4:00pm, so maybe it would warm up. If only we could have been so lucky.
The overcast doom of the morning did give way to sunshine, but the wind stayed at gusts of 20-30mph and the temps stayed in the high 50s and low 60s. The temp was perfect for a 5k, but not with the wind.
Madison and I had ordered matching outfits - hot pink running skirts and a matching top. Afterall, this was a DIVA race and we needed to look the part. We did decide that with the wind, we would wear an UnderArmour top underneath.
Once we got to the race site, we headed toward the start. We tried to stay warm, but it was just impossible. We lined up at the front of the pack. This wasn't necessarily on purpose, but no one else seemed to want up front. We just hoped that someone who knew where they were going would pass us real quick. The start of the race was in the football stadium, but after that we weren't sure. Since this was the first year for this race, I wasn't sure how clearly the course would be marked.
Once the horn blew for us to take off, it didn't take long at all for us to get passed by a few people. In fact, the one woman that really jumped out front stayed out front the whole time and eventually won the race.
We ran around the track and out of the stadium onto the school grounds. Most of the race was weaving around the parking lot and around the school. There was one little section where we went onto a neighborhood street, but then we were right back in the parking lot again.
The race course itself wasn't bad, but the winds proved to be brutal. Especially when they were in your face going uphill. I started to get hot about a mile in and wished we hadn't worn the long sleeves. Plus, with it being a 4pm start and Dalton having a soccer scrimmage at 12:00, I never really ate lunch, so I was feeling that as well.
The one and only water station wasn't until mile 2, which I thought was a little far into the course. This is one thing I have to admit could have been done better. They had the tiny cups instead of the bigger ones and they had them FULL. You couldn't pinch the top together to keep the water from spilling. Because of that, I ended up with water up my nose and not a lot of it in my belly where it needed to be. Oh well, I had to keep going to keep up with Madison who was doing very well.
Onward through the parking lot and back toward the start. About a 1/4 mile out, we were handed our tiara. I tried to put it on, but doing that while running proved to be difficult, so I just carried it. At the next corner we were handed our boa. I quickly wrapped that around my neck so it wouldn't fly away. And then, as we entered the stadium again, we were handed a rose. It was a little tricky running the last bit with all of that, but I made it to the finish line.
Madison beat me by about 20 seconds. I still can't find the "official" results from the timing company, but I estimate her time around 26:40, because my time was right at 27:00. There were not a lot of people who finished before us, so we decided to stay and see if either of us placed. At one point they posted "unofficial" results on a bleacher. It appeared that Madison got 3rd in her age group and around 14 overall, and I got 7th in my age group and 21st overall. Dang, I hate my age group!
We had to wait about an hour before the awards ceremony, which I thought was way too long. And because the wind still hadn't died down we were freezing again. We huddled as best we could to keep warm. And when they got to Madison's age group, she did indeed get 3rd. Not bad for her first official 5k.
Overall it was a great day. There are things that need to be improved upon (earlier water station, water at the finish, awards sooner, etc), but for a first year race they did a good job. We had fun and that was what mattered.
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