Coincidentally, the last two times I’ve had hair appointments, I’ve had evening races as well. So I go and sit in the chair for 2+ hours while my poor hairdresser works her rear end off, trying to get my massive mane of fuzziness and greys tamed down to a more normal-looking head of non-grey hair – and then a couple hours later I completely ruin it by getting it all sweaty and ponytail-dent-y. My hairdresser is a runner too, so I am sure she understands, but still – I feel a little guilty when she asks what my plans for the evening are and I say “I’m running tonight.” All her hard work, destroyed in the span of a couple miles. Plus the fact that I can NEVER flat iron it as perfectly straight and shiny and fabulously as she does. For shame.
Snapped a quick pic in the mirror at work before rushing out the door. So smooth and shiny. Sigh.
Anyhow, last Thursday night (July 11) I ran the Ohio/Michigan 8K race for the first time. 8K = 4.96 miles, for those who aren’t interested in performing metric system conversions. This race is rather popular every year, but this is the first year I decided to run it. It looked really fun and the entry fee was pretty reasonable, since you got drinks and dinner with it ($25 pre-registration) so P and I decided to go for it. Several members of our running club signed up too, although we had a couple of them drop out due to injuries, scheduling conflicts, etc. However, in the end, six of us showed up so the miles counted toward our group goal (per our running club rules, a minimum of 3 members are needed at any one event or group run in order to count the miles toward our 2013 goal of….2013 miles).
The weather was FINALLY dry after 16 – 16! – straight days of rain. The race was at 7:30, when it was still quite hot out, so I himmed and hawed over what to wear (Shorts? Capris? Skort?) and finally settled on this black tank top from Old Navy, and these shorts from Under Armour which I own in hot pink/white/black. I've had the shorts for years, and don't wear them much (I normally prefer compression shorts) but I thought they'd be nice because they are meshy and ventilated. I love the longer length….I have big thighs, and those cute little nylon running shorts with the 2” inseam TOTALLY ride up and cause major chafing issues…so I always stick with longer shorts to prevent that. I have these shorts in a Medium, and they are pretty baggy, but sometimes I’ll wear compression shorts underneath, so I like the extra room for those. Plus mine are bright pink which is sort of fun. It was my first time running in the tank top, but I had tried it on already and knew it was just a basic tank so no big deal there. The only bummer is that I’d ordered it online and totally thought I’d read that it had a shelf bra, but when I got it, it didn’t. I went back and read the description and sure enough it does NOT say anywhere on it that it has a shelf bra. Oh well – runners aren’t normally known for their keen sense of fashion, so I threw on a sports bra underneath and let it all hang out and called it good enough, knowing well that no one cared what I looked like and I was just going to sweat in it, anyhow. The tank actually ended up fitting sort of big on me....I liked it, but I think I'll size down to a Small on the next one. I plopped my hair in a ponytail/bun type thing on top of my head with high hopes that I’d be able to get a second day out of my hairdresser’s nice work before I had to wash it.
I was a little nervous all day, which usually happens pre-race anyhow, but moreso this time because I’d had a HORRIBLE training run earlier in the week (which, if you missed it, you can read about here). I had that butterflies-in-stomach feeling all day long, which caused me to not be very hungry. At 3PM I did force myself to eat the salad and greek yogurt I’d brought for lunch because I knew if I didn’t fuel my body, I’d bonk out in the first couple miles and I didn’t want that. Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t sign up to run this race to place; this race was HUGE and most of the area’s elite runners participated. I had a goal to finish in under 50 minutes, but in the big picture I just wanted to run my 4.96 miles and get to the cold beer and after-party part - BUT I also didn’t want to have another crappy run and take a mental hit again this week. I also snacked on a Bagel Thin with some peanut butter on it right before we left the house, which is my pre-race snack of choice.
Since there was a tornado warning and horrible weather last Wednesday, we did not go pick up our packets at the advance pickup. Simply by looking at last year’s results, we could see that there were over 400 participants, so we got to the race site about an hour early in case we had to wait in lines for packets/bathroom/etc. Turns out there were 750 registered participants this year!!! And magically there was still parking when we got there, and there were BARELY any lines. We waited in a very short line for our packets, and there were no lines at all for the bathrooms. Amazing! The shirt was nothing spectacular – it is a tech shirt, but it’s unisex cut which I do not care for (too baggy in the arms/chest/waist and too narrow in the hip), so it will go in the drawer with all of the other race T-shirts that I only wear to bed or while painting. I wish more races would dish out women’s cut shirts for the women! Sigh.
It was very sunny and 81 degrees at 7:30PM when we all gathered at the start line.
The course itself was a big rectangle – the start line was on Centennial Rd. right outside Centennial Quarry. As the massive crowd gathered at the start line, we noticed that there was no timing mat at the start. We had D-tags on our shoes but clearly it would just go off of the gun start since there was no start mat. So, we maneuvered through the crowd to get up closer to the start so it didn’t take us forever to cross. We heard “Runners set!” and the gun pop, and off the massive crowd went.
The course took us through very flat rural-ish roads up into Michigan, then along the state line before crossing back into Ohio and ending in the parking lot of the Rite Aid that’s across from the Quarry. I can’t say much else about the course itself. There was not really much to look at except for farmer’s fields, a couple subdivisions on the Ohio side, and occasional traffic. The first 2 miles were full sun while the last 2.96 miles were mixed sun and shade. The shade felt REALLY nice!!! There were 2 water stops, both of which I utilized. Normally I do not stop at the water stops for shorter runs like this, but it was HOT out and the sun was just a-blazin’. Simply taking a sip of water and a 5 second walk break to drink can really rejuvenate you during a hot race. I also enjoy watching all the novice runners attempt to drink WHILE they are still running and end up choking on, and/or wearing the water instead. The second water stop even had ice chips in the water, which were yummy and crunchy and cold. It was great! By the 3 mile mark, people were starting to drop like flies. Lots of people began stopping to walk and several people who’d passed me in the first half, I was starting to pass at that point. At the second water stop many people were simply dumping the water over their heads instead of drinking it. It was just really hot but I paced myself and just focused on breathing and “forward trajectory”, as I like to call it. I was able to zone out quite a bit, which was nice.
My times were as such:
Mile 1 – 10:15 (remember, it took us about 15 seconds to cross the start line) Pace 10:15/mi
Mile 2- 19:53 – pace 9:56/mi
Mile 3- 28:58 – pace 9:39/mi
Mile 4- 36:24 – pace 9:06/mi
Finish – 47:52:00 overall pace 9:38/mi
YAY for those nice, negative splits!!!!
It was not a closed course (the roads were still open to traffic), but most of it was all on rural roads so traffic was very sparse and we could take up the entire left lane and even spill over into the right lane for the first 4 miles. The last 0.96 mile though, was up a very busy main road full of traffic in both directions and we were forced to run on the shoulder of the road with traffic cones separating us from the traffic. It made passing people very difficult and I probably could have ran that last stretch faster if I had the chance to get around more people. You practically had to bump people out of the way because it was really only wide enough for two people to run side by side. I guess maybe I’m too courteous. At the last turn into the Rite Aid parking lot, the blonde in front of me out of nowhere STOPPED RUNNING and started walking and I about plowed her over! Thankfully I was able to zip around her and sprinted as fast as I could to the finish in order to gain back a couple seconds. But, overall I’m really happy with how I did. My goal was to finish in less than 50 minutes and I did that with plenty of time to spare. I would have REALLY been happy with a 46-ish minute finish, but all things considered with the crowded start line and the heat and stopping at both water stops plus that last narrow mile, I’m glad I did as well as I did.
I finished faster than P thought I would, so by the time I crossed the finish line he was just getting ready to go out to the street to look for me (he finished in 44:02). I missed his big voice hollering at me “Legs out front!” as he always does – but also was happy that I finished earlier than he thought I would. At the finish they had nice cold water and yummy slices of watermelon and pretzels and trail mix. I grabbed a water and a slice of melon and met up with the rest of the SERC members. Once we’d all come through the chute, we all walked back to the Quarry where they had an after-party. All registered runners got a free meal and 2 drink tickets plus they had a band and free use of the Quarry for swimming. While we didn’t partake in the swimming we did certainly partake in the beer tickets. They were grilling burgers and brats for dinner which didn’t really sound good to me, and I wasn’t hungry at all, so I ended up giving my food ticket to someone. Our running group sat together and ate and drank and hung out listening to the band. By the time we left it was nearly 10PM, I had no idea it was that late! Again, with that many people I was surprised that there were practically no lines for food and beer, but maybe the heat deterred people from staying. It looked like there were a good amount of people filling all the tables.
P and I ended up stopping for another pitcher of beer at Granite City, and then headed home and ordered a pizza. After a shower and slice of pizza I felt amazing and sleepy and totally ready for bed.
And guess what….my hair looked great the next morning! I just had to touch up a couple parts with my own flat iron and it was good as gold.
Unwashed, day-after-race hair
In short, I really liked this race, and plan on adding it to my calendar for next summer’s races. Can't beat a race that ends with a decent cover band and a couple Summer Shandys!
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