Monthly Archives: December 2014
Reindeer Run – A Successful Failure
Race# 32 Overall
Here’s a fun race to run, I said. It would be fun running at night, I said. I guess I should have known something was up when I went to get my bib and shirt about two hours before start time just to find out that my bib was already gone. Really? I was watching them pull through the bibs. Were they simply not paying attention? So one lady who seemed sympathetic said that I would get a replacement bib and walked off to supposedly get one reissued to me. The other girls (including the one who searched for the initial bib) didn’t really seem to care, or they just simply had no clue as to what to do with my situation. They just froze until I finally moved to the side and allowed for some more people to check in. Here’s your sign!
Xmas Tree
So I waited for what ended up being about twenty minutes. The original lady walked back and forth a handful of times, glancing my way every now and then, I just assumed she was still working on my bib. Eventually, she stopped walking altogether and just started handing out shirts and never looked my way again. But the other girls looked at me a handful of times then. Were they just expecting me to leave? It was like the entire tent was clueless. Even a lady I work with who was volunteering with check in was completely clueless, “Oh, they better not have lost your bib” before proceeding to go back to playing with the jingle bells and antlers. So then the city Christmas tree was lit (without me present) and the fireworks started going off. At that time, I just gave up and threw my hands up in the air. I walked off, took some video of the fireworks and figured that I wouldn’t even bother running this race. What incompetence.
Fireworks
I ended up meeting up with a friend back by the parking garage, and we walked back to the start line and check in. I walked up figuring that either they would have a replacement bib ready or they would be completely clueless. Well, as you can probably expect, they were totally clueless. So this guy walking by sees my predicament and he proceeds to getting me a replacement bib very expeditiously. But he didn’t take any of my information, simply my name. He didn’t even care about my previously assigned number. So I make the joke, I wonder if the guy who took my bib will run faster than me, maybe I’ll want his time.
We line up at the back of the pack to start the race. I just now that there’s going to be a bottleneck as the streets were not clear (plenty of parked cars on both sides of a fairly narrow street to begin with). We start finally and we’re off. We take things a little slow to avoid the bottlenecks but I can’t say that it was as bad as I expected, perhaps because we started near the very back. We were able to get around a lot of people pretty quick though. The pace was about 10:15ish. Lots of people wearing antlers. Most people wearing the jingle bells. A few people dressed up as reindeer even though they looked like gophers or hedgehogs instead since they were round and had no real antlers sticking up.
Capitol
The state capitol building was lit up green and red for Christmas. Perfect time for a picture. So I take the picture right where the turn is from 4th Street to Spanishtown. That’s when I notice a lady down on the ground and two guys helping her up. First casualty to this night time event. I was curious whether or not there would be any lighting issues with this particular race, especially since a co-worker had mentioned how he fell in it two years prior. Well, as long as the field of runners isn’t too packed and I pay attention, I figure it shouldn’t be… Jesus Christ, I just tripped over whatever it was that lady must have hit…
And I went down hard in slow motion even. I started tumbling and there was nothing I could do about it but brace for the fall. I hear someone scream about the ‘crack’ and once on the ground I think I even saw the ‘crack’. Crack my ass, it was like a mini fault line in the middle of the road. I didn’t even try to get up as I was more worried about other people tripping over it, maybe even falling on top of me. So I yell and point “Watch out for that crack thing!” Meanwhile some poor lady is waiting on me, trying to help me up but I guess I wasn’t in a great hurry. But I realized I needed to get up and at least off the road. She helped me up, I thanked her and immediately felt the pain as I began to hobble towards the sidewalk.
Hey, where is Danielle? She had her earbuds in and was right in front of me but she must have missed me going down. She was gone now. I’ll just say that she tripped me! Haha.
Meanwhile, I look down and all around and notice blood in three areas, both knees and all along my right arm. Ouch, the right arm took the brunt of the fall. It looked pretty bad. But hey, it wasn’t broken or if it was I couldn’t tell. If anything, my left arm felt a little more suspect for a few minutes, but I think it was just in shock. I saw the first lady finally take off in front of me. She must have done the same thing I did, fall, get up, inspect her body, assess her injuries if any, and went back on to running again. So I start to run. Ouch! Wow, can’t really tell but I think I’ve really screwed up my foot somehow. Must have stubbed that big toe good. But how far ahead of me is Danielle? So I took off running again, although at a slower pace.
About half a mile up the road at right past the first water stop, I found her. I hold up my arm to show her my injuries and she thinks I’m wanting to bump arms for encouragement “Yeah, buddy!”. No, no, don’t touch it. See the blood? You should have seen her face then. I think she was more startled than I was when I fell. Haha! I explain to her what happened, not to mention when I caught up to her and stopped running for a moment, I realized that I had really messed up my foot more than initially thought. Now, she did ask if I wanted to head back to the start. But we were almost as far away from the start as we were going to get anyway, plus I’m supposed to be tough right? “Nah, I’m already out here, let’s do this!” Hell, it’s only a 5K, right?
Well, I just hobbled the last two miles of that 5K. Actually, for all the local races that are shorter than a true 5K, this one was a good quarter mile or so longer. How about that! But since I fell in the first mile, it made for a long two miles to the finish. At times it felt better running (albeit awkwardly) but I just did what I could. The pace dropped to about 16:30. Ha! I walk faster than that… when I’m not injured. 😛
The last two miles took us over a few speed bumps and two parking lot access gates and we saw no less than another four people go down although I can’t say any looked as serious as me and the first lady I saw. The rest seemed to shake it off quicker. I was told that some older lady fell on her head and needed an ambulance, but I don’t remember ever seeing her or the ambulance, but god knows where she was in the field. Not to mention, they ran out of water!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention… Remember how cold it was in New Orleans earlier in November for the Jazz half marathon? Well, summer came back the first week of December. It was 82 this particular day and it was still 80 not long before the race start time. It was warm, muggy. Supposedly there were people passing out and puking at the finish line. And the event staff had nowhere near enough water. They ran out for a long time before I guess some local business gave them extra water. I guess they were expecting another 35F wintry day and everyone would want hot chocolate. Although they had all week to watch the weather channel and see that it was going to remain in the 70s and 80s the week leading up to this particular event.
And I was bummed at the finish. From such a tragic event where I tried to scrape most of the skin off my right arm and possibly break my toes (actually I fractured two of them but I wasn’t sure about this at the time), I was just sure that I would get to utilize the EMS tent at the finish. I mean, most races have some sort of medical standby and this race did think about having trainers to stretch and massage people prior to and after the race. What do you mean they don’t have an EMS tent? WTH? So now there is no medical, there’s no water… What the hell turns into What the F***!!!
But this is where my second co-worker friend turns up with her true awesomeness. Carrie has got to be the sweetest person ever, and fun as hell. She locates a basic first aid kit. At least it has iodine. She also helps to find water although not until after she cleaned my wounds the best she could with what she did have and wrap it up in the only tiny gauze tape she could find. Event director… terrible job. Worst race ever so far! But Carrie made up for it in the end. I guess I can forgive them. lol
Post race sucked though. Most of the food was gone. There was some super long line for what appeared to simply be a tiny bowl of red beans or jambalaya. Then we walk around the corner for some pizza (now I have a pizza a beer craving), but the place was pretty packed. We run into a few other co-workers and I explain to them how Danielle tripped me so that I wouldn’t beat her this time. Haha. I guess it was best not to stop for pizza and beer. It helped me decide to go on home and properly clean up my arm with alcohol and peroxide and to pull off my sock to find out what damage I had done to not just my big toe but the one next to it as well. LSU Purple! Nearly a week later, I still can’t move right on it. Guess it’s going to take a few weeks for sure.
But it was a success right? Not so much because I finished it. Who cares if I’m stubborn. But it was a success because I wanted to run at least one race in every month of the year this year (to make for last year) and this race did that. I have officially completed a race (minimum 5K) in every month of 2014.
Oh, and as far as times go… the guy who took my bib did end up finishing first in his age bracket. Actually, the bib should have said he was 36 but that would have placed him second in that age bracket, so he must have complained and gotten the director to change that bib to be age 41, which placed him first in that age bracket (but they didn’t change the name). And since they didn’t have any clue who the real Daryl Williams was, I finished second to last in the same age group. I guess the just copied his info and put it for my replacement bib info. Now that there are two of us, age 41, I think that other guy should be disqualified. Haha!!!
Either way, I think I’m done running for the remainder of 2014. See you guys next year. Happy Holidays!!!
Race: Reindeer Run
Date: December 5, 2014, 7pm
Place: Baton Rouge, LA
Time: 46:24
#7 – Florida
Race Bib
State #7
I know, I know. I’m very late in publishing a recap of the Pensacola event. I got a little twisted up with other events and just never made time to write the recap. Needless to say, this year hasn’t exactly gone to plan, but hopefully it’ll end on a high note. I’m one December race away from completing one new years goal which was to run in at least one 5K event in every month of the year. So who cares if some of my other goals didn’t really pan out the way I was hoping.
Mural
After a chilly trip to Nashville and an unexpected freezing run through Uptown New Orleans, I really needed a warm retreat. And even though it took until the last minute on Sunday, Florida didn’t disappoint. It had started off pretty chilly during the leadup to this particular weekend. It wasn’t bitter cold but it had been in the 50s for highs. When I got to Florida, it was still only about 60 which was still chilly especially near the water. It was also a little breezy, so I was slightly worried about it being too cold during the run on Sunday morning.
The expo in Pensacola was fairly simple; although I know I was ignored by a Bama fan volunteer because I was wearing an LSU shirt on the day that LSU and Alabama were playing each other. Luckily, another super polite volunteer was there to assist me. Afterwards, they pretty much force you to snake through their expo to get your shirt at the very end. Every race is different. Some places don’t have much of an expo at all while others were pretty large with all sorts of booths and exhibits, and free stuff. I had family with me on this trip and they were waiting in the car so I just didn’t bother much with looking this time. I ignore the calls to try their products; although I also don’t remember seeing many free things like food/energy drinks/snacks like I’ve seen at other expos, and I finished up by getting my shirt and testing my tag to make sure it worked properly. Then it was off to Pensacola Beach to the hotel, beaches and dinner.
Pensacola Bay
Luckily, the next morning it felt pretty good. It was definitely warmer on the beach. It was in the 50s on the beach while the city itself was in the 40s and inland towards Alabama was in the 30s. I didn’t feel cold at all on the beach but I felt a little chilly once in the city itself. I almost wondered if I should have worn long sleeves, but I decided to go for it without them. I knew that it was supposed to warm up well into the 60s quick and even make it into the 70s later that afternoon. Fortunately that ended up playing out perfectly and the chill was all but gone by the time we rounded the first corner.
5:00/2:30 Pace Group
The race itself didn’t have many thousands of runners like some, but it wasn’t small either. You could tell most of the community was involved in this race and there was a huge military presence as well with the Air Force base being nearby. There were several groups of servicemen running/jogging with full gear. There were many volunteers along the roads from the area installations as well. And everyone was so supportive, from the runners to the volunteers to the spectators. I saw many more spectators along this urban route than I did in New Orleans, but perhaps the cold weather kept the cajuns indoors. This race also had a drone flying over, which seems to have gotten real popular now. The MC said that there was supposed to be a canon fire at the start, so I started to hold my ears a bit just in case, but I never heard the canon which was fine by me.
Scenic Route
The race started fairly promptly and we made a quick loop around the main highway that connects the city to the beaches. So that was where we blocked the most traffic for the most time. But it was all within the first mile so everyone should have been by within 20 minutes or so. The first couple of miles run along Escambia Bay which is a lot larger than you’d imagine. Even though it was waterfront and there was a slight breeze, it wasn’t overly breezy and it never really got cold at all. The sun was rising behind a hazy sky and it was plenty warm enough. At first, I got behind a man/woman team who were run/walking already, and she was a fairly large woman, but I was impressed with how she was able to run past me when she ran and I’d run past her when she walked. So I began to think that perhaps she would be my pacer as she was obviously better trained for this than I initially gave her credit. Unfortunately she ended up falling back pretty quickly after Mile 1. But I give her credit, she was doing it.
Lake Charles representing
By the railroad underpass (the first real hill) before Mile 2, I had caught up to a lady from Lake Charles, LA pushing her daughter I believe in one of those racing chairs. I didn’t talk directly with her but she was talking with people around her as they were asking questions and giving her words of encouragement. I’m always iffy on how to approach people. I mean, I borderline think it’s rude to just be nosy for the sake of being nosy, but if the person obliges it then you tend to learn a lot and even make new friends. Turns out, this was her 9th marathon and either her 3rd or 5th time in Pensacola (after almost a month, I forgot exactly), so she knew all about ‘The Hill’. I actually ended up hanging with her and the 5:00 marathon pace group all the way up until the first split around Mile 6. That really made me feel good.
First split
Not very long after the split was the beer stop. No water, just beer. The crowd support for this race was really phenomenal, much better than some races I had been in. I always wonder about crowd support for slower runners at these type of events, but I never really realized that after the split, I had jumped from two thirds back in the pack to up in the front third because the elite marathons hadn’t made it back around yet. I saw the police cars rolling up behind me and didn’t know exactly what it was for at first. Then I saw them get around me and help to block off intersections more. About that time, I realized that the marathon leader must be approaching. Not long after that, I saw the bicyclists and camera crew proceeding the runner. There were more interested bodies and photographers around the leader in this race than were at the Jazz run in NOLA. I only saw one press truck in NOLA with one camera and nobody else pacing the leader. Too cold I guess. Haha.
Leader
So after the marathon leader passes me like I’m standing still, we reach ‘The Hill’. I didn’t realize that Pensacola had real hills, real steep hills. I yelled this out to one spectator who promptly responded with ‘Surprise!’ I don’t know for certain but it appeared we had slowly increased in elevation from the start around 25 feet up to nearly 100 feet, and then there was this steep drop to a back bay bayou. So all the way down to sea level and then immediately back up to where we were. Needless to say, I didn’t see too many people in my half marathon area running for long up the hill. It was slightly torturous. But at the top there were more people cheering and some were handing out bananas and water. Perfect reward for such a nasty climb. After that point, there was only one more bridge which really wasn’t that bad and then it was slightly downhill all the way to the finish.
Elvis is in road
When we got back downtown, I was surprised at how dead it was. It seemed like many businesses had abandoned downtown Pensacola. And there wasn’t a huge crowd there; although they were all waiting at the finish not long after. I also didn’t realize that there was actually another marathon split here. Although I was well into Mile 13, the marathon at this point was only around Mile 21 and proceeded to split off one last time before joining up for the final half mile sprint. Wouldn’t you know, I ended up getting back in front of the marathon leader. I was on the home stretch in sight of the finish line talking with another girl about how far that finish line looked and then we saw more police cars and flashing lights. My first thought was that perhaps it was the leading female in the marathon. Surely the male had already finished. I was trying hard to break 2:30 but by this point I knew I had failed. But then the police passed us along with that familiar camera truck and bikes and then, the male leader yet again. So the crowd erupted. For the second time, I finish a half marathon right behind the marathon winner. I’m not going to lie. This has a spoiling effect. It’s so much fun to cross a finish line so close to the actual winner. It makes it that much more special.
Finish Line
I wasn’t so sure about PR. I knew I was close being as it was 2:32, but I wasn’t sure exactly. After I got home, I was able to confirm that I had in fact run another personal best by just a few seconds. Perhaps 2:30 is in reach, but I realize it’s going to be tough and if I would stay up and running hard for long enough, I know I could do it. Two minutes should be nothing. I can’t wait to run another half marathon that has true half marathon pace groups for my time area like they had in Kansas. Most races don’t have half marathon pace groups up to 2:30 let along beyond it. But Kansas had pace groups for every five minutes or so which was great. The 5:00 marathon pace group helps but you’re not running the whole distance with them either, so it only helps if they split right at the half finish.
Medal
Anyway, this race was great. I was amazed with the support and how ‘big’ it felt even though it didn’t have some of the big event numbers of a Chicago or Philadelphia. It felt big. The finishers medal was big too. Huge in fact; with a blue angel jet on it. And plenty of stuff afterwards although I was mainly interested in the chocolate milk. They had some sandwiches which seemed dry. I would have stayed much longer but I had family waiting for me at the hotel on the beach so I packed up my stuff and headed on out. By now the weather had warmed up nicely so it was time to go spend the afternoon relaxing on the beach.
Destin
Three half marathons, back to back to back. Not so bad. I didn’t feel bad at all after them. In fact, I felt like I was getting better and better with each. Too bad it was so cold in New Orleans. Ha! But no more scheduled for this year, and no Louisiana half for January. Too expensive really. I was able to run in six states this year. Quite an accomplishment to say the least. I didn’t go further into debt, but I also didn’t pay things off or save nearly as much as I was hoping to. So I already have a feeling that next year will be tough. Not nearly as much traveling for sure. I’m already thinking that I may just try to do two big trips (one spring/one fall) where I try to run two halfs in two adjacent states over one weekend. That would be four states right there. And if I can sneak in a quick trip to the Mississippi coast in March, that’s five. That would be a win for me at this point as it would put me at 12 after only two years. Then perhaps 2016 will look brighter. Wish me luck.
Race: Pensacola Marathon
Date: November 9, 2014, 7AM
Place: Pensacola, Florida
Time: 2:32:23
500K Across the USA 