September 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »

rheddmobile wrote: »

@T1DCarnivoreRunner How’s the calf today? Is it definitely a tear?

Just caught up on the thread. I promise I read everything and like posts! Congrats to all the racers! @mbaker566 The new pup is adorable. What did they end up deciding about the dog that got into the fight?

Did 5 miles easy at Shelby Farms today. New shoes - Saucony Omni ISO - since my Brooks Adrenaline 18s which I hoarded are finally past it, and I can’t wear the 19s. I wish companies wouldn’t update best selling shoes. They can add new shoes to the line up, but leave my shoes alone! Anyway I think the Omnis may be going back, since they have an 8mm drop versus 12 for the Adrenalines and I can really feel it in my Achilles’ tendon. I was hoping it had been long enough that it would be okay, and I’m still going to give them another run before I make up my mind since they feel great otherwise - very stable as far as my knee is concerned - but I could feel the tendon pulling and I don’t with the Adrenalines. Anyway, today was a good day for an easy run since it was loathsomely hot, 100 with heat index 106 and zero breeze. We ended up run/walking because of the heat. When we got back to the parking lot, we heard a howl of despair from the car next to us: “Aw no MY WATER IS HOT!” Gym bro type had left his massive jug of water in his SUV in the sun and nearly burned himself taking a drink.

So, race report for Saturday!

The West Cancer Clinic West Fight On 5k is my husband’s and my runniversary race - two years ago, we were less than halfway through c25k, which we had paused due to his skin cancer surgery, when we decided to run this race in support of the clinic where his cancer was treated. So it is important to us for more than one reason. It turned out we couldn’t have picked a better first race - big enough to feel like an event, with loot and vendors and a party, and relaxed enough that there were plenty of participants of all levels. That first time we ran it, we had never run more than a third of a mile at a time, never even walked 5k at one time, and my husband was two weeks out from having a substantial amount of flesh removed from his neck and still covered in bandages. We ran most of the first mile due to race day energy and run / walked the rest, for a time of 44:17.

Year two, we had been running for a year by then, but I had spent the summer recovering from a ruptured Baker’s cyst and wasn’t as fast as I had been in the spring. Even so, we shaved 13 minutes off our previous time for a time of 31:27. That was good enough for 7th place in my AG - and since I was curious about my competition, I looked at the finishing video of the people who had beaten me, and found one was a man wearing a woman’s bib, one was a lady who had walked the memorial mile course while wearing a bib for the 5k, and there was one other that I can’t recall what the issue was, but when I pointed out the video, the walker was moved to the walker results, the man was moved to the male results, and I ended up 4th.

So I had high hopes of a podium finish going into this year. I knew that depending on who showed up, there were several local women in my AG who were simply faster than me on my best day, but I also knew that this race was scheduled for the day after the Cooper-Young 4 miler, which is one of the races in a high profile local series, so a lot of serious racers might not show up. And it does seem that the scheduling was unfortunate for the organizers, since the race was about half the size of previous years.

Last year’s race was marred by some of the most obnoxious walkers ever - a lot of the people who walked the 5k lined up in front, and the memorial mile walkers were scheduled so that they funneled into the finish line right as we made the turn for our finishing kick. Many of them were walking as teams, with several people abreast and arms linked, which made it difficult to run through them. (Battalions of team walkers are also a big problem at the St Jude Marathon weekend 5k) The lady who walked with the wrong bib was also walking a dog, despite dogs being not allowed! It was just a mess.

Anyway, this year the organizers seem to have listened to feedback and made efforts to organize the walkers and keep them out of the runners’ way. And it worked! It was beautiful! First, although both groups eventually ended up at the same finish, they had a separate start for mile walkers and 5k walk/runners, so there was no confusion about who was who, and they had a staggered start so the mile walkers mostly came into the finish during a lull in the 5k arrivals. Then they had pace signs for actual CORRALS for the 5k race! Whoopee! And the corral information was posted in the race booklet, as well as announced. It worked, although a lot of people at the front in the “8 minutes or faster” corral weren’t running 8 miles by any stretch of the imagination, none were actually walking. Although Memphians can be rude as heck about pushing to the starting line when there are no corrals, they are curiously shy when there are corrals, and it’s not uncommon for the first one to be almost empty until some slower people say, “Hey, if no one else is going up there, I might as well,” and move up. Which is what happened this time. My husband and I were expecting to run around 9:15 or so, but looking around we seeded ourselves near people of the same body type and likely ability, which put us at the back of the 8 minute corral. That turned out to be just about perfect, since I can count on one hand the number of people we passed or who passed us.

My husband and I met @T1DCarnivoreRunner and chatted before the race. It was really fun to put a face to one of the people on the forum!

The weather was unexpectedly pleasant. This course goes around Patriot Lake and there’s zero shade, and in summer the air coming off the water can be perfectly still. The forecast had zero cloud cover. But in fact at 8:30 am there was a light cover of thin high clouds, and a nice little breeze, temperature just about 80. As a result, we decided to push it more than we had planned, since our test runs had been done about ten degrees hotter. The first mile of the race is up a quarter mile of hill, then sharply downhill for another quarter mile. We have learned in the past not to challenge the first hill because it will wipe you for the rest of the race, and also that if you are familiar enough with the downhill to run it fast and easy, you can really make up some time there without tiring yourself. So we sauntered gently up, then bombed the downhill as hard as possible. I had warned my husband that I would only run downhill as hard as seemed safe for my Achilles’ tendon, and to go on if I started to lag behind, but as I turned out the ankle felt great and we stayed together. First mile pace 8:45, which when we tried that pace in practice was too fast to allow us to recover, but the cooler weather let us keep going. Second mile 9:06, and by that time we were feeling it. There’s another hill up past the water park, so we walked it, and caught our breath, third mile 9:40. Incidentally this year we went up the hill on a different path than last year, despite the course map being identical. In fact, all three years we have run it, the course has been slightly different, despite using the same map, and on NONE of the three has the course followed the official map.

We knew the course was a little long - last year gps said 3.36, this year we got 3:27. Pretty certain this is not a gps error since we’ve run it several times in practice plus everyone else’s times are super slow for this race - it’s just long. So anyway we saved our strength for the last tenth and trucked on in at 29:51 - yay under 30 minutes! Official pace 9:36, unofficial pace based on gps data 9:10.

That turned out to put me 3rd of 41 in my age group, and since both the Master and Grandmaster were from my age group, that meant I got a boxing glove trophy for 1st in AG! Yay! And my husband was 3rd in his AG and also got a trophy, which is the first time he’s ever won a trophy. The two ladies faster than me were two of the aforementioned local people who are consistently faster than me on my best day, including my new Nemesis, the very nice lady who beat me in the Winter Trail Series. I’ll catch her yet!

We went for a long trail walk to get in some miles before it got too hot, then came back for the party. Breakfast was good! Apparently someone listened when I complained about lack of diabetes friendly options last year since there was a giant vat of bacon, plus eggs, as well as hash brown casserole, yogurt, granola, biscuits, and fruit. Also coffee, beer and mimosas. The food was self-serve. My husband was tricked by a little girl into pouring her a mimosa, thinking it was OJ! Fortunately a volunteer was nearby and had already caught her doing it once before to somebody else. While I was serving myself, a goggle-eyed young lady next to me said, “You mean... there is nothing stopping me from taking ALL this bacon?” “Nothing but your arteries,” my husband said. So I had a whole bunch of bacon and eggs and coffee.

We had just enough time to finish our breakfast in time for the awards ceremony, and lots of people congratulated us on BOTH getting awards. Also, my husband went up to get his picture taken with the survivors. Then the party continued for the rest of the day, with bounce houses, face painting, live music, and vendors. The swag included a bunch of different colors of running sunglasses to replace some of the ones that were stolen out of my car!

I feel like there must have been some sort of explanation for the band, such as that some of the volunteers were a little tipsy and had volunteered to sing 70s and 80s rock standards with the professional backing band. I understand the justification for “Ride like the Wind,” at a bicycle race, but when they started on off-key Captain and Tennille we bugged out.




Three years of medals:

IDK. It hurts a bit still, but I am going to try going out with it, taking things easy, and hoping it goes well.