December 2022 Monthly Running Challenge

You all know the day started WAY TOO EARLY for me. I got out of bed at 3:30 and ate a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit I had gotten from McDonald’s the day before. Yeah, I know, the breakfast of champions. Right?

I followed my plan and got out the door and in the car at 5:00 am.

I thought they were crazy wanting us to get to the Space Force Station gate starting at 4:30, but once I got there, I know why they did. They really need to work on their parking logistics for next year. I got parked at about 5:20, mingled and took a few pictures because it wasn’t obvious where I needed to go to catch the shuttle (bus) to the starting area.
I ate a banana I had taken with me at 5:30 and then followed some folks to the security check and buses. That was at least a half a mile hike. (Cool thing was that we drove on and parked on the skid strip where the shuttle landed.)

The buses were filling up pretty quickly. Once they dropped us off it was another full mile hike to the starting area. This was really annoying as there was no reason that I could see that would have prevented the buses from dropping us off right at the starting area. Anyway, once there I mingled and talked to some people, but there was nowhere to really sit and relax, so wound up standing around until the race started.

The corrals weren’t obvious so I wound up starting about mid-pack. I talked to a nice lady who was sort of in the same boat as me – not sure where to start and was going to run/walk.
The highlight of the pre-race wait was getting to see a couple of robotic dogs that the Space Force brought over. I’m not sure if they did part of the race or not, but they were pretty cool to see.
It was a chilly start at 64°F, cloudy (fog), and 100% humidity. Once the fog cleared and the sun was beaming down, it got hot pretty quickly and I longed for a cloud to give us some relief. Didn’t happen.

Both of my calves were really tight and felt like they were going to cramp up at the start of the race. I’m sure that was due to being chilly and I only walked about a 2 min warm up – from my starting place to the actual start line. When they still felt that way after my first walk break, I was worried that I was going to be a DNF before reaching mile one! Fortunately, after about 10 minutes they eased off and I didn’t have any more issues. I guess they just needed to warm up.

They had some neat signs for each mile marker. I thought of @AlphaHowls when I saw the first one!
I was surprised at how many of the participants were either walking the whole way or doing some sort of run/walk. My guess is that it was over half of the field. I managed to maintain running 3 minutes and then walking 2 minutes for the first five miles. After that, I started running 2, walking three. Then at about the 7 mile point I was down to running one and walking 2. Then it was whatever I could manage. Looking back, I think it was more of a mental issue than a physical one, but not sure I would have agreed with that at the time. LOL I always tried to run at least one minute and found that after a couple minutes’ walk those runs felt really effortless.

I did walk through the water stations. I had a sip of Gatorade once, but it did NOT sit well with my tummy, so water it was the rest of the way. I only had one honey stinger at about the 7 mile point. I did okay, but I do need to do better with fueling during a run.

I loved the corridor of flags that we ran through – don’t recall the mile that was.
Toward the end there were pockets of Space Force folks cheering us. It was much needed by that time. One of the groups was handing out Oreo cookies. I wanted one so bad, as they are my favorite cookie. But, all of you were in my head saying, “Don’t do anything new on race day.” Since I’ve never eaten an Oreo when running, I decided against getting one. I need to add that to my fueling trials so I’ll know if I can get one next time it’s offered.

I think at about mile 7 we passed by Mission Control building. You were allowed to go in, but I didn't want to "waste" the time. Also people were going up to the top and taking pictures. I started to do that, but wasn't sure how my legs would handle the stairs, so opted out of that.
At mile 8, I was ready to be done. I saw a flag ahead that I was sure was the 9 mile marker. Nope. It was an aid station flag. So disappointing! I said something to someone who was running beside me and they said their friend had just said the same thing. I guess we were all wishful thinking.

I walked a little more than I had to once the end was in sight because I wanted to have a strong finish, which I did. I was happily surprised that the finish line announcer read everyone’s name and where they were from as they approached the finish line. I thought that was a nice touch.

Once I finished, I slowly walked to the hanger and got some pictures and then had a banana and got in line to take the “ringing the bell” picture. That was not what I had expected, but I’ve never run a race with a bell before. I was expecting it to be at the finish line and something you rang as you ran by. I guess that would be a hazard if lots of people were finishing close together.
I walked around the vendors and collected some free stuff, then got in a very long line for the bus to take me back to the parking area. They neglected to tell us that they dropped us off at the opposite end of the cars from where we were picked up. And, being tired and hot, it took me a while to realize that. I thought I had lost the car. That’s not a good feeling when you are that tired. I had to look at the pictures I had taken when I parked to try to figure out where I was. After another mile walk, I was headed back to the hotel.

Overall, it was a good experience and I do love the excitement of a larger race. As I said earlier, Gamin clocked me in at 10.11 miles in 2h14m28s for an average pace of 13:18 minutes/mile. My splits were: 12:34, 12:33, 12:34, 13:09, 12:59, 13:48, 13:35, 14:04, 13:56, 13:59, and 11:54 for the last 1min and 16 seconds. My best pace was 8:02 min/mile at the end.

According to the website today, I finished in a time of 2:14:44 with an average pace of 13:29 min/mile. I placed 1260 out of 1808 overall, 534 out of 887 females and 23rd out of 48 in my age group.

Almost forgot the race bling.

Lessons learned:

I may need to invest in a running hat.

Take money in case I want to buy something from the vendors at the finish.

After going through security check, make sure your vest is on correctly. (I had put it on wrong side out and didn’t realize it until I started to go for my honey stinger and there were no pockets. LOL)

Do a better job at remembering where the car is parked.

Test Oreos as fuel.
Do a better warm up, especially if it is cool at the start and I’ve been standing around for a while.
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