Tag Archives: 5K

Running, Sports

Race #52 – The Color Run Night 5K

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I’ve said it before, I’m not much for “novelty races” — mud runs, cave crawls, and the like.  It’s not the I mind the events too much, but a lot of them are nationwide touring events with no medals.  However, there are a few things that’ll trip my trigger, and pique my interest.  One is NASCAR tracks.

When I found out that the Color Run Night was gonna be held on the track at Gateway Motor Speedway, I was in.  There was no medal, but it was on the track!  And then, I discovered that they also had another race from these folks in September, the Color Run Shine, that would have a medal.  Woot!  I signed up for both.

Unfortunately, I got an email a couple of days ago that the Shine race in September was gonna be cancelled.  No real explanation, just due to “circumstances beyond our control.”  There went my medal, but I still had the race on the track, so that was good.

I went out Saturday morning, and started gathering the things I’d need for the race — goggles (to protect my glasses and eyes), a couple of cowbells, and lots of glo-sticks.  I wanted to be dressed right for this event!

Drag Strip
Drag Strip

I got to the track a couple of hours ahead of the race start, as suggested, and wandered around the facility.  This track is both an oval, as well as drag strip.  When I was a kid, I liked drag racing, and it was extremely cool to stand at the start line, and look down the track.

As it was really hot — about 90° — I figured I needed hydration and a little food.  The concessionaires were dealing, so I scarfed a big ol’ soft pretzel and a bottle of water.

And knowing there was no medal, I went to the “company store” and picked up a keychain.  I figured I could get some ribbon, and make a medal out of that little plastic do-dad.

The stage group were whipping the growing crowd into a frenzy, with music, swag flung into the crowd, and group Zumba.  It was looking to be a good-sized and energetic group as the sun set, and we got closer to the start time.

Start Line
Start Line

We started to corral near the start line, and it was evident that this was gonna be fun.  Folks had their lights, glo-sticks and glow-in-the-dark stuff revved up, and little by little, we were released in waves onto the course.

Shortly after my wave took off, we turned, and found ourselves on the drag strip.  Although it was dark, you could still see the dark rubber from all the burnouts.  Walking on that, however, was anything but fast.  The rubber laid down by all those tires was tacky, and it felt like you were walking on fly paper.  Probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever walked on!

One after another, the throng I was with crossed into color zones where we were doused in colored powder.  There was also a zone with bubble machines, and another with black-light messages on the pavement.  From the flats of the straightaways to the banks of the turns, the course was great, and loads of fun.

One thing I’ll mention is that the course was short of 5K — my Garmin measured about 4.3km, but with the walk from the parking to the course, and back, I’m counting it as a 5K!

Crossing the finish line, I was handed a bag, filled with the same colored powder that was covering everyone.  This was for the after-party.  And then, someone put a medal in my hand.

Now, the medal was a “Shine” medal, not a “Night” medal, but that was fine with me.  My guess is that the medals for the Shine event on September 19th were already in town, so they were just used for this event.  Works for me!

The after-party was a blast.  People were everywhere, all covered in every color of the rainbow, and all having a great time.  Every ten minutes or so, the announcer would countdown to another “color blast”, which is when those bags of color would be launched among the crowd.  It’d look like a massive fog falling from the sky when folks would fling their colored powder in the air.  It was really cool, and gave a great medium for the lasers from the stage to shine through.

And finally, they had a fireworks show.  And not just bottle rockets — real good fireworks that went on and on.

Post-Race
Post-Race

When I got home, I got a good look at my clothes, and man was I a mess!  I had color-covered arms.  I had a color-covered belly — I have no idea how that happened!  My shoes were orange.  I was a mess.

After I got in the house, and figured out how to keep from tracking color all over the place, I hopped in the shower, and began to try to scrub off all the color from me.  Frankly, I was surprisingly successful, although there’s still a little color on me.  During the shower, though, it looked like someone was wringing out a Smurf — so much dirty blue-ish colored water!!

Yeah, I don’t usually do this kind of race, but I believe this may be a return event for me.  It was that fun!

EDIT:  Here’s the video from the race.  Warning… it’s kinda long!

This race benefitted the American Red Cross of Eastern Missouri.

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Running, Sports

Race #51 – Quest for the Golden Pearl 5K

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With exceptionally cool morning weather this week, I resolved last night to get up early today, and run.  It didn’t hurt that the Perseid meteor shower was also coming up on its peak (which is tonight).  So,  at 4:30am, I drug my tired self out of bed, threw on my running gear, and walked out on the deck, both to confirm the temperature was as predicted, as well as to see if there were any streakers in the sky.  The temp was great, but I saw nothing of the Perseids.  🙁

I scarfed a little breakfast (water and an English muffin with peanut butter and some wonderful honey from the pantry — this stuff was kinda green colored, and crazy sweet!), and trucked out to the site of my last awful run… the Wildwood Greenway.

This time, Mr. Sun wasn’t gonna harsh my buzz.

Last night, I set up my Garmin a little differently, albeit still for intervals.  In the ill-fated run on Monday, I set up intervals in the Training set of menus.  This was the way I was accustomed to doing intervals with my old Garmin, so I thought that was right.  When doing it like that, however, you can only specify a specific number of cycles of running and walking, and in the online app, splits are shown as a function of those cycles, rather than kilometers or miles.  Not great, but the price of entry.

Playing around with the menus, I saw that I could set up an alert for my running/walking intervals, and after a little testing from the couch last night, I knew I’d found the right settings — prompting for run-to-walk transitions (and vice-versa!), as well as preserving my kilometer splits.  Perfect!  With my intervals set to 30secs of running and 90secs of walking, I was ready.

So this morning at the Greenway, I exited the Jeep, stretched, and hit the magic button on the Garmin to start timing whatever was to come.  I knew that I’d use the first three cycles (six minutes) to warm up and wake up.  Those passed quickly, and I made a commitment…

I was gonna let my Garmin have its way with me, and make me its whiny bitch.  When it said “run”, I’d run.  When it said “walk”, I’d think about it.  🙂

And that’s what I did.  I powered up some hills that usually cause me big grief.  I ran down the backside of some hills, extending my running cycle into my walking cycle because it felt good.  In fact, I ran up some of the hills faster than I ran down them.

It didn’t hurt that the temperature was twenty-five degrees cooler than Monday night, or that I only had the sun on me during the second half of the course.  It also didn’t hurt that I found a commitment this morning that’s been lacking lately.  Yes, I’ve been finishing my races, but on the terms my weak gray matter has been dictating, not at the level of capability I know I have.  This morning, I gave up control of that to a little plastic widget on my wrist, and it forced me to run more consistently than I have in a long time.  In fact, today was sub-50min moving time (those stupid traffic signals pushed me to 50min overall), and that was tremendous, especially after Monday’s debacle.

I’ve never tried running before my workday began, but this just might be a good thing for me!  Now, to go off and reward myself with coffee and Cap’n Crunch…

This race benefitted Water.org, which pioneers innovative, sustainable solutions to the global water crisis, giving women hope, children health and communities a future.

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Running, Sports

Race #50 – Phone Home 5K

After my success on Saturday morning, I got cocky, and returned to the Greenway yesterday afternoon.  I thought I’d have a great time of it, zipping through 5km, and maybe even adding a few more miles.  And even more optimistically, I set my Garmin to work through  some interval work to see if I could get my times down.

Mr. Sun, however, had an entirely different plan.

I got out to the Greenway just after work, and noticed it was hotter than I expected.  Earlier in the day, we’d had a small storm come through that scrubbed out the atmosphere, and made things really nice.  Apparently, nature abhors a vacuum, and where the humidity had poured down as rain, it was replaced with vicious crazy nasty humidity with big, nasty pointy teeth.  So, not just hotter, but more humid.  Hooray.

Jumping on the trail, I started moving my feet.  I knew I’d take five minutes or so of walking to warm up, and shortly after that, I started to work my intervals.  By the end of the third interval, I knew I was not landing in a happy place, and quickly, my times fell off, and I was looking at conditions and a pace more like the ugly race in Washington almost a month ago.  This too, had turned in a death march across the desert of pavement.

I slogged on, and on, and on, wondering if this distance would ever be complete.  It felt like some kind of sick Groundhog Day, with the pavement beneath my feet never seeming to end.  I finally got to my three-quarters complete point, and knew I was gonna make it through.  Frankly, there’s really no option but to finish — there’s no way to get back to the parking lot, shy of some kind soul stopping on the side of the road to rescue you and ferry you along.

So, I finished — yay! — but I was toast afterward.  Note to self… heat and humidity DO NOT MIX!!!

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Running, Sports

Race #49 – Sage Rat River Run 5K

Somewhere along the way, I’d heard of the virtual races at Virtual Run World, but for whatever reason, I wasn’t watching them for  races.  Their medals were kinda large and gaudy, and didn’t trip my trigger.  However, I learned recently that they sponsor a “real world” race, and that they were selling off excess medals from those race series.

That race is the Sage Rat River Run, which is run at a variety of distances, and one of those is 5K — right in my wheelhouse.  The other thing that was enticing about this was the rat on the medal.  Darla’s been chasing rats in tubes as part of barn hunt, and doggone-it, I wanted to have my own rat reward!  🙂

I decided to return to the Wildwood Greenway, and run on it for the first time in a couple of years.  This is a great paved trail, with paths on both the north and south sides of Highway 100 (Manchester Road), and is the site of my PR at 5K back in 2012.  Of course, on a nice day, it’s pretty crowded with walkers, runners and cyclists.  Yesterday was no exception.

I’d intended to just go 5K, but kinda got in a groove, and started exploring the trail, getting into some of the nooks and crannies I’ve never explored.  Before I knew it, I was over five miles for the second weekend in a row.  And once again, I found that I had a nice rhythm going (albeit not the fastest in the world!), which is giving me some real confidence about the upcoming half-marathon in Tulsa come November.  I get it that five miles is significantly less distance than 13.2 miles, but the early returns are looking promising!

So, with this weird course yesterday morning, I have no good way of extracting splits for either 5K or 5mi.  C’est la vie.  Sometimes, it’s about the journey, rather than the metrics!

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Running, Sports

Race #47 – Guts to Glory 5K

Yet another virtual race… shocker, eh?  🙂

(And yeah, the header image isn’t from this race, but it’s the only image I could think of that had a “gut” in it!)

Yesterday was hot.  There’s no other way to describe it.  Ninety degrees in the shade, and there wasn’t a lot of shade.  However, Da Lou had a “cold” front come through overnight, so the humidity was much less, which  was nice.

I was surprised at the number of folks out on the trail.  I guess the brutal heat of the last week had kept the casual runners and walkers (like me!) indoors.  With the ten degree drop in temperatures since Wednesday and much lower humidity, folks just had to break out, I suppose.  Kinda like cabin fever, but in the summertime.

For me, the heat was exhausting, but it always is.  Despite being a native Floridian, I’m just not a hot-weather kid.  I found myself drinking more water on the course — which is the right answer! — and was pretty dang spent by the time I got home.  There’s a good reason so many races are started in the morning, especially this time of year!

This race benefitted the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.

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Running, Sports

Race #46 – Remember the Fallen 5K

Anyone who’s read my ramblings about running knows that I love to be out in the rain.

I’d missed this virtual race around Memorial Day when it first came around.  The Virtual Strides folks brought it back recently, with another production run of medals.  After the events back home in Chattanooga, I knew I had to sign up, running this race for the city that helped shape me into the person I am today.

I’d targeted doing this race Saturday morning, but struggled getting myself together to do it, so I deferred to yesterday morning — one of the nice things about a virtual race.  I awoke around 5am to storms, so I didn’t exactly get an early start.  However, I did get started, and that’s a good thing!

Once again, I ran my neighborhood “three lap” course down Wren Trail.  It was raining when I started, which was nice.  And as I ran, I reflected on the last week plus in Chattanooga.  My home town has been bruised by the awful, awful tragedy perpetrated upon our military on their own soil.  My heart’s just so heavy over this.

And that’s why I ran this race… to remember the fallen in my home town.  #NoogaStrong, indeed.

This race benefitted the Special Operations Warrior Fund.

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Running, Sports

Race #44 – Wheels and Heels 5K

My dad used to say, “Sometimes you get the bear; sometimes the bear gets you.”  This race was definitely in the latter category.

I’d never heard of this race, and probably for good reason.  It was only the second time they’d run this event, and it included a 5K and 10K, along with a 10mi, 20mi and 30mi ride.  However, it was to benefit a broad set of good causes.  With that kind of coverage, and a medal at the end, how could I say no?

The race site was in Washington MO, which is about 45 minutes west of my house.  That’s about the same time it takes for me to get to downtown St. Louis for a race, so that wasn’t a bad thing.  However, that meant waking up at 4:30am in order to get ready, and be in Washington around 6am for packet pick-up.

I got there, and went to pick up my packet — shirt, bib, and sack o’ goodies.  The registration person asked my name, and then flipped to the second sheet of paper to find me.  Yep, there weren’t many folks signed up for the race — maybe 40 folks across both the 5k and 10k.  By far, this ended up being the smallest race I’d ever been part of.

After some opening comments by the organizers — reminding us to stay hydrated due to the heat advisory, and not to drink the water because of a boil order in the area —  we were off just after 7am.  And much of the first half kilometer was downhill — sweet!  And then it was up-down-up-down through Washington.  And the hills just kept on coming.  I kept watching for a hydration station, which was supposed to be around halfway… and never found it.

Now, I learned a long time ago to always carry water when I’m running, walking or cycling.  You just never know when you’re gonna need a slurp, and whether you can find any close-by can be a crap shoot.  Today, carrying water was the smart money.  Apparently, someone had been stealing the course signs, so many of us at the back of the pack were actually off the race course by a few blocks where it mattered the most — around the halfway point where the hydration station was.  Add this to the hills and unrelenting heat, and it became a pretty miserable race pretty quick.

I never come to a full stop during a race, but I stopped on the course a couple of times to talk with the traffic marshals.  I needed rest, and that was a good way to do it.  And for the first time in a long time, I really questioned if I would finish the race.  In fact, I questioned everything — why I was doing this, whether I could possibly do races in the future, my own existence… 🙂  Sometimes, there’s just a little too much alone time on the route!

Finished!
Finished!

But, I finished, having gone a little more than 5K due to the hijinks with the race route.  I felt kinda bad for the poor kid that had to stand there and wait for me to show up to put a medal in my hands.

I never expected this race to be so tough.  I think the frequent hills were part of that, but I also think the lack of water (for my course), and the fact that I rarely saw another member of the race or staff during the race certainly added some mental challenge to the event for me.

Done is done, though, and I’m happy to drop another race in the books.

(This race benefited the National MS Society, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Gateway Chapter, and the Brad Cohen National Tourettes Foundation.)

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Running, Sports

Race #42 – Independence Day 5K

Man, there were a lot of virtual races available this year around the 4th of July!  I saw this one from Moon Joggers first, and frankly, of all of them, this one had the coolest medal.

I really wanted to get out Wednesday and run.  We had amazing conditions in Da Lou.  At lunch, it was about 63°, but the rain was pretty intense.  I enjoy running in the rain, but this was a real storm, and I figured that it’d be best if I didn’t tempt fate by running amongst the trees with a storm overhead.

So, yesterday ended up being my running lunch day.

It was still pretty dang nice, with clouds and about 67° outside.  I took a new route that kept me off the big roads, which meant laps on Wren Trail.  I’m not usually a fan of laps, but the laps actually went by quickly, and made for a pretty safe feeling run with no cars to deal with.

And really, the time on the trail was great.  It was a pretty easy go, and I think I’ve now found a new neighborhood course for some variety.

With that, race #42 is in the books, and another medal is on the tree!

(This race benefitted the Wounded Warrior Project.)

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Running, Sports

Race #40 – The Great Cornholio Race 5K

Yeah, I know the medal has 2014 on it, instead of 2015.  There’s a story behind that.  (Isn’t there always?!)

I’d been signing up for a few races through the Virtual Nerd folks.  They sponsor races that fundraise for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and with my connection to that disease, I couldn’t resist hooking up with them.  Of course, the races were cool … Star Wars themed, Back to the Future themed.  (Both yet to come for me!)

A week or so ago, I got a note from them that some of the race medals from last year were still hanging around, they were selling them cheap.  I was a Beavis and Butthead fan a long, long time ago, and the Cornholio medal tripped my trigger.  It helped that the guys’ shirts have “Cancer Sucks” across them.  My sentiment exactly.

Once I ordered, I made mention to the Virtual Nerd folks on Facebook that I’d ordered this up.  I told them that I’d survived colon cancer, and that mom was fighting CML — and that both of us agreed that cancer sucked.  🙂  They were impressed by mom’s fight, and said she must be a very tough lady.  Who am I to argue with a stranger on the internet!

2015-07-01-0001Fast forward a few days, and the envelope came with the medal.  Scribbled on the outside was “Best of luck to your mom! (one 4 her too)”.  I opened the padded mailer, and there were two medals in there, one for me and one for mom.

And once again, I was reminded just how wonderful the running community is.  I’m so touched by the kindness of someone to just do a simple, kind thing for another runner.  All I can say to Joe and Amanda (who operate Virtual Nerd Runs) is thank you from the bottom of my heart.  The medal will be in the mail to mom this week.

Oh, and the miles today were hot, but pretty easy on a flat course.  There — race report done.  🙂

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Running, Sports

Race #38 – All-American 5K

Today’s race was another of the Go! St. Louis race series, second of the three they’re holding this year.  I’d been watching the weather, knowing that we’d had a tropical depression move over us, and that a cold front was to move through today.  Last night, it looked like it would be 77° with sun at race time.  As it ends up, it was cloudy, about 68°, and storms were moving across the northern parts of our area.

Tut, tut, it looks like rain
Tut, tut, it looks like rain

Siobhan had come up for Father’s Day, so all three of us piled into Darla’s Acadia, and headed toward Kirkwood.  The ominous clouds continued to drop southward as we drove, and we could hear the thunder growing.

We found parking — which was pretty scarce! — at the start line.  This race is a one-way, mostly downhill race, so Darla and Sio were gonna drop me off, and then drive to the finish line to meet me as I finished.  Great plan.

George Sells from KTVI was there, and interviewing folks about the race, all the rain we’d gotten and whether we liked to run in the rain.  He interviewed me and Sio, and that probably aired while we were at the site.  There’s a piece up on their website, but it was after it was all over, and didn’t include our fifteen seconds of fame.  🙁

Sio and Darla decided to go back to the Acadia, and wait to see if the race was gonna go off.  With the storm approaching, and lightning visible, it was a pretty good question.

Enter the rain.

And I’m not talking little sprinkles, I’m talking soak-you-to-the-bone-try-to-find-shelter-wherever kind of rain.  It poured, and we lined up for the race.   The horn sounded promptly at 7:30am, and we took off.

I was expecting this race to be kinda fast.  It’s billed as the fastest 5K in St. Louis, and after looking at the elevation profile, I see why:

 

All-American 5K Elevation Profile
All-American 5K Elevation Profile

I took off at the gun, and began running.  And, as I frequently do, I walked part of the course.  However, I made it a point to run all the downhills.  On two of those hills, I really kicked it up, and ran faster than I’ve ever run in a race.  The cool thing was that one of them was as I was going to finish line.  When a big ol’ overweight guy turns on the afterburners at the finish, the crowd absolutely starts cheering for you.  That’s pretty doggone cool.

Typically, I shoot for less than 10min/km, although my races over the last year or two have been frustratingly shy of that..  That’s a 50-minute 5K, and a number generally just above all the time.  In my splits today, they were ALL under ten minutes — significantly — except one segment.  That’s amazing, and the first time I’ve pulled that off.  And as you might expect with splits like that, I had a great finish time.  In fact, it was the best race finish time I’ve ever had in a 5K, and the fastest 5K distance I’ve run in three years.

I get that I’m not all that fast, and my time isn’t exactly remarkable.  But, to me, it was like I’d won the Olympics.  And that’s the deal for me.  I run “against” me, and sometimes have a great day doing it.

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