Tag Archives: 5K

Race #28 – Boots and Badges 5K

March 29, 2015 Colin

When I’d originally lined up my “six races in six weeks,” this race wasn’t even on my radar. Somewhere, I heard about it, and thought long and hard about whether I wanted to do a back-to-back on this final weekend of racing for me. Would I have enough fuel in the tank? Would my legs hold out?

Today, I found the answer to those questions and others.

First things first… Why does the shirt and medal say “2014”? Delorean with a flux capacitor? Time capsule? Nah, nothing quite that dramatic.

This race was originally slated to be run last fall. But when the Grand Jury decision came down for the Ferguson events, the race committee didn’t feel that it made sense to pull resources from the crisis in North County just to provide safety for a race. After looking for a date, they landed on today, and just used the shirts and medals they had in hand from last fall.

I’ve mentioned this before — I’m not a big fan of running downtown. The roads that the courses travel are pretty rough with uneven pavements, patches and potholes, and typically it takes a lot of extra time to travel back and forth from the race site.

Typically, I’d just drive to the MetroLink station in Brentwood, and take the train downtown. That means an early start, but I don’t have to worry about driving or parking downtown. However, just a couple of days ago, there was a brutal beating of a MetroLink passenger on the train by a gang of thugs. I know the odds are way, way against me having to deal with that, but I also knew that if I drove downtown, I’d avoid it altogether.

See, there were only about 500 folks registered for this race. For the big downtown races, the train cars are full of runners, and with that “safety in numbers” going for me, riding the train isn’t that big a deal. But with a really small race, I know the trains would be pretty empty.

As it ends up, I found “rock star” parking, just about three parking spaces from the race start/finish line. Excellent!

The home base for the race was the downtown Hooters, and even at 6:30am, they had it open, serving coffee and water. No chicken wings, however. 🙁 But, it was warm inside, had plenty of seating, and even featured real bathrooms instead of porta-potties. That was nice!

And with this race benefitting Backstoppers, it only made sense that there would be a color guard from the police. I love that most races begin with the National Anthem, and spinning up a few flags just adds to the experience!

And that warmth was well-needed. It was cold… really cold. I think the temp was around 30, but the buildings kept the sun off much of the course, and were great for channeling the wind down the streets. It was probably the coldest race I’ve run this year. Now, when we got to the long straightaway where the turnaround was, the sun was blazing down, and it was a nice warmup mid-race.

Speaking of that straightaway, once again, this race had a single water table that served water to both sides, just like the Undy. In this race, that was about 2.5km into the race on the outbound side, and about 3.25 km into the race on the return side. Before yesterday, I’d never seen that configuration, and I really, really like it.

I knew I was near the back, and on the straightaway, I saw how close I was to the back. From the return side, I could see the tail end of the runners, with a support truck following along to keep them safe. As the recent GoDaddy commercial says, every train needs a caboose, and that was me!

Things we going well… and then it happened. The real world intruded into my race. About 3.5km into the race, my phone went off, alerting me to a power outage at one of our facilities. Ugh. So I slowed, trying to manage dialing into a bridge call, keeping my team updated on what I was hearing, and trying not to fall in a pothole or walk into a light pole. As it ends up, they didn’t need me on the call, so I dropped, but I was slowed across about ten-fifteen minutes of my race.

After a few more turns, I came to the finish line, and found that I finished three seconds faster than yesterday. Woot! The last time I did a back-to-back weekend (last year’s Rock and Roll Remix), I had a ten minute difference between the races. Having consistent results this go around is a really pleasant surprise.

So, the last race of these six weekends of races is complete. I have some reflections on these races, but I’ll save that for another day!

Race Course:

Cancer, Running

Race #27 – Undy Run/Walk 5K

March 28, 2015 Colin

Three years ago this weekend, I ran my first race — the 2012 Undy 5000. I did this as a symbol of fighting back from only three months earlier having fought colon cancer… and won.

Three years downstream, and twenty-six races later, I returned to the Undy this morning, running my fourth race in this series. The Undy is special to me, as it benefits the Colon Cancer Alliance, whose sole focus is to aid patients, survivors, caregivers and anyone affected by colon cancer. Of all the races I run, this is the only “fundraising” race in which I participate. That’s how important this is to me.

The weather was cold, and I knew it would be. However, the sun peeked out from the clouds, and helped bring a little warmth to the park. But, I was still glad to have all the cold-weather running gear I’d been investing in this winter.

In the opening remarks, the MC indicated that there were 2000 folks registered, with about $150,000 raised. If you’re reading this, you may have helped either support me, or donated your money. Either way, I thank you for that. It was also announced that St. Louis is the biggest Undy event for CCA. I’m a little surprised at that, as this is run in eighteen cities, some of which are much larger than Da Lou: Denver, Atlanta, Philly… We were the largest Komen race for a while, so maybe we just like to run and fundraise out here!

The course, while still at Forest Park, was different this year due to some parking lot construction at the site of the Muny. Because of that change, the course was much flatter this year, and much easier to deal with. With the new path through Forest Park, terrific traffic control, and a well placed water stop that you could pass twice, this was an ideal course.

I did have a surprise about a kilometer into the race. There was some crazy redhead yelling at me from the sidelines, and I went over to her. A hug, a kiss, and I was on my way. I’ve never had that happen during a race! She looked an awful lot like Darla, but that could’ve just been the sun in my eyes. 🙂

And as I approached the finish line, Darla was waiting for me, cheering me on. There’s no better sight than that.

I got my post-race snacks, and waited for the closing ceremonies. We all listened to a survivor and her story, and then the cool thing about this event took place.

All 71 colon cancer survivors and patients were invited to the front to receive a medal honoring their fight. This is an amazing feeling, having almost two thousand people cheering their support for your fight.

And that’s what this race is about — supporting everyone who’s been impacted by this terrible disease. I was supported during my battle; why wouldn’t I return the favor?

(Tomorrow is Race #28, and the last of this series of races for me until later in the Spring.)

Race Course:

Running, Sports

Race #26 – MoDOT Work Zone 5K

March 21, 2015 Colin

The first full day of Spring found me hitting the pavement again, in my fifth race in as many weeks.

I’d heard about the MoDOT Work Zone 5K last year, but for some reason, I never signed up for it. But I remembered the race, and added it to my “Conquer St. Louis By Foot” tour.

I picked up my race shirt and bib yesterday. I really wish more races would do race-specific bibs for their races. This one, like an awful lot of races I’ve run over the last few years, had a generic Fleet Feet bib. Nothing against Fleet Feet, but a race-specific bib would mean a lot more.

And then there was the shirt.

This race was to promote work zone safety. I don’t know what I should’ve expected, but the shirt is bright enough that it can be seen from space. I’m sure someone on the International Space Station gazed down upon St. Louis this morning, and wondered why all those extraordinarily bright yellow traffic cones were all moving around.

One of the problems with running 5K’s around St. Louis — when I can find ones that have medals — is that there’s a few venues that get used all the time. Forest Park. Downtown. Old town St. Charles. I’ve run ’em all. A lot.

This race was held on roads I’d never run upon, which was awesome. It paralleled I-64 on the northside, crossed over the interstate, and then paralleled the interstate again on the south. I liked that! From anywhere on the course, you could see the whole course. I really like seeing the water stops, the halfway point and the end of race as I’m moving along the road. For this, MoDOT scores with this race course!

However, there were hills.

Have you driven through Missouri recently? It ain’t exactly flat, and while rolling hills are cool in my Jeep, they’re a pain when I’m running up them. The first kilometer was an awesome, fast downhill run. But when you go downhill, and have to return to the start line, it’s a fact that you will go uphill at some point.

And so we did.

I started getting close to the finish, and I’d already relegated myself to a “goldilocks” race time — not too slow, not too fast, just right. I turned the corner, saw the clock at the finish line, and couldn’t believe the time. It was much lower than I was expecting. Huh? I looked at my watch (and yeah, there was that whole deal again with chip time and gun time, but you’ve read that before) and realized that the course was short by about a tenth of a mile. That’s not a huge thing, but it definitely made me feel good coming across the finish.

Normally, I don’t hang out for the awards. I already have the only awards I’m gonna get — a race shirt, a finisher’s medal, a bottle of water, and a snack of some kind — and I know I’m not getting an age group award. However, the dude that won my age group did the course in less than half my time. That is stunnnnning. Somehow, I’ve gotta find some speed!

So today was another good race, with good weather, a good course, and another medal on the medal tree. Next week, it’s back-to-back races to close out my winter-into-spring racing until sometime in May.

Race Course:

Running

Did I Mention That I Have a Running Problem?

March 18, 2015 Colin

A few weeks ago, I mentioned on Canapeel that I thought I might have a running problem. I believe now that there is no doubt of that fact.

This week will be the fifth weekend in a row of 5K races, with the sixth (the Undy Run/Walk 5K) being the last race before April. Until… I found another race the day after the Undy, and signed up for it. Another race, another medal.

I told Becky today that race medals have become my Pokemon… gotta catch ’em all.

And with nineteen races planned so far for this year — without a lot of races in the second half of the year (yet!) — I think I’ll have run just about every medal-bearing 5K race in St. Louis this year. And while some of those races are races I’ll probably always do (the Undy, the Cowbell), I’d like to find others to run after. (Get it?)

So how do I solve that? Well, I don’t have a “fifty runs in fifty states” mantra, but I do enjoy destination races where I get to run in new places and courses. After all, I can run in downtown St. Louis and Forest Park just so many times! 🙂 And if you look at states that touch Missouri, I still haven’t conquered Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas and Nebraska. And if you instead draw a circle with a 450-mile radius, suddenly there’s a lot more places in my weekend warrior wheelhouse. (I love alliteration!)

Hi. My name is Colin. (Hi Colin!) And I’m a runaholic.

Geek-Speak, Running

Race #25 – Pi Day 5K

March 15, 2015 Colin 1 Comment

For my twenty-fifth race, I picked a doozy — a once in a century event. You see, Pi Day is celebrated every year on March 14th (3-14) — the first three significant digits of pi. This year, the once-a-century alignment of month, day and year creates an über pi day (3-14-15). So now, start a race at 9:26:53am that morning, and you’ve got a major pi event (3-14-15-9-26-53 … the first ten significant digits of pi).

I drove to Columbus OH for this race, with most of the drive in a rainstorm. Nothing like almost eight hours of pouring rain to get ya off to a good start, eh? Add to that a temperamental GPS — I mean, who sends you through the downtown maze of interstate connections in Columbus at rush hour? — awful traffic, and a tired guy, and you have the ingredients for a grumpy driver. I got there safely, though, and that’s the important part.

Saturday morning, it was still raining, but the temps were in the high 40s, and there was no wind. If it’s gonna rain on a run, those are pretty good overall conditions. And frankly, I enjoy running in the rain. It’s settling, peaceful, and is usually a wonderful experience.

A few days before the race, the race organizer let me know that the packets for the out-of-town participants would be at the race site at the Very Important Pi People (VIP2) table. it’s the first time I’ve been a VIP at a race, so I enjoyed that. They really seemed to be unaccustomed to folks coming from out of state for this fundraising race for the local school district. But with a cool event offering a really nice medal, I’m surprised they didn’t have more out-of-staters in attendance.

The race was awesome. The foot pain that kept me out of the races in Lincoln at the beginning of the year flared back up, so I took it easy, and mostly walked the course, which wound through a suburban park. I had no idea what to expect from the course, but it was a paved trail, and very easy to navigate. And it was flat!

A little over four kilometers in, I started to see people go off-trail, and up into the woods. I quickly saw why. The trail was flooded for about fifteen feet, and they didn’t want to go through the shoe-high water. After earning my water wings in the Sandmine Challenge a couple of weeks ago, I simply couldn’t go around, and high stepped through the mini-lake! And of course, that meant I passed about fifteen folks that were up in the woods. Woot!

I came around the corner, ran to the finish (because you always run to the finish!) and collected my medal. They had engravers on the spot, so I turned my medal over to them, and had my name and time engraved… except it wasn’t.

Like most on-the-spot engravers, they had a feed from the official timing for the event (this time from Fleet Feet Columbus). I got my medal back, and the time was about two-and-a-half minutes longer than my own timing. And suddenly, I realized I was dealing with gun time, and not chip time. Again. Dunno why suddenly this year that’s been such an issue, but it is what it was. As with last week, I’m claiming my “watch time.”

So, race four of six in the back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back race weekends is in the books, and with some irrationality! (See what I did there?)

Race Course:

Running

Race #24 – Shamrock Shuffle 5K

March 7, 2015 Colin

My third race of the year was a repeat of an inaugural event I ran last year, the Holy Infant Shamrock Shuffle 5K. Last year’s course was tough, with lots of hills, and plenty of folks coming forth from their homes to cheer us on.

And it was cold.

I’d seen this year’s course, and while I didn’t know the neighborhood well enough to know the terrain, I knew the course was… well… convoluted. So. Many. Turns. To say I wasn’t excited about running this new course is an understatement.

I showed up early (typical for me!), and found a food truck serving coffee. It was tasty, warm, and just what I needed to get me moving. I watched the Fleet Feet folks set up the start/finish line, and listened to the dj start the music. It was crazy loud, which I’m sure the neighbors of the race site thoroughly enjoyed! 🙂

And, the bagpipes were cool to listen to.

The race kicked off, I hit the button on my race watch as I crossed the finish line, and we were off. In fact, I was zooming. For some reason, I had some good energy, and tore up my first two kilometers (8:35 and 9:37). That’s crazy fast for me, and set me up for a great race time.

I would my way through the weird course. At every turn, it seemed like I was meeting folks that were turning in the opposite direction. It was very, very hard to get a sense of where you were in the course, and whether folks you were encountering were ahead of you on the course, or behind you.

I missed having folks cheering us along the course. While there were plenty of volunteers making sure we stayed on course (and were safe from traffic!), there weren’t many folks out cheering us along. I miss that.

Finally, I turned the corner back toward the race site, and crossed the line. I looked at my watch, and it showed I finished in 50:16, which was a terrific time, and about 50 seconds faster than last week on an easier course. I was thrilled.

There were plenty of food trucks around, so I got a bacon melt from The Meltdown. This was a delicious grilled cheese with American cheese and bacon on the inside, and a parmesan cheese crust on the outside. Exceptional! I paired that with a free beer (the best kind), and had a pretty good recovery.

I walked to the Fleet Feet booth to see my official time, and noticed that it was about 50 seconds SLOWER than the time on my watch. They claimed this was chip time — the time measured when the timing chip on my bib crosses the line at the start and finish of the race — but I believe this was actually gun time, which is measured from when someone says “go.” Since it takes a while for everyone to wind through the start line, gun time is always slower than chip time when you start at the back of the pack like I do. My Garmin is typically within a second or two of the official chip time, so I’m really confident in my 50:16 time. That’s the time I’m claiming!

So, another race down — the third in three weeks, with three more to come over the next three weeks. Next week is the Pi Day 5K in Columbus OH!

Race Course:

Running

Race #23 : Scenic City 5K

March 1, 2015 Colin

A Major Award! A few weeks before the Scenic City 5K, my mother taunted me, sending me info about the race and asking if I was gonna come to Chattanooga for it.

How could I turn that down?

So, yesterday, I ran my first race on the streets of the city in which I was raised. And frankly, it was a great experience, aside from the weather. It was a very, very cold 27 degrees at racetime.

The race was “out and back”, with Finley Stadium (home of the Mocs) serving as the home base. The race both started and ended on the 50-yard line, which probably made this the first time I’ve ever been on a football field.

Frankly, the size of the field surprised me. At one time, it both felt immense and tiny. Football fields look so incredibly large on TV, but your brain says it’s just an optical illusion. And your brain is right, but it’s still really, really large.

The course itself was pretty unremarkable, except that it was really flat, which is something that surprised me about a course in The ‘Noog. With all the hills in Chattanooga, I fully expected the course should be hillier. It wasn’t, and I was thankful. I do wish it had been more picturesque. Chattanooga has so much beauty to it, and having this race run through essentially an industrial area didn’t do it much justice.

However, every race should start and end on grass. The feel of that field beneath my shoes was amazing, and so much easier on my feet and knees. I could certainly get behind a full course run on close cropped grass! Might be a good use for golf courses.

After the awards ceremony, I wandered around the site, and found someone handing out drinks. I guzzled one while I walked, and heard someone say, “Hey, want a beer?”

The answer to that question is almost always “yes”.

I didn’t recognize (nor retain!) the name of the beer, but it was cold, dark and delicious. I started to drink it, when another runner facetiously asked after getting his cup of beer, “Where’s the pizza?”

And that’s when the beer guy said, “It’s right over there.”

Yes, there was a table with about 40 Little Caesar’s pizzas! Slices and beer. Every race should end like that.

And that was really that. It was a great race, I had a good finish, and I had pizza and beer. What’s not to like?

Race Course:

Running

Return to the Streets

January 18, 2015 Colin

Today, I returned to the streets. I took a long walk for the first time since my injury around New Year’s Day. The good news is that I had no issues with pain in my foot. The downside… a little bit of swelling in my foot, and some shin splints on the right side. Not a biggie, and nothing that hasn’t happened before. On balance, I’d say this was successful!

I also used my Under Armour “sport” underwear for the first time. I’ve had some real problems with chafing and heat rashes in a “cheeky” location during longer walks/runs. Supposedly, these things could help that with some wicking technology to pull the moisture away from my backside. My walk today bore that out. I was way overdressed for the 50 degree day, so I was sweating like crazy. If that’s not gonna set off a bunch of pain in the backside, I don’t know what will.

So, hooray! It looks like I’m back on the road/trail again. We’ll see where it leads me!

Running

Race #21 : Operation Jack KC Run/Walk in the Snow 5K

December 28, 2014 Colin

Now that title’s a mouthful!

A few weeks ago, I was looking for races to close out the year, and found this one. It was a close race — Shawnee KS (a Kansas City ‘burb) is only about 3½ hours from here — and benefitted the local KC Autism Society. How could I go wrong?

I also had a secret, hidden reason for going to this race: Shawnee KS is home to the closest Runza I know of!

Friday, I cruised into town, got checked into the hotel, and set about finding the Autism Society office. When I got to the building and walked downstairs to the race pickup area, I noticed someone had been eating Runza for lunch. I chit-chatted with the folks doing race registration, and as it ends up, one of them had also been in Nebraska for a while, fell in love with Runza’s, and understood my mania. After handing me my race materials, she directed me to the nearby Runza.

I haven’t eaten in a Runza since our half-cross-country road trip in 2008, so this was a treat — a regular Runza, onion rings and a root beer. That was an awesome, awesome way to start race weekend!

I got back to the hotel, relaxed for the afternoon, and eventually wandered outside my room to find a pile of laundry appearing to contain every piece of linen from the room next to me. I don’t know if there was some kind of plague in that room, or a crazy game of Wesson Oil Twister — either way, I stepped gingerly around the pile, and sequestered myself until the morning!

I figured out that the race site was about five minutes’ drive from the hotel, so I headed toward the park around 8:15am for a 9:15am race start. And when I got there… there was almost no one there. I parked within fifty feet of the start/finish line, which is as close as I’ve ever been to the line of any race I’ve attended. Through the next forty-five minutes, runners filtered in, with maybe about 150 runners lining up for the half marathon, and about half that for the 5K.

When I walked to the registration table to make sure I had what I needed for the run, one of the folks from the office recognized me, and said, “You’re the Runza guy, aren’t you?” I guess it’s good to leave a positive impression on folks!

There was no electronic timing, no banners, no post race activities… just a simple run that maximized the proceeds for the Autism Society. That was nice to see, but I didn’t realize how much I missed having the post race hubbub, and the bigger cheering crowd. And I missed having chocolate milk at the end of the race!

My time was really slow in this race, and I’m sure part of that was the crazy cold weather. It couldn’t have *anything* to do with my lack of training this winter!!!

The temperature wasn’t really any colder than any other event I’ve run in, but there was a ton of wind and moist air to make things really cold. For this run, I added a Buff reflective neck gather, and a new Saucony DryLete Skull Cap. These kept my head, face and neck really warm.

I also had a new Nike Element Shield jacket, partly in preparation to stay warm in the upcoming Lincoln races. I had a long sleeve jersey on as a base, and a short sleeve atop that, and then the jacket. I was waaaaaay hot with all that, so I think they’ll do later this week for Lincoln.

However, my new Brooks running pants proved to be warm, but not warm enough. Same with my gloves. I have some Saucony gloves, but they’re proving not to be very useful once you hit 30 degrees or so. I’ll need to resolve both of these pieces of human real estate before Wednesday.

In all, it was a good trip, and another medal for this year!

Running

Race #20 : Santa’s North Pole Dash 5K

December 15, 2014 Colin 2 Comments

Race #20 is in the books!

In fairness, I haven’t exactly been keeping close track, but recently decided to chronicle my races since I started down this crazy path nearly three years ago.

You see, almost three years ago, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. And while I put on a brave face to everyone around me, to my ears, it was like a death sentence when my gastroenterologist told me there was a two-inch tumor inside me. I was petrified until a few days later when Becky described what the doc had actually said, and it began to hit me just how lucky I was … I had a completely curable Stage I intruder, with great prospects for my future survivability.

Shortly thereafter, I heard about the Undy 5000, which was a fundraiser for the Colon Cancer Alliance. The folks in CCA are awesome, and I knew I had to help support them. So, three months after being diagnosed and subsequently cured through surgery, I ran my first 5K. Having never really run before, this was new territory for me, and I kinda got hooked. This would be part of trying to get me to a healthier place in my life.

And I kept running… and yesterday was #20 since that first race in March of 2012.

This was the first time I’d actually run the course for this race. Last year, there were nine inches of snow on the ground, and I didn’t make it to the site. Instead, I opted to run my North Pole Dash aboard ship while docked in Dominica on my 50th birthday. Not a bad way to run a race, or spend a birthday.

As the race participants lined up, I took my place at the slowest pace sign they had (14 minutes — my pace ended up being about 17:57, which is pretty dang slow, even for me). Conveniently, that was near the only speaker system they had. In fact, the announcer said that he hoped the folks at the front of the race would know when to start, because he was sure they couldn’t hear him all the way up there.

I’d run in St. Charles a couple of times previous (both in the Mo’ Cowbell), but never on the uneven brick/cobblestone roads of Main Street. That was not the most pleasant thing in the world, and by the time I got to the end of Main Street, my shins were barking bad. In fact, if you look my pace through the race, it is substantially different on the bricks than it was on the paved roads.

Aside from that, the course was nice enough, winding past the businesses on Main Street, and then past the homes in Frenchtown. The folks in the neighborhoods were gracious, cheering us on (even the slow turtles like me!) as we clogged the tight roads of their neighborhoods. I know that had to be a pain for the folks that live there!

The one complaint I’d have about the course was that there was no water! I always carry water — I’m usually drinking before the first kilometer is down — so it wasn’t a thing for me. It was surprising though.

And despite having something like 4000 people there, there was very little in the way of fanfare or post race festivities. At most of the races I run, there’s either chocolate milk or beer, and while they had hot chocolate and a pub crawl later, those two niceties were missing. And, aside from a few booths on the Katy Trail, and several more in a parking lot, there just wasn’t much to do after the race. I hoofed my way back to the Jeep, and headed home. But not before pulling the Jenny Craig flyer from under my windshield. Someone must be trying to tell me something.

This was a race I really wanted to do, and I’m glad I did, but I sure was expecting more of that “big race” experience. I’ve seen that with the Mo’ Cowbell, and given the holiday-theme, I expected more. I did get my photo taken with a miniature donkey, though, so that should count for something!

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can·a·peel (noun) ˈkan-ə-pēl – A meal with a lot of variety, where each participant finds and cooks their own food.