Tag Archives: running

Race #33 – National Geek Day 5K

For frequent and returning readers, you’ll remember that I ran a virtual race, the Dark Helmut 5K, back on May 17th.  To say I struggled is an understatement.  It was a frustrating virtual race that I just slogged through.

I also made mention that course selection was key.  I believe I have proof of that today.

Today is Geek Pride Day, commemorating the release of Star Wars on this date in 1977.  The fine folks over at Moon Joggers had a virtual race to commemorate the day, and with my geeky tendencies, I couldn’t exactly pass it up.

The medal came in a week or so ago (typical for a virtual race — so you can “finish” with your medal), and I was filled with both excitement and dread.  I was thrilled to add another race to the “done” list (along with another medal!), but the results from my last virtual race were pretty crushing.

Last night, as I thought about the run this morning, I decided I would treat this like a regular race.  That’d take a couple of things.

1.  Prepare like a real race.

Last night, I laid out my clothes.  That sounds like a little thing, but it got my brain in the game, and forced me to look at the weather for this morning, find the right clothes and have ’em laid out for this morning.  This included my compression socks (which really do help!), running underwear, shoes, knee braces, Spi-Belt (for my iPhone), and proper shirt selection.  I’ve gotten kinda lazy on the virtual runs, probably because they’re just around the neighborhood, and without the tools that make/keep me comfortable on my travels, it’s no wonder I’ve struggled lately.

2.  Find a course that will lead to a successful outcome.

Also last night, I thought about my course.  I had no idea where I was gonna go, but I knew I didn’t wanna try to conquer that same hill that killed me a little over a week ago.  It was brutal, both physically and mentally, and I just didn’t want to have that kind of outcome again.  I thought about the area, and realized that I could simply take a “right” instead of a “left”, and avoid that hill altogether, keeping me on flatter roads.

As it ends up, that was a brilliant decision.  I ran more on this journey than I have in a while — although my time doesn’t really reflect that very well!  I was comfortable getting to my turnaround point, and it seemed like it was no time until I was at the four kilometer point, and entering the home stretch.

I got home, with Becky awaiting me on the front porch.  She was planning to cheer as I came in, photographing me, and giving me the full race experience.  However, she forgot the direction I was headed, and I ended up sneaking up on her.  🙂  She did end up snapping a few photos before I got back in the house to relax.

The thing I noticed was that I wasn’t nearly as exhausted as I was after trying to conquer the hill last week.  In fact, I felt pretty good.  If I feel that good after the Friday night 5k in Kansas City in a couple of weeks, I’ll be good to go for the 10k the next morning!

So, put another race in the books, and a little bit of learning, too.  I think this was the best solo run I’ve had this season, and I hope I’m focused in on why that was!

And yes, that’s me in the image above.  My parents gave me my first computer, a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III, as a present for graduation from high school in 1981.  My inner geek runs deep!

(BTW, the course maps look a little different now, and will link back to slightly different looking data.  It’s still the same stuff, just formatted differently.)

Race Course
Geek Day 5K
Geek Day 5K

Race #31 – Dark Helmut 5K

Last year, I did one virtual race, and frankly, I wasn’t a fan.

I’ve come to discover that I like having other folks around me while I’m running, and I do a little better with a structured race.  However, the virtual races are growing on me.  Let’s face it, aside from the finish line, both formal and virtual races end about the same for me… finishing by myself.  And that’s ok.

Last Tuesday, I tackled the Dark Helmut 5K.  Much like a regular race, I’m finding that course selection is key.  For this race, I chose a course that I’d run once.  It has a great downhill in the first half, but that same hill becomes an awful adversary on the return trip.  And it’s that hill that has kicked my butt both times I’ve done this course.

But I finished, and I knew I had to.

This race was a fundraiser for another runner, Calla Hess, and was managed by the folks at MoonJoggers.  I’ve never met Calla, but I was happy to run this race to benefit her.  You can read her story here.  With the Spaceballs-themed medal, I was even more excited to do this one.  However, it sold out quickly, and I’d missed my chance to run it.  A couple of weeks ago, the MoonJoggers folks said they were opening a second round for it, and I pounced on it.

I posted on their Facebook site, thanking them for bringing it back.  I expected to hear from the MoonJoggers folks, but I was floored to get a response from Calla herself!

Many of the races I run have some kind of charity or organization that benefits from the proceeds of the race.  This is the first time I’d ever heard directly from someone benefitting from my activity, and it was a wonderful feeling.

That’s really the fortune cookie in this run for me.  Sometimes, it’s really not about how hard my race was.  Sometimes it’s about how hard someone else’s race is, and being able to help.

May the Schwartz be with you!

Race Course

Race #30 – Live Long Memorial 5K (virtual)

Yep, I’m a Star Trek fan.  Have been as long as I can remember.

I used to audio record episodes when we’d visit my grandparents house in Florida so I could replay them over and over.  (There were a few episodes that I could almost recite from memory.)  And then, when WTVC began showing episodes late on Saturday nights, mom, dad, me and dad’s friend Larry, would sit around the den and watch.

Like many kids that fell into Star Trek fandom, I identified with and idolized Spock.  There was something about that conflicted and, at times, tortured character that hit my sweet spot.  And I know I wasn’t the only one.

And yeah, like a lot of Spock fans, I shed a tear at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan when Spock’s body was torpedoed with a giant ptui! into space near the Genesys planet.  (I also had a girlfriend around that time that bawled in the theatre when the Enterprise was destroyed in the atmosphere of the Genesys planet during Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.)

Fast forward far too many years to late February… I was  traveling to a race in Chattanooga, sitting in a Krystal in Clarksville TN having lunch, when my phone goes off.  My daughter sends me a message, asking if I was ok.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  And then she told me.

Leonard Nimoy died.

Frankly, that didn’t hit me as hard as I thought it would.  I mean, yeah, it sucked, but there was no question it was coming.  Advanced age and COPD aren’t exactly a great combination for long life and prosperity.  (See what I did there?)

A bit later, I heard about a virtual race with a Nimoy-themed medal, in honor of his life and his work on Star Trek, and benefitting the COPD Foundation.  I had to sign up.  And yesterday, I put in my miles for this virtual race.

It was a rainy, soggy day, drizzling when I started, and pouring by the time I finished.  I’m sure folks were staring at this lumbering goofball, trudging through the rain.  I waved at the cyclists as they sped by — we have a ton of them out here — and some actually waved back.  I mean, we were obviously both nuts from the same tree, being out in this crazy spring rain.

About four kilometers in, this very nice gentleman with a score of years on me, stopped on the very busy road on which I was traveling, and asked if I needed a ride.  I told him I was just out exercising, and thanked him profusely for stopping.

And that’s really it.  (Aside from the inherent irony of Creedence’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain” beginning to play on my iPod as the rain began to furiously come down about halfway through my journey.)  There’s still kindness and respect out there — cyclists waving, motorists stopping — and that, to me, is the wonderful discovery on this journey of running that I’ve undertaken.  I’ve had so much support and encountered so much decent humanity out there as I’ve logged my (generally) solitary miles… For the next race (also virtual), I’ll write more about that.

And I expect to continue racing and writing for some time to come.  I’m kinda addicted to the medals, the people, and this way of thinking.  I’m doing things that five years ago, I would never have believed I could do.  And I’m taking chances… I mean, I have my first 10K and a half marathon coming up this year.

What kind of nut am I?!?!?!  🙂

(BTW, the photo of me is from a “helmet dive” off the cost of Aruba a few weeks ago.  Seemed like a unique opportunity!)

Race Course
Live Long Memorial 5K

Race #29 – Go! St. Louis 5K (virtual)

I’d originally signed up for this year’s Go last year, shortly after the completion of the 2014 race.  That was my best race last year, and (I think) the only race that I completed under fifty minutes.

Although I haven’t gotten my trip report up here yet, Darla and I took off on a cruise shortly after the Boots and Badges race at the end of March.  Unfortunately, this cratered my being able to do the Go, as we were in New Orleans getting ready to board Serenade of the Seas for two weeks at sea.  The folks at Go were amazing, and mailed me the shirt and medal while we were gone.  This was the fifteenth anniversary of the race, and I really wanted that medal!  (Imagine that!)

My intent had been to run this race virtually aboard ship, and earn my medal.  However, the track on Serenade is so short that it’d take NINETEEN circuits to travel five kilometers.  I’m not a fan of looping, so that didn’t hit me very well.  Add to that apparent wind speeds on the top decks that approach 100km/h, and suddenly that run didn’t look so appealing.

I also injured my foot somehow on the first day of the cruise.  While my right foot has given me trouble over the last year, this time, it was my left.  Ugh.  I hobbled about for a day or so until it got under control, but I didn’t want to tempt fate too much.

So, three weeks after the Go was run, I did mine.  My time was pretty slow, but I only walked, as I didn’t want to stress anything out in either foot.  Frankly, it went pretty well.  The temperature was very nice and comfy, until the clouds broke up.  The temp didn’t go up much, but the sun beating down on me really heated me up.

One thing that this pointed out was that I need to come up with a 5K course from the house that is easy to navigate.  I turned left and right, cut through parking lots, and had to watch the traffic far too much to enjoy this as much as I’d like.  But, any miles are good miles, so I’m happy to have gotten this one in.

I wish I had a bib for this race.  I’m scouring the interwebs for an image of the bibs from this year so that I can print one up for my bib book, but ’til then, I’ll take my medal, and be happy knowing that #29 is in the books.

BTW, there’ll be more virtual races coming this year.  The difference between a virtual race, and just training?  Everyone say it together…

A medal!

Race course:

Go! St. Louis 5K (virtual)

Race #26 – MoDOT Work Zone 5K

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.

Selfie with Cone Man
Selfie with Cone Man

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.

This Is Far Too Much Credit!
This Is Far Too Much Credit!

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:

MoDOT Work Zone 5K

Did I Mention That I Have a Running Problem?

Collect 'Em All!
Collect ‘Em All!

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.

Race #25 – Pi Day 5K

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.

No Sand Volleyball Today
No Sand Volleyball Today

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!

Finished!
Finished!

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:
Pi Day 5K Course
Pi Day 5K Course

Race #23 : Scenic City 5K

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:
Scenic City 5K Course
Scenic City 5K Course

Race #22 : SpeRUNking Sandmine Challenge

SpeRUNking Sandmine Challenge
SpeRUNking Sandmine Challenge

I’ve never raced in a novelty race.  No paint.  No glowing.  And no obstacles.

Until yesterday.

Somewhere recently, I’d heard about this race.  An old mine with temperate conditions in the dead of winter.  I looked at some of the race coverage out there, and found the CNN had called it one of the ten ultimate US adventures, right up there with the Iditarod, climbing El Capitan, riding the “vomit comet”  or accomplishing the Triple Crown of Hiking.  That certainly had some appeal.

But… the obstacles!

I exchanged Facebook messages with someone close to race, trying to understand if it was friendly to walkers (it was), and what the time to complete the course would be for a walker (two hours or less).  I was sold, and signed up.

But… the obstacles!

I’d been both excited and apprehensive as the race approached.  We had awful weather the night before the race, and I thought that might keep me away from the site (about an hour away).  But, the weather held out, and I made the trek to Crystal City MO, and Crystal City Underground.

After a really icy approach to the mine, I walked into the maw of this enormous abandoned sand mine, and was struck by the size of the place.  The ceilings were dozens of feet tall, with a great room that is used for parties and events… when there’s not a race going on.

With the weather, I’d left the site really early, but with the decent roads, I arrived about two hours ahead of my starting wave.  So I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And soon enough, it was time to swallow my fear, turn on my headlamp, and head into the mine.

I’m glad I had the headlamp (which was highly recommended by the organizers).  Almost as soon as we left the start line, the lighting was gone, and the only illumination was what I was carrying with me.

And after the darkness, came the water.

I hit the water, taking big, careful steps, and little by little, the water was deeper and deeper, eventually gaining about three feet of depth.  And even with my headlamp, I couldn’t see the end of it.  I waded and waded, and eventually started climbing up and out of the underground lake.  Little did I know that I’d just begun to climb.

The next obstacle was a dark hill of solid sand.  This hill was almost six feet tall, nearly vertical, and with no steps or hand holds.  You had to run … fast … and let your momentum carry you up the hill.  My first attempt had me landing right on my knees.  My second attempt had me almost get up the hill.  After that, I heard someone behind me tell me that they’d cup my feet in their hands to help me up.

And that was really the way the race went.  At every obstacle, and all throughout the course, the course stewards and participants were encouraging everyone, cheering them on.  And occasionally, someone would lend a hand to help you through something.

Two more significant water crossings, an ascent and descent on an A-frame about ten feet tall built from 2×4’s, balance beams, a tire course, another six foot leap atop a stage platform and a floor made entirely of loose sand… that’s what this race entailed.  If I’d heard about all that, I likely wouldn’t have signed up.

But I did, and I finished.

In fact, I finished with a time right in line with a “regular” 5K.  Given the delays on the obstacles, and the challenging landscape, I fully expected to finish somewhere between ninety minutes and two hours.  To finish under an hour was truly stunning.

So I’ve added another race completion, another medal, and the first of six back-to-back races taking me to the end of March, with travels to both Chattanooga TN and Columbus OH to come.  It’s a good start to this year’s races, and a real boost to my running confidence.

More Racing

Pi Day 5K Medal
Pi Day 5K Medal

It’s been said that I can be a little obsessive.  I think there’s a body of evidence to support that view, and I’d be pretty silly to try to refute it.  🙂

I’ve spent some time over the last few months looking for medal-bearing 5k races to fill out my running calendar for this year.  I’d already registered for a few races here and there, generally some of the ones I ran last year.  However, I wanted to find some other races this year, maybe even in different places.

So over the weekend, I signed up for two fun-sounding races.

The first is the Pi Day 5K in Columbus OH.  This one takes place on March 14th, and the race begins at 9:26:53 AM … 3.141592653.  Get it?  Add to that a pretty cool medal, and I’m in!  I’ve never been to Columbus, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s there.

The other race is in December, and I simply had to sign up for this one.  For the third year, Cleveland OH is hosting the Christmas Story Run 5K.  The cool thing about this one is the leg lamp themed medal.  And, of course, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is there, so I’ll definitely be spending some extra time wandering around there.

The last race I’m watching for is on/around October 21.  You see, Marty McFly visited the future on October 21, 2015, and I’ve gotta figure someone will have a race to commemorate that!