Race Recap: Shamrock 15k

Today I ran the Shamrock 15k, organized by the Summit Athletic Running Club.

When I last checked the Weather App, it said that the temperature would be forty degrees.  By one o'clock, when I estimated that I would have climbed the hill from hell, it would be forty-three degrees and sunny.  For an Ohio runner, this information means 1) no hat, 2) a long sleeve tech shirt, and 3) capris.  My favorite racing capris were in the wash, so I wore tights instead, but I made sure not to go with my gut and bring along a jacket.  "Stephani, " I told myself, "you ALWAYS wear too much clothing, and then you get really hot and irritated.  Don't do this today."  So this is how I dressed:

Shamrock, I'm coming for you!

Boy, was I wrong.  Apparently, "forty" means "really freaking cold and gray with lots of wind."  This was not what I was expecting.  I got on the phone and pleaded with my husband to bring me a jacket, but then Jone, one of my TORN friends and now my savior, came along and lent me her vest.  So, it all worked out.

I saw Heather, Laura, Erin, Suegene, and Brad.  I hadn't seen Heather and Laura in a long time, and it was so nice to catch up today.  I also saw Marilyn, Amanda, and Stacie, who are badasses because they ran four miles before the race.

Heather and I ran the Shamrock together (it was my first time) in 2013.

Erin and I seem to find each other at every race now.

There was a bagpiper:

I know some people don't like bagpipes, so I only gave you ten seconds.

Ok, here is the lowdown on the course:

The first 5k are completely downhill.  It would have been awesome except that I lost about thirty seconds in mile 1 because my pants kept coming down, and I had to stop THREE TIMES to retie the drawstring.  GRRRRR.

The next mile or so is flat, and then the rest of the race is uphill.  I'm not joking.  The first two hills are the stuff of which nightmares are made, and then there are little inclines until the end.  My goal is to never walk on a hill.  I allowed myself to walk through three water stops, but none of them were on a hill, and I never completely stopped.

The sun did come out when I reached the top of the hill, which was nice.

I did change up my strategy from the last time I ran this race.  My official goal was to do better than I did in the Hot Chocolate 15k (where I was hungover and I actually ran slowly enough to EAT HANDFULS OF CHOCOLATE on the course), but my secret goal was of course a PR.  The first thing I did differently was wear earbuds.  I know; earbuds are bad-the course isn't completely closed-yadda yadda yadda.  I can tell you that I was completely aware of any cars on the course well before they were anywhere around me.  I was alert.  Plus, I was much safer to be around because I had drowned out my Voices, which normally want me to do terrible things in the middle of a long run without music.

The other thing I did was let myself go in the hills of the first 5k.  I usually try to slow down and warm up in the beginning miles of a race; it's part of my hope that I will run a negative split, but you know what?  I never do.  I realized (from watching Shelby do this two years ago) that I should take advantage of the downhill start and let 'er rip.  I think it made a huge difference.

Judge for yourself:

Shamrock 15k 2013:  1:34:22  10:07/mile

Hot Chocolate 15k 2014: 1:31:32  9:49/mile

Shamrock 15k 2015:   1:29:15 9:35/mile

I think I'll take it!

This is a great race if you like hills (and I do).  There was soup and bread and fruit and popcorn (!) after the race, which was very welcome when I got the shivers.  The medal is sweet, and I can never have too many long-sleeved tech shirts.  Even though I really should be doing eleven or more miles on my long runs, I thought this challenging course more than made up for the fact that I ran fewer than ten miles today.  I am right on track to prepare for the Rite Aid Cleveland Half Marathon.  Are you?

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Race Review: Jim Klett 10k

It was a beautiful day in Merriman Valley, a great day to run 10k, and that is what the Turtles did.

Here we are, revved up!

Look, a bale of Turtles!  Fear them!

Today was the Jim Klett 10k, sponsored by Summit Athletic Running Club.  This race is part road, part trail, and it winds through really gorgeous country.  I have lots of opinions on this race, so let's just get to it, shall we?

The Good:  This was a very small race--less than 200 participants.  This means that I was able to take 3rd place in my age group!  I've got a nice plaque on my dresser now.  I think I'm going to mount it in my classroom and make the students bow to it when they enter.

 I've already mentioned the scenery and the weather.  Both were outstanding.  The course has a few hills on the trails, and I'm a hill person, so I was happy there.

This is NOT me.  This is a hillbilly; it's not the same thing.  

The Bad:  The race was small because, in my opinion, SARC made a lot of errors.
1.  They moved the start time from 9:00 (which is kind of late anyway) to 8:45, and they did it a mere few days before the race.

2.  They eliminated the 5k portion of the race, a REALLY bad move.  People LOVE 5k's.  I don't understand why they got rid of it because I would think it would be the money part of the race.

Some errors didn't directly limit registration, but they were obvious nonetheless:

3.  Runners had to park and walk through a wet field to get to the starting line.  My shoes and socks were wet before I started the race.

4.  Not only did we have to walk through that wet field to get there, packet pick up was only that morning, so we were now supposed to WALK BACK through that wet field to stow our packet.  Uh, no.  The Turtles put all of their bags together and left them (Great idea, Sheila!) in the hopes that nobody would swipe anything.

5.  The t-shirts were COTTON!! UGH!  If I'm running 10k, I want a TECH SHIRT!!!  If anyone HAD stolen my cotton tee, I honestly wouldn't have cared.




The Ugly:  Bear with me here because I'm a little angry.  I guess right now you could call me a Snapping Turtle.

This is EXACTLY how I look when I'm pissed off about a race.

There were more than twenty Turtles at that race, which means that we made up about fifteen percent of the participants, something SARC knew from registration data.  We are named the Turtles for a reason: we believe that slow and steady wins the race.  Some of the racers had never run an official 10k, and they were really looking forward to this race.  In a weird, clueless move, SARC rerouted the race to go over railroad tracks.  They moved the race time to 8:45 at the last minute because they actually checked a train schedule, but in doing so, they only thought about their faster runners.  As a result, about half of the Turtles got caught waiting on a train.  That is completely unfair.  These runners paid just as much as anyone, and SARC never thought about their needs.  I don't think it's too much to ask to allow participants the opportunity to run from beginning to end.

Furthermore, SARC served a breakfast starting forty-five minutes after the beginning of the race, so when the Turtles showed up en masse to eat, we got the leftovers.  I'm not saying everyone should have waited; I am saying that someone should have realized that a huge group of runners (some of whom had to wait for the train) would be coming much later, and that someone should have started a second wave of food prep.  It's not rocket science, people.  Hold back some eggs and stuff, and make those later.

I'd like to end this post on a good note, so I will.  I LOVED watching the Turtles come in today, and my favorite part was when we all ran in together with our Tail at the end.  Sheila taught us that being a Turtle is more than just running; we cheer on all runners, and we cheer them on until the finish line.  I'm so proud today to belong to our running club, The Ohio Runners Network, of which the Towpath Turtles are a subgroup.  Thank you for a great time today, runners!  I love you, Man!

Top o' the Freaking Hill to Ye!

So, today I ran the Shamrock 15k, sponsored by Summit Athletic Running Club.  It was my first race without music, and while I am happy to know that I CAN run without music, I would have actually enjoyed this race had I been listening to my tunes.

I started the race with Heather and Shelby.  Heather and I have a difficult time holding back in the beginning of a race, and we both decided to start in the ten-minute corral.  When the gun went off, we shot off with it, and we couldn't get the pace slower than 9:21.  Shelby, who is a badass, tore ahead on the downhill part, and I didn't really see her again until the turnaround toward the end.  Way to go, Shelby!

Going downhill was great except that we knew what was coming next.

Heather:  What goes down, must. . . 

Me:  Shut the hell up.

I wasn't in my "I love you, Man" phase yet.

I told myself that I would not walk the hills, and I didn't.  At the top of the steepest hill, I yelled, "Yes!  I made this hill my bitch!" which is my tradition on big hills.  Sometimes people appreciate that and sometimes they don't.  I had a lot of grumpy people around me today.

Around mile five I started dreaming about pulling a DNF, just so I could get some peace.  I was cold, tired, and hungry, and my bat-shit crazy mind was pulling me in a million different directions.  At one point I started pretending that this guy from the movie The Leprechaun was chasing me.

I'm the leprechaun; give me back my gold!

Ah, The Leprechaun.  One of Jennifer Aniston's finest oeuvres.  

Miles six through nine were where I started my chanting/breath combo.  For three freaking miles I chanted (in my head), "I am strong.  I got this.  I am fast.  I got this."  Sometimes I kept chanting, "Chicken chicken chicken chicken," in the background.   That is because I was thinking of this blog post from the Blogess about picking your battles (which is HILARIOUS).  Needless to say, this was not fun.

I would like to thank the Towpath Turtles for being Superfans around mile eight and the end.  I could hear you yelling from the opposite end of the block, so you gave me a target to run toward.  I decided at that point that I would have to at least look like I was running fast while you were out there.

I've got my medal.  I've eaten my lukewarm soup.  I've warmed up in the shower.  I think I'm going to have a beer and dream about a ribeye steak.  Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

The GNYER (Great New Year's Eve Race)

Sure, run a 5k on New Year's Eve; it will be fun!


SARC (Summit Athletic Racing Club) sponsored the Great New Year's Eve Race at 4:00.  The weather looked cold, but runnable. . .until I set foot in the parking lot.  I've been running for less than a year, so every race I run is a new experience.  My running buddies told me that this was a fun race, and the jacket is super-cool.  Okay, I can endure anything for under thirty minutes, right?  It had BETTER be for under thirty minutes.

This is the hill I had to run.  Twice.  Look all the way up.

As soon as the siren blew, the snow blew along with it, right into our faces.  It got colder and slicker with each step.  I was amazed to see a group of women dressed as Playboy Bunnies, complete with bustiers and tiaras.  "Don't mock them, " a friend told me.  "They are much faster runners than either of us."

I didn't match or break my personal record for the 5k, so I have to take my victories where I can find them.  As I was running uphill (again!) to come back to the finish line, a man next to me decided he was going to blow by me.  Because I have a good coach who makes me do the painful stuff, I knew that wasn't going to happen.  I kept my pace, and within thirty seconds he dropped back, gasping, while I chugged on ahead.  Maybe I had a tiny, smug smile on my face.  More likely, I was trying not to keel over.

After the race, I basked in the glow of endorphins while sipping lukewarm soup.  Was it worth it?  The runner's high was incredible, but I don't know if I'll do it again.  I suppose that because of global warming I'll be able to run this race in shorts and a tech tee in future years.

But that damned hill will still be there.