Manchester Road Race - RunOther


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Manchester, Connecticut
United States
Manchester Road Race Committee
40F / 4C
Sunny
Total Time = 42m 50s
Overall Rank = 3261/10414
Age Group = 40-49
Age Group Rank = 145/961
Pre-race routine:

Ate Oatmeal, two waffles, half banana, coffee.
Event warmup:

Stood in line at MCC waiting for shuttle buses. We were among the lucky ones who actually got to the start line before the race started at 10 a.m. When our bus pulled away from MCC parking lot, there were at least 300 people waiting there still and it was 9:30! Pretty much knew that those people were not going to get to the race site for the start. The 2.5 mile ride took a good 15 minutes as we were stuck in traffic trying to get to the drop off point near the race. Once we finally got off the bus, we had to jog to the start about a mile away. That was my warmup.
Run
  • 42m 50s
  • 4.78 miles
  • 08m 58s  min/mile
Comments:

It was pretty much impossible to run at my pace in the first mile. There were kids and grandmas and a guy with a stroller, walkers, runners who had never run before and unregistered individuals all forming a wall of humanity in front of me. So I just settled in and accepted that this was gonna be a fun little run to justify stuffing my face later on. I spent the first 2 miles--which included the long hill-- just trying to leap frog the islands of slow runners and walkers and little kids who went out real fast and then realized they couldn't maintain their crazy little hamster pace and ground to a halt at the base of the hill. I passed about a million people as I ran about a 9:50 pace. Got to the top of the hill and still really conjested. Usually, at this point in the race you get a bit of space to run in, but not so on this day. As I hit the downhill there were still so many runners that you had to be careful not to trip over somebody. I did pick it up and get into an 8:30ish pace to try and make up a little time, but had to weave in and out of slower runners and walkers and people who were pooped out at from NOT EVER HAVING RUN BEFORE TODAY! Had to pee really bad so was really distracted! Tried to keep pace and get to the finish line as fast as I could just to be done with it!
What would you do differently?:

Stay home and go for a nice 7-8 miler before heading out to Thanksgiving dinner ;)
Post race
Warm down:

Warm-down consisted of walking up and down main street trying to find Dave. Then we walked to the shuttle bus pick up and found a big angry mob waiting for a ride back to MCC. After waiting for a few minutes and seeing the growing line and the people who were special and felt they could just ignore the line and get on immediately with out waiting, we decided that we would just walk the 2 or three miles back to where the car was. So we walked and jogged a little and probably made it back to the drop off sooner than the buss that was loading when we left.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

My performance was limited by way too many runners who did not seed themselves correctly and the fact that I had to pee really badly!!

Event comments:

The Manchester Road Race is an amazing event and one that everyone should have the experience to be a part of at some point. This year, the whole shuttle bus thing just really broke down and the shear number of participants made it really difficult to run your race, but it was fun to be part of it. I've run this race 4 times. 2003 50:42, 2004 53:06, 2005 43:09, 2008 42:50--so a PR for me this year in this race. It think they should break up the chute a bit more and actually rope off the sections or maybe have a second seeding for people that run 40-48--or something...




Last updated: 2008-11-17 12:00 AM
Running
00:42:50 | 04.78 miles | 08m 58s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/961
Overall: 3261/10414
Performance: Good
Course: The course is a loop around Manchester. Starts out flat and then mile 2 is pretty much all up hill. I squeezed myself into the shoot right at the 40 minutes and up sign knowing I could run this distance somewhere in the 39 to 43 minute range. I had to wait for the cop to turn his head before I squeezed in under the barrier into the sardine can of a chute. It was packed both inside and outside the chute such that you could not bend to touch your toes! I made nice with the people right around me. I had to pee badly, but there was no time to do so before the start. In hindsight, I should have taken the time to go and just crossed the start when I was ready to go.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Too much
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized?
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]