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Spirit of Women 5K
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Spirit of Women 5K - Run
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Comments: It started uphill. I had great cheering sections - my husband and Small Boy got me up the first hill, my bigger boy was at our house saying, "Go Mummy, Go Mummy". That put a smile on my face. I was going at a pretty good clip, got my heart rate right into the race zone, tried to pull my shoulders back and just keep a fast cadence. Nothing wrong with my running. Zoomed along, aiming to keep my HR right about 189 (race average was 188, so did pretty well.) There's a long rolling section with an out and back where I got to see where people were in relation to me. I sort of like that, although I don't typically care for out and back scenarios. But where was the water? One water station about half way through on a steep downhill. Oh, thanks a whole lot. Finally I've got a downhill and I'm supposed to stop NOW? Soon after that I went by my husband and Small Boy cheering again. Wow, they really made me smile. About two miles in I started to catch walkers and noticed something odd - they never cheered for the runners. Even people I knew were just immersed in conversation or wearing headphones and just never bothered to look up. It was the most anti-social women's race I've ever been in. And the walkers walked four or five abreast and made it hard to get around, and at least one little terrier on a retractable leash dived under my legs. Insert more curse words. (On the same topic, as I'm on the final sprint I had to dodge walkers, too, even though they weren't supposed to go through the chute.) The last mile of the course is just horrible. I ran a race there once about two years ago and hated it so much I'll never run that race again. It's a slum, it doesn't have sidewalks or gardens. It has drug dealers in leather sitting on porches (holding guns?) and trained-as-guard-dogs pitbulls on chains. Or not on chains - quite a lot of mean angry sounding dogs were barking the whole way and some didn't look secured to me. I don't run there by myself and can't believe someone in town thought that was a good idea. Apparently the race director doesn't read the police log. This awful street ends on a long, sharp uphill at a T only about 50 feet from the finish of the race. My husband and Small Boy were there again, and this time Small Boy ran up the top of the hill with me, practically PULLING me along. I gave it my best effort - heart rate max was 196 - and made it up in good speed. I finally got on a flat, dodged the pedestrians, and got into the finish with a time a good three minutes worse than I hoped for. Why was my run time so bad? I don't know. I ran hard, I felt fine, I didn't walk even once, and I never slouched. This ought to have been 10:30 or better per mile. I don't have the answer to this other than I'm just pitifully slow. I'm going to go out and ride the course with my bike to check the distance later. Addendum: despite the race director's assurance that it was 3.1 miles, it was actually 3.36 miles, a full quarter mile longer than advertised. My pace was actually more like 10.16 mph rather than 11. That makes more sense. And fits with the other charming attributes of this race. What would you do differently?: I passed up a perfectly lovely cross country race on the same day to do this. Go ahead and GUESS what I'd do differently.  Post race
Warm down: Attempted to make full sentences without swear words in them. Post race food: they had cookies, cut up oranges, bananas, water, tea & coffee. The coffee was nice on a cold morning. I had a cookie and regretted it - wanted grains, not grease. I have a massage scheduled for this afternoon. I deserve it. What limited your ability to perform faster: The race director's name is Irene. Event comments: 92 registered and only 82 finished. Pretty bad stats for a sunny day's 5K. I think they just joined the walkers. I saw some wearing bibs. I had fantastic support: my family were cheering in FOUR places. It goes by my house. But what would attract anyone else? Post race food was cookies & green bananas, there was no swag, not even a t-shirt despite a $30 entrance fee. No mile markers, dogs and strollers amidst the runners, mis-measured distance, last minute course change, unfriendly crowd... you decide. Last updated: 2005-08-24 12:00 AM
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 2005-10-01 11:17 AM |
Extreme Veteran  456   Western Massachusetts |  Subject: Spirit of Women 5K |
| 2005-10-02 10:02 AM in reply to: #257511 |
Pro 4612  MA | Subject: RE: Spirit of Women 5K Sounds like poor organization. But you did it in good time. Blame the hurricanes for the green bananas. |
| 2005-10-02 2:49 PM in reply to: #257511 |
Giver 18427  | Subject: RE: Spirit of Women 5K What limited your ability to perform faster: The race director's name is Irene. That's funny. What a strange, strange race. |
| 2005-10-03 8:56 AM in reply to: #257699 |
Extreme Veteran 456 Western Massachusetts | Subject: RE: Spirit of Women 5K Celeb_ithil - 2005-10-02 11:02 AMSounds like poor organization. But you did it in good time. Blame the hurricanes for the green bananas. Oh, I was just being crabby about the green bananas. They had a bunch of cut up oranges and those were really good. :-) |
| 2005-10-03 8:59 AM in reply to: #257764 |
Extreme Veteran 456 Western Massachusetts | Subject: RE: Spirit of Women 5K run4yrlif - 2005-10-02 3:49 PM What limited your ability to perform faster: "The race director's name is Irene." That's funny. What a strange, strange race. I think my problem is that I've been doing some really well organized races and this just suffered in the comparison. I've volunteered at two races now, and I think what you're seeing is the signs of me itching to get in on organizing one. When someone complains as much as me the proper thing to do with them is to put them on the Board! I'm less grumpy about the race now that Monday morning has come. It wasn't the race I signed up to do, but it was a lovely morning and I pulled a nice run out of me so all [well, most] is forgiven. |
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United States
Franklin Medical Center/Women Health Services
60F / 16C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 53/82
Age Group = 40-49
Age Group Rank = 19/26
Woke up before alarm clock from nightmare in which I had overslept. What can I say, it as an "A" level race for me. I really have been hankering to tackle that course again after pulling in my best time ever last year. This year they changed the start and a little bit of the course, but the main parts were the same and I was ready for it and raring to go.
My first hint that something was "off" was that there were lines spray painted in the road in front of our house... not where they were supposed to be. Did they change the course?
I got to the Y early: just before 8 AM for a 9:45 race, because I have an 8 AM yoga class I was going to do as a warm-up. Plus, I hadn't pre-registered. I got bib #83 - ominous because I thought 150 people were running. They said I didn't get a T-shirt, despite the fact I was the very first person to show up at same-day registration, because only the first 75 got one. Bummer. I asked about the curious arrows - they were in the wrong places all the way from my house to the Y. They told me there was a course change. I went and looked at the course change.
This is where I would insert swear words if I weren't trying to be ladylike. I am very, very upset with this course change. They gutted the course - took out Mountain Road, took out the nice Victorian neighborhoods, and put in a slummy druggy pitbull street on the wrong side of the tracks that was newly paved smelling of asphalt and UPHILL to the finish. Insert more swear words. They took a nice run and ruined it. They added more long uphills, a couple of steep downhills, and they made it longer. Only about 1/2 a mile of the original race was the same.
I went to yoga class and worked on just breathing. Dealing with race day change. Trying to visualize the course, run it in my head. I know all these streets. I ride my bike on these streets. I just tried to assimilate the changes, but was feeling very crabby.
Yoga was my warm-up, a fairly active version with lots of sun salutes. After the yoga class, with 45 minutes to go to the start, I ran home to tell my family that we were going by our house about 20 minutes earlier than I had expected - our house is only 1/4 mile into the race now - and tried to cheer myself up a bit. Ran back, looked at the course again, realized that it looked an awful lot like the Winter Carnival 4 mile road race route, went and asked the director for the distance. She said 5K. I said I thought it was more like 4 miles. She said 3.1. I asked if she had the miles marked. She said no.
Warm-up includes the effort involved with not swearing at the race director.
At 9:30 the walkers started. Walkers started BEFORE the runners. Lots of dogs and double-wide baby carriages. Guess what, we get to RUN through that mess. Maybe it won't be a problem, I thought. I'm trying to be positive here. Include this effort in the warm-up.