Race Recap: Maritime Days 5K

As promised, I'm back with a full wrap up of my second 5K of the summer.

This one was a no brainer for my daughter and I. Most of the events she's interested in have us driving into suburbia, but this one was just down the street.

Our town holds an annual summer festival, Maritime Days, in early August. Last year, the event organizers decided to add a 5K to the event with the proceeds supporting the planning for the next year's festival. 

Fun at the festival

The race organizers were new to the event this year, and they did a great job. Everything was very well organized, from the registration through Active.com to the post-race refreshments. 

We chose to take advantage of early packet pickup on Thursday night at the local coffee house rather than get to the starting line early on race day. This was a very nice perk for those of us who live in town, because with the carnival and other festival entertainment it was a busy weekend for many of us.

We got to the starting line with about 3 minutes to spare. I'm not a morning person at the best of times, and the day after the town fireworks display is not the best of times. Fortunately, we already had our bibs and shoe tags on so we were ready to go. Again I have to say how much I loved the early packet pick-up!

The start was well organized. The turnout wasn't as large as for our earlier race, but that's to be expected - the manatee run is in its 11th year in a major suburban area, and this run is only in its second year in a small rural town. The mayor said a few words, followed by the race organizers, and then we were off.

Because this is a very small town, the race was run mainly on open residential streets. The one exception is our main street, which runs along the riverfront; this is closed for the whole festival weekend. So while there isn't much traffic so early on a Saturday morning there were a couple of occasions where runners had to wait for cars to pass or vice versa. The route did run a little longer than a true 5K, though; according to the pre-race announcements it was approximately 3.4 miles rather than 3.1.

Freighter on the river

The best part of the course was the run along the river, and the organizers certainly must have known this because we traveled that part of the route twice. The rest looped through residential streets lined with old Victorian homes, nice scenery for running with lots of lovely shade.

Speaking of shade, the weather was perfect - sunny with just a few puffy clouds, but not quite 70° for the 8am start. I worried about August races because even up here in Michigan August can be brutally hot and humid, but this was wonderful. I hope we have the same luck with the other race we have planned for this month!

Back to the race...

There was one water station in front of my girls' school/church, at the turn-around point that we passed through twice, once at about 1.2 miles and the second time around 2.4. I thought that was exceptionally well planned, to require only one set of volunteers to staff the station but still provide runners two well-spaced stations.

Our Lady on the River Church

After the race, runners were directed to a table with refreshments provided by a local grocery - bananas, water, and some chia-seed sports drink that my daughter warned me was "gross" so I didn't even try it. Water is really the only thing I want after a run anyway.

At the end of the race, the organizers posted times for the quicker finishers. When we left, results and splits were posted for everyone who finished in under 40 minutes. We didn't stick around long enough to see my results - I crossed the finish line right around the 48 minute mark - and the full results haven't yet been uploaded to the race page so I haven't seen my official time. I couldn't be happier with my unofficial time, though!

My daughter doesn't remember her time but thinks it was around 37 minutes, which breaks down to the same 10 minute per mile pace that she posted back in May. She was a little disappointed with that, but between all her activit

All in all it was a really fun race, but I'm not sure we'll do it next year for reasons entirely unrelated to the race itself. The whole reason we didn't stick around to see the splits or chat with friends who also ran was because I had to leave home to pick my son up from band camp. The race started at 8, and I had to be on the road by 9:20 to get up to the college where they hold camp by noon.

Band camp finale

So unless the dates line up differently next year, I won't be running the race again. Between the 5K, the 2.5 hour drive up to camp, an hour long presentation/show for parents, a couple hours of swimming and picnicking at a state park, and 2.5 hours' drive back home, it was just too long a day!

Off the Wagon

So it seems I've fallen off the wagon a bit. With running, and with blogging.

June was an off-and-on month. Some weeks I was good, walking or running 4 or 5 days. It almost started to feel like a habit. Others, I was not so good, only getting out on the trail once or twice. Those times, it felt more like a chore.

July is a wasteland. I don't think I've been out running even once, and the month is more than half over. I have a million excuses - kids to get to activities, ridiculous amounts of stress at home, this absurd heat wave that has me wishing I could jet off to Florida to cool off. But none of them are good excuses, and the fact remains that I have to lace up my shoes and get back on the trail. Now. Like yesterday.

Our next event is a hometown 5K on August 3, and this one more than any other is a mental challenge for me. Not because it has a swift pace requirement or will be especially competitive, but because this is the only race on my calendar where I'll actually know some of the other runners. For me, that's harder to face than any pace requirement or threat of being swept.

Irrational? Sure. But there it is.

I'm much more comfortable being not-a-runner, fat and happy, than putting myself out there and publicly doing something that is so far from my strengths and skills.

Giving into the urge to skip this one isn't an option. My daughter would never allow it. She's very excited about this race more than any other, in that pre-teen, showing-off sort of way. She's the only one of her friends who runs any distance, the only one who volunteers for the mile on her track team, and she's hoping to win this one.

So it is time to dig my running shoes out from under the mound of flip-flops and get myself going.

Tomorrow. As soon as this blasted "heat advisory" weather moves on.

I did it!

Only have time for a very quick post before I get back to the craziness that is May in my household, but I had to share the few pics I took and my thoughts about yesterday's Save the Manatees 5K.

The day could have gotten off to a better start. I woke up with a headache, totally self-inflicted so I was determined to power through it. See, I'm a caffeine addict. I don't mean I'm cranky before I have my morning coffee. I mean I get migraine-like withdrawal headaches if I don't keep up with the habit, and I was on the go so much on Friday between a morning run, afternoon at the park, and evening getting a new dog that landed on our doorstep settled in that I just didn't feel much like anything other than water. And I was paying for it as I got ready to go, but after a breakfast of Motrin and toast I was feeling a bit better by the time we got on the road.

It was cool and cloudy when we arrived, but as the morning progressed the sun did make an appearance. The weather really couldn't have been better - probably mid-60s with a gentle, warmish breeze. We got to Lake St Clair Metropark around 8:30, which gave us plenty of time to pick up our race packets and stretch a little before the 9:30 start.

Shanna had to have her picture taken in front of the giant manatee balloon.

It was clearly a family-oriented event. The race packet for under-12 runners included a really cute stuffed manatee. A DJ was on hand to entertain the crowd, playing a very beachy selection of tunes, heavy on the Jimmy Buffet. Very apropos since Jimmy Buffet is one of the founders of the Save the Manatee club. An adorable clown was on hand making some very creative balloon animals for the kids, including manatees of course.

The first race of the day was the Mini-Mile and it was really cute watching the little ones line up to run. The youngest child out there couldn't have been more than 3 or 4, and it got me thinking that next year maybe Katie would like to join us. 

Then it was our turn. The turnout was bigger than I'd expected, about 1200 people registered for either the 5K run or 2 mile walk, but once we got a few hundred yards from the start the course didn't feel crowded at all. Shanna and I ran together for about the first half mile, then I slowed to walk some and she left me in her dust. I only caught sight of her once after that, when the course doubled back on itself, and according to her time she was at the finish line about as I hit the 2 mile marker. 

The course itself was very nice. The park occupies a small outcropping into the lake, and the course went all the way out to the end before doubling back and winding through the more developed parts of the park. 

I ran about half of the first mile, then walked all of the second, then alternated between running and walking through the rest. My overall time wasn't bad - 46:47, which breaks down to 15:05 per mile. I'm shooting for 15 minutes as my first pace goal, because that feels comfortably under the 16min/mile pacing requirement for the time-limited races I'm interested in, so I did get close and was slightly faster than my best training run so far. I was disappointed with myself for not running more, though. I wasn't sore and was only mildly tired afterwards, so I know I could have pushed myself harder. 

I was very proud of Shanna, though! Her final time was 31:11, pretty good for a first effort especially since she abandoned me on our C25K program for the duration of track and baseball seasons! 

All in all it was a very nice outing. I'm taking today off to work on things in my garden and around the house, but I'll be right back out on the track tomorrow morning to get ready for the next race, which right now is looking like it'll a local charity fundraiser on July 20th.