A 10 Mile Race

I ran Goldy’s Run this morning, a 10 mile race at the University of Minnesota campus, ending on the 50 yard line in the football stadium. It’s a nice race and a good way to kick off the spring running season. I ran it 2 years ago and enjoyed it so I decided to run it again.

But I’ve slowed down a lot since then. I don’t know exactly why, could be a lot of things, age, not running very much last year, lingering effects from a series of colds this winter. But I knew I wasn’t going to beat my time from 2 years ago, so I set a different goal, based on the last 10 miler I ran and used a shorter run/walk interval, 1:00/30 instead of 1:30/30. Told myself to focus on walking briskly and the running portion would take care of itself.

This race has some pretty big hills, both up and down. It crosses over the Mississippi twice. I knew I would walk part of the uphills, they’re just too long and steep to power through. But I could also run the downhills so it probably evens out.

The race went ok. The weather was beautiful, sunny, not much wind, 30’s. Two years ago I ran it in 2 hours. Today I ran it in 2 hours 6 minutes. I’m satisfied with my time. I came in third in my age group (out of 3 women, haha). I was the 2nd oldest woman in the race. The two women that beat me ran really good times, 1 hour 20 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes. That translates to 8 and 9 minute miles, respectively, something I’ve never done, even for a 5k. Kuddos to them!

But I have a bone to pick with the race this year. Some of the organizational aspects were faulty.

1. They ran out of water at a couple of the water stops toward the end. And there were several hundred people behind me.
2. At the finish line the toddler race was running over the finish line at the same time as the slower 10 milers. Just all over the line, not on one side or anything like that. They were adorable but distracting and how the hell are you supposed to get a decent finish pic with little kids (and their parents) clogging up the works?
3. At most races there are volunteers right after the finish line handing out medals. Not this time. I didn’t even realize that I didn’t get a medal until I was on my way back to my car.
4. They had run out of finisher snacks as well, except for water bottles. I was bummed.

I’m going to complain to the race management. This race is run by Run Minnesota, a big organization. I’ve run a lot of their races and have never had problems like this before.

The final snafu was totally my fault. When I got out of the stadium I could not remember where I parked my car! I was starting to freak out, stopped some people and told them I was lost. I told them I had taken a picture of my parking spot. “Well then”, they told me, “Go to your photos and you can bring that picture up on a map!” So for future reference, bring up a photo, swipe up halfway, and a map pops up with your picture on it! Wow!

So I get to the parking garage. Its many leveled, with no logic that I can find to the space designation. I finally found my car but it wasn’t easy. THEN I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the damn thing! I got to one exit with green arrows but it was backwards. I just kept following the exit signs until finally one of them worked.

By the time I got home it was almost 12:30. The poor dogs had been cooped up inside since 7 am this morning. They were very glad to see me! Once they had gone potty a couple of times and had lunch, and followed me around for a while to make sure I wasn’t going to leave again, they finally relaxed. Now they’re napping.

Because of the hiccups at the finish line I don’t know if I will run this race again. Now it’s on to The Get in Gear Half Marathon at the end of April, and then the Grandma’s Half Marathon in Duluth in June. Then I’ll mostly focus on biking for the rest of the summer.

Epilogue:

Well today I got an email from the Run Minnesota apologizing for the hiccups at the finish line. It wasn’t just me, they ran out of medals AND food for the last couple of hundred runners in the race. So they are sending me a medal, and as an apology they are also sending me a code for a free race entry for one of their other races this year. So that mollifies me to a certain extent. 

Also, on the Monday after the race I was sore, but just regular post-race soreness. But Monday night my right hip started hurting. It was very sore all day Tuesday. I took a lot of Acetomycin and by Tuesday night it was much better, and today (Wednesday) it’s fine. Who knows what that was! I took a Pilates class today and I was ok, so tomorrow I’ll go for a run and see how it goes.

I also made a decision. I transferred out of the Get in Gear Half and signed up for the Get in Gear 10k instead. There’s no point in running the risk of injury by running at extra half, when the half I really care about is Grandma’s in June. Wise choice!