Saturday morning came all too fast. I had to be on site at the CARA Lakefront 10
by 5:45am to get a parking spot and get the Ragnar booth all set up. Imagine my surprise when I went outside and
found that I had to scrape an inch of ice and snow off of my car. I was dressed
for the cold – bottom layer of Pearl Izumi winter tights, an Icebreaker 260
weight half-zip and my Ragnar Ambassador jacket. Over that I threw on a pair of huge
sweatpants and a winter coat because I knew I’d be standing around for hours. I
took off the coat & sweatpants for the race and about 3 miles in I tied the
Ragnar jacket around my waist because I was boiling. I also had on a fleece hat
and a pair of Smartwool knit gloves (hat stayed on for the whole race, gloves came
on and off as my hand temperature changed).
Booth set-up couldn’t have been easier. Ragnar ordered a tent/table/chairs from CARA
and they were already set up when I arrived.
I just had to put on the Ragnar tablecloth, pop up the sign, and spread
out the free t-shirts and post-cards. I
had help from two fellow Ambassadors (shout out to Mattie and Brett – thanks
again!) so I was able to step away and run the race. I didn’t race the race –
just used it as a training run so I pulled off my timing chip because I was
planning on slow-poking the whole way.
Packet Pick-Up: I felt pretty bad for the volunteers working
pick-up at the race. Although there were
several locations in the city and suburbs to get the packets before the race,
but I knew I’d be plenty early on race morning and would have time to get
everything there. As soon as I saw that they had the booth up and running I
went over, Unfortunately, the list of registered runners wasn’t in alphabetical
order so the two girls working had to go page by page until they found the
correct name – I managed to see my name while they were searching for the guy
in line in front of me. I think they were working on getting a new list printed
up and brought down to the booth and for their sake I hope it showed up soon.
The goodie bag was a nice reusable grocery bag (I use them for laundry) with a
couple of Cliff samples and a nice long-sleeved tech-t (now that I’ve worn it,
it seems a little short in the torso). Bonus: a nice medal at the end.
The Race: The race started right on time. I was running with
three buddies of mine who (sorry CARA) were banditing the race just to run with
me – I have the greatest friends! Two of them were feeling speedy so they took
off after about mile2 and I didn’t see them again until the end. I just wanted to dog it and the other buddy hadn’t
run 10 miles in about a year so we stuck together and then found another friend
at the CARA trough who looked like she wasn’t having the greatest race. I stuck
with her and became Poppy: Race Coach.
I’m really good at blabbing on and on to help take people’s minds off
running – just ask my sister-in-law. I
ran the last 8 miles of the 2009 marathon (her first) with her and I apologized
the next day for all the blabbing but she said it was the best thing ever. Maybe I have a new career? I’ll offer to run
next to people while I go on and on about completely inconsequential subjects.
Last year I ran a few miles with a friend in the Chicago Marathon and recapped
a New Yorker article about Korean pop music. Anyway – back to the race. The course was fine – pretty much the same as
last year – going north to start and then looping back to head over Cricket
Hill (really people – it’s a bump!) which was a little slickery from all the
rain the previous week and then winding around the lakefront path – going under
the bridge to run on the side with the CARA trough and then back around to head
north again. Can I just take a moment to
mention my least favorite part of just about every race on the lakefront?
There’s that point, close to the end, where you head east by some gothic
looking field house. I always just want
to run straight across the field and cut off the ‘U’ part of the path. I guess I hate it because I’ve done it so
many times and at that point I know exactly how far it is to the finish. I’m
never one for poring over course maps because I like to be surprised and I’ve
run this area so much that there are no more surprises
Post-Race party: There were a fair amount of booths at the
race including Clif and some Noodles & Co. who were serving mac & cheese
, plus each bib had a ticket for free beer (I gave mine away). Since I was
working a booth I got a chance to talk to the booths next to me (Chicago 13.1
and a massage place) and I stopped to talk to the Merrell rep because they were
sponsoring the Crossfit class I was taking the next day.
Would I do it again?: Sure. 10-miles is a nice distance and
since I usually have a half planned somewhere in the near future it’s a good
training distance. I paid $48.50 which was probably on the high end since I
missed early registration due to indecision – I did get the CARA member
discount – buy $48.50 doesn’t seem that high at all for a 10-mile race
especially since there are 5Ks that cost that much.
Last week I did manage to get in 29 miles even with the
torrential downpours– a recent high! I’ll be back later this week with a
training update and a little recap of the Fleet Feet Boston Tribute run.
See you on the trails!
No comments:
Post a Comment