Monday, June 8, 2015

Run for the Roses 5k

Today is the kick off of marathon training. I'm not quite sure when I'm going to get in my 3 miles for the day as work has been hectic and I have my last writing class this afternoon. The thought of leaving early to run has crossed my mind. But the other thought, the one that goes something like "I just ran a 5k yesterday, do I really need to run today or can I officially start marathon training tomorrow?" has also crossed my mind. I'm trying to squash that thought so as not to start off training on the wrong (or no) foot.

Over on the left is Roselle. I live over on the right,
where it says Chicago.
Yesterday I participated in the Roselle Run for the Roses 5k. As you can gather from the name, this race is in Roselle. Where is Roselle you ask? Beats me I say because I didn't drive and I try not to pay attention to anything that happens outside of city limits. But, by checking out Google Maps, I see that Roselle is due west of the city and takes about 50 minutes to get there with no traffic.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been running races that are in the CARA Circuit. Not expecting to win or place in anything, I'm basically going for participation. But that means that I'm going to have to get myself out of the city to run a few races if I'm going to run at least 10 of them. I missed the last two circuit races, Quarryman 10 Mile and the Soldier Field 10 Mile, so it was off to Roselle to run a 5k.

The race start and finish was at a local high school and we were able to easily park close to the school. Unfortunately, the room for packet pickup and race-day registration was small, so it was hard to get to the table to get our packet, which we had to do race day since there was no city (or nearer to city) packet pickup. I briefly became "mayor of the line" as I was directing people while holding the door waiting for enough room to fully get inside. Race day registration off to the left, first half of the alphabet in the middle, second half on the right. The couple behind me and I commiserated on different running/waiting in line/general confusion stuff as well as if it was fair that he got to compete in the Clydesdale category mostly by virtue of being tall.

Once we did get our packets, we were informed there were no more bags. Normally I don't really care, but since it looked like it was about to rain, a bag to store some stuff to keep dry in would have been nice. My niece, who was running her first 5k, snagged the last bag apparently, so we crammed everything in there. Nothing much of use in the bag other than the shirt. The basic cotton tee isn't usually something I'd want. But since the likelihood of us running in the rain was high, it would be nice to have something that was dry.

We had about 15 minutes to go when it started to rain. At first a drizzle then a full on downpour. Most people huddled up under a canopy by the doors or inside the vestibule to the high school hoping it would pass. But since all the weather apps said it wasn't going to pass, we were just waiting until the last possible minute to go line up simply delaying getting wet. With about three minutes to go, we jogged the short distance, heard the last of the national anthem and took off.

With a little over 700 people running the race, getting into pace was easy. My first mile was somewhere around 9 minutes. I honestly don't know because (a) I hit pause on my watch instead of lapping it and (b) the clock at mile one said 5 minutes something, clearly not the correct time.

Mile 2 was a little slower as the rain died down a bit and I was able to lift my head without too much rain dripping into my eyes (the one day I don't wear a hat). Once again I haven't been running as much as I should, so this was my first run of the week. Despite the weather, there were a fair few people cheering along the course under umbrellas. Just beyond a (in my mind) completely unnecessary water stop, there was a cheer station at the top of a small hill that at first I mistook for the finish line they were so loud. One of the police officers on a bike was milling around at an intersection and even he was cheering. It seems that people are rather impressed with people so dedicated to running that they'll do it in the rain.

Mile three came and went and I was starting to get tired. I looked at the clock but don't remember what it said and my watch was no longer accurate. I don't know why I bother anymore. I pushed to the end and finished in 28:56/9:19 pace. I know I can run faster than this, but I also know that I need to work on it, not just hope it happens.

At the end I met back up with the family and we searched for the results tent. Finding it we found out that my niece placed first in her age group (10 and under) (I placed 14th, sister 9th) so now we were sticking around for the awards ceremony. While we waited we went to the bathroom and dried off as well as we could - dry t-shirt for the win. Then we waited and waited and waited. While there were several vendors that came out (there was talk of pony rides), there wasn't really any rainy weather backup plan. All the awards (roses and glasses) had to be hauled inside in this small area outside of the school gym. Once they were ready to go, the repeated pleas for quiet, since there was now no AV, seemed to fall on deaf ears. I would go off on a rant on this, how people are so rude that the little kids who are being recognized for running the kid race could barely hear their names despite being asked multiple times to please be quiet, but can't actually manage to do so because whatever is being said isn't directly related to them (ie: their age group isn't being announced so what do they care). But why? It's not like any of those people are going to read this and realize, oh wow, it's pretty rude to talk through an award ceremony, I shouldn't do that ever again. In fact, I should probably publicly apologize for my rudeness. I'll post it all over facebook and twitter or something. I'm a real asshat. Since that's not going to happen, I'll just let it go.

My niece got her award and we headed home, slightly wet but happy.

My overall stats: 14/54 in my age group (high enough to earn me 2 points in the CARA Circuit individual competition), 119/378 women, 380/790 overall. Not too bad for a race I did nothing to train for.


Pete B said...

Congrats on the finish and the CARA Circuit points! You are probably right that the cheering was extra loud because they were so impressed by people who were dedicated enough to run in the rain. Too bad I didn't see you while I was under the tree - oh well! Sounds like it was just as well that we did not to wait around for my dad's AG award. Hopefully he'll get it in the mail!

Melanie Higgins said...

Pete - your dad did great. I hope I'm still running when I'm his age (and placing)!

Melanie Higgins said...
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