Rollie Fingers (5K) Fun Run

Rollie Fingers (5K) Fun Run - May 17, 2014
time = 27:25
pace = 9:01 average

i'm going to start this one out by saying that i NEVER run fun runs.  NEVER.  i feel that they are a waste of time and especially money.  this was no exception.  you're probably wondering why the hell i signed up, paid, and subsequently ran the race then... yeah, i was asking myself the same damn question.

i'll tell ya... it was a simple case of me not paying attention to very important details.  let me explain.  i was perusing the internets for races to run since my leg was feeling so good for awhile there and everyone was talking about this race on the book of face.  talking about mustaches and cracker jack and rollie fingers... i mean... i'm an 80's kid so... well, you know.

with a face like that who could resist?  if you know anything about milwaukeeans you know that we love our icons.  i grew up with this guy... i grew up with the brewers.  my mother LOVED the brewers.  she made me sit through countless baseball games (in person and on tv).  more than i care to remember.  so whether i like it or not i suppose that baseball is in my blood.



i guess i got caught up in the hype for this race and well... CRACKER JACK!

so i sign up for the race and then i notice the following:

what?  so i send an e-mail asking if there will be age group awards.  i got a response telling me about the above awards.  so... um, no age group awards.  then i notice this:

are you serious?  there's no timing chips?  what kind of race has no timing chips?  how can it even be called a "race"?  such bullshit.  since i'm the dummy who didn't read pretty much ANYTHING before i went all crazy pants and signed up... i have no one to blame but myself so what did i do?  i enlisted kellie to do the "race" with me.  she opted to volunteer at packet pick up in order to get a free race entry... again something i failed to read when i was blinded by my overzealous itchy race fingers.  in retrospect i am not very good at looking before i am leaping.  sometimes this proves to be a hinderance... in this case, it turned out ok.  i had a good time.

since kellie was volunteering i opted to volunteer alongside her being that i'm currently unemployed and had nothing better to do with my friday afternoon.  so we hung out at running performance outfitters in brookfield, wi handing out race packets.  it was a decent time overall.  i got a mustache t-shirt out of the deal so that's cool.  i also got an excellent idea that i can't tell you about yet so stay tuned for that in the next few months.  i promise it is going to be amazing if kellie and i can pull it off!

race morning was well put together so that was nice.  being on the stadium grounds was great in that there are ample bathrooms and they had a ton of porta pottys to go around as well.  

oh so sassy before the race

there were several thousand people signed up for the race so they sent people off in waves.  i liked that because it spread us out so there wasn't much clumping.  i'm really disappointed that they didn't offer chip timing.  i mean... REALLY disappointed.

corralled

i also opted to pace kellie to a PR which is great because she ran really well and did such a great job.  the course was awesome and ended at the start, but the finish shoot sort of wasn't at all awesome.  it wasn't well organized with the water and the refreshments.  i mean... it was ok but it wasn't the best.  the volunteers were not organized and weren't handing out the items and there weren't any BANANAS?  how can there not be any bananas?  aren't bananas a staple of ANY race?!?  for the amount of money this race cost they really could have timed it and they could have had freaking bananas.  those are my biggest complaints.  also... my garmin put the race at 3.04 not a 3.01 so it wasn't accurate either.  based on my experience i won't run this race again and i probably won't run a race that i see cerulean sports group is putting on.  while it was ok... it was only that... ok.  i would much rather spend my money on something that i walk away from feeling great about.   lastly, the company website is out of date and clearly not kept up which i also find off putting.  if you're going to have a company website you should probably have up to day information on it.  the events they have listed are from 2013.  while that's not too out of date it certainly doesn't reflect what is going on right now.  i hope that they send out a survey regarding this race because i would like to give them some feedback on how it went.

in totally other news i've been doing the exercises my PT gave me and that i thought were totally bollox.  a couple of days ago i ran 8 miles.  not fast but i ran them and wasn't out of commission for days afterwards.  i plan to run another 8 tomorrow and i see my PT again on monday.  maybe what i'm doing is helping?  only time will tell but i'm going to be cautiously optimistic.

FINALLY! NOT a dns! yay! (otherwise known as the Drumstick Dash 5K)

THAT WAS SO FUN!

Drumstick Dash (5K) - November 28, 2013
time = 24:35
pace = 7:44 average
placed 2nd in my age group (40-44) out of 146
placed 36th in women out of 1515
placed 166th overall out of 2478

 i woke up around 4am super bummed to be awake.  my alarm was set for 5:30am and i was really hoping for that extra 1.5 hours.  i fell back to sleep but it was fitful and filled with too many puppies.  too many puppies that (according to my dream) belonged to me and were truly overwhelming to care for and pay attention to.  i wonder what that means?

when the alarm went off at 5:30am i was out of bed and taking care of the dogs in a flash.  its nice being the only one up sometimes.  i decided to make banana bread (which, incidentally, was nearly gone when i got home from my race), eat a banana, and then get dressed for my race.  it was 23 degrees this morning so warm enough to not have to have a ton of layers but too cold to not wear my winter coat.  when it was time for me to leave to pick up kellie the banana bread still had 7 minutes to go so i woke up brian and asked him to watch it and take it out… then i said my goodbyes and off i went!

it is amazing how few cars are on the road at 7am on a holiday morning.  i flew down the highway and made it to our meeting place (the petit center) at 7:25am.  we decided not to leave kellie's car at the petit because there were weird towing signs all around.  we went down a parkway, left her car there, and proceeded to miller park.  parking was a breeze even tho' we had to PAY for it… $5.00 in addition to the cost of the race… that was a bit of a bummer but no matter… i paid in advance when i picked up our packets yesterday.

we sat in the car for a little while and then decided to go inside and take a trip to the bathrooms.  it was very crowded inside and NO HEAT!  not only was there no heat they also had a bunch of the doors propped open letting all of the winter air in!  that was awful.  after the bathroom we decided to go back to the heat of the car to wait.

we stayed in the car until about 8:10am and then decided to head to the bathrooms one last time.  the line was redonkulous!  moved fast tho' and then we headed to the start.  it was a challenge to find the actual start through all the people.  we dodged and weaved our way from the very back to pretty close to the front.  national anthem… some announcer talking… and we were off!

i was too far back and had to cut around the far left edge to get around a bunch of people but once i got out of the group things were moving smoothly.  there were a few inclines that were awful because they were gradual and long… i much prefer a real hill and then it's done.  these are worse i think.

many people passed me because i started in the front and i'm not sure if i passed anyone… i try to run my own race and not worry about what the people around me are doing until the final stretch.

i ran positive splits which is my downfall… it seems i have the most challenging time NOT doing that.  i always mean to run negative splits so that i have the energy to really punch it at the end.  it never seems to work out that way.  maybe i'm just not controlled enough?  maybe i never will be.  there was a kid (probably around 10 years old) who was running all willy nilly all around me the whole time.  sometimes behind, sometimes next to, and sometimes in front of me.  its pretty great to watch children run… they're like rag dolls with no limb control.  when we got just past mile 2 he was running next to what i assume was his father.  all of a sudden he bolted and passed about 6 people in front of us before i stopped watching him.  i turned to the man (father?) and said that i wished i had his energy!  he told me that the kid wasn't feeling well and usually is much much faster.

i feel pretty fortunate that i was running at all today so even tho' this last mile or so was feeling really really challenging i was very happy that i was there and able to do it.  i feel very fortunate to have friends like kellie do these crazy things with me and that my body will still work the way i want it to.  life is really great guys!  i hope you realize that!  really really great!  all in all this was a fun race because i was there with a friend i enjoy spending time with and i love to run.  it is really too bad that i have to run in 23 degree weather but that's what happens when you live in wisconsin.  i'm doing another race december 8th with a different friend and after today i'm not looking forward to freezing my buns off… i will probably layer more for that one.

i liked the fact that this race had a wide range of runners… all ages.  i liked that they had bananas (my favorite) and cookies and water right in the finishers shoot.  i didn't like that they had no heated area for staging or at the end or the fact that they didn't have age group medals.  i mean… c'mon!  i will never come in the top 3 overall so i look forward to my age group medal!  i can almost always count on that!  lol!

happy thanksgiving everyone!  enjoy your day and be kind to yourself and others.