Nutrition: Cliff Bar, OJ, and Water.
Met up with Danny, Ben, and Kristin before the race at B&K's house at 8am. Arrived at the SubTropolis around 8:30am. Parking at the SubTropolis isn't designed for 4,000+ people. We had a good half to full mile walk to the entrance of the cave. In 20 degree temps, that rather sucked; however, once we hit the cave it warmed up quickly to 65 degrees.
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| (I should have bought some gas. $2.80!) |
Danny, Ben, and Kristin started the 5K at 9:00am and we waited to meet up with Mike for our 10:00am start of the 10k. Once we met up I decided a pit stop was needed (for some stupid reason I had planned to skip it). So about 9:30 I cozied up in line, which was about 30 - 40 people deep. I stood behind a volunteer who chatted with me briefly. When I told her I was running the 10k she seemed to notice a little concern in my face about the line and offered to let me go in front of her. I wasn't sure what that would really save me, so I declined and did what all respectful participants do, thanked her for volunteering.
I did think the line was moving along rather slowly. I think I was in line for about 20 minutes. I started doing some math in my head. 20 people left, 45 seconds per person (I thought that was a good average seeing there were 4-5 port-a-pots available for our line). It's not like everyone was decked out in full body compression gear for the temperatures. Once I was about 10 people deep I started noticing only two of the port-a-pots actually were active with people going in and out. Not sure what was wrong with the others, but I hope the people in them were OK. Maybe a little too nervous for the race?
Race
The mass of humanity for the first mile was fairly typical but you didn't really have sidewalks to aid in passing some of the more optimistic racers. You had about 30 - 40 feet between columns of solid earth to make a pass if you were trying to avoid mowing one of these people down. If you didn't duck back in time, BAM! DNF!
Aid stations were separated out just far enough. I took in water at almost every one. There was an oddly placed aid station just a quarter mile into the race that Kristin, Ben, and Danny commented about. Odd indeed, but this wasn't a typical race. This was my first two loop race and that aid station made much more sense the second time around.
The course being indoors made it a little disorienting not knowing the direction we were traveling. For some reason that is important to my brain. There were plenty of switch backs on the course which I thought would be fun to watch the 5:15 pace racers run around. Wonder if anyone slipped.
I had a great time running with Mike. There were a couple times he urged to take off but I enjoyed having time to chat and catch up. I figure my next big endurance event is next weekend, so I'll save energy for that.
Post-Race
I don't have high expectations for an event that's longest distance is 10k, so I didn't mind only having bananas, oranges, water, and bagels. They all tasted great. The real post-race food was at Ben and Kristin's house. Mimosas, Bloody Mary's, and Donut King donuts. I think I ate a third of the donuts. I considered it training for next week's race.
I had a
Results
Overall: 353/1160
AG: 48/90
Chip Time: 52:59
Pace: 8:32
Photos!
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| Looking off to the right of the screen you will see an indigenous KC Groundhog emerging from his sleep. Let's watch to see if he is scared by his shadow to indicate another six weeks of winter. |
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| We were cruising at a blistering 8:30 pace, so the SLR couldn't pick us up. |
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Today's crew: Danny [congrats for making the photo! ;) ], Mike, Me, Ben, Kristin. Photo Credit: TKB Cropping does wonders but I couldn't get that creepy dude out from behind Kristin's shoulder. The guy to the left of Danny with a banana being shoved down his throat made the cut. This blog is PG, you know... (no it's not). |
