A couple weeks out from this race, I stumbled upon this
event. As far as I am aware this was the
first running of this event. It worked
out well in my schedule. I was off of
work, but had to go back to work on Sunday night. Sarah and the girls were away for Memorial
Day, so I decided this would be something to do over the weekend while I sit
home alone. In addition to it working
well in my schedule, the race raised money for a charity called Hope for
Warriors which helps veterans find work after returning from war. And by far the most impressive fact about the
event is that 100% of money raised went directly to Hope for Warriors.
Training for This Race
This entire year, I have made a shift from my traditional
training. I have been running nearly 6-7 days a week, logging up to 70 mile
weeks. I obviously did not train
specifically for this race, as I just learned of the event the week of the
race. I did choose to not only just run
to the race, but run 11 miles to the race.
I figured this would be a way to keep my weekly mileage up, while still
enjoying a short distance race.
Prerace
As I just mentioned, I chose to run to the race. This was the first time I have ever done
this. Initially I was planning on
running to and from the race, but decided that I wanted to go out to my
family's cabin for the night and wanted to get out there earlier. I still wanted to keep my mileage up, so I
found a new route which was about 11 miles to the race site. I woke up just before 5am and was out the
door around 6am. I had a nice and easy
run. The weather was cool and
humid. Once I got to the race site, I
met up with my buddy, Bob. We had about
a half an hour to catch up, since it's been a while since I've had the
opportunity to chat with him.
Nutrition Plan
My nutrition plan was simple. I had a couple cups of coffee before heading
out the door and once on the road, I just sipped on a water bottle of HammerNutrition Perpetuem for calories during my run to the race. I also drank some water along the way. Once at the race site, I had a HammerNutrition Gel about 5-10 minutes before the race. Once the race kicked off, I didn't worry
about any water or calories during the race.
I was hoping to finish around 30 minutes and didn't need anything to
help me get to the finish line.
Equipment
Miles 0-5
Once the race started, a group of about 5 runners took off
at a pretty good clip. I had a good
feeling most if not all of them would run out of gas pretty quick, but only 1
or 2 of them actually did. It took my
until about the first mile marker to take the lead. Once in the lead, I was following the race
official, who was riding a bicycle. We
crossed one of the major roadways and were on the large property of Thrivent
Financial who has a small trail system throughout their property. This was were most of the race was planned to
be ran. I'll try to not sound like a
crabby sourpuss, and I will also try to not drag this out. But to keep this short, the gal who was
leading the race, made multiple mistakes.
The first mistake she made went completely unnoticed. There was a volunteer standing on a corner
with a sign stuck in the ground with an arrow pointing to the right. The race leader went straight and confidently
waved her arm forward and claimed to know the proper route. Turns out, we were supposed to turn
right. After that, she brought be about
a tenth of a mile past a turn before she realized she missed a turn. This allowed the rest of the runners to catch
up to me. This was the second time I
passed a couple of the runners. A short
while later, she missed another turn. Believe it or not, she again missed another turn and tried to take us
completely back down the route we have been on for nearly a mile. The girl who was behind me, said very angerly, "NO WAY! We'll figure this out on our own." Now, since I had run to the race site, I had
a general idea of how far it was from where we were at this point back to the
finish line. We had only run about 3
miles. So I told the girl behind me that
if we run a half mile down the trail and turn around, we should get back to the
finish line at about 5 miles. Turns out,
I cut it a little short, completely unintentionally. I crossed the finish line 29:26, but had only
ran 4.68 when the race was an 8k or 4.96 miles.
Post Race
Now, don't get me wrong, I was quite frustrated, but having
run many road races in my career, I know part of the blame falls squarely on my
shoulders. In any race, the runner is
ultimately responsible for knowing the correct route. This is true for any race from the Boston
Marathon right down to the Hope for Warriors 8k. With that being said, the girl who was
leading the race, had a gosh darn map of the route in her hand while she was
biking! I mean seriously?!? As they guys on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown
say... C'MON MAN! I can forgive a missed
turn, but three??? Below is a picture of
the route compared to the route that we actually ran. They are no where remotely close to being
identical. We would have been better off
just going down the road for 2.5 miles and turning around. But, whatever, I can't change anything that
happened. I technically won the race,
but just didn't feel good about it. I
don't think anyone was particularly happy with the race itself, which is sad. The race itself was organized. It was small, but organized. Plus it was for a great cause, in which 100%
of money raised was donated - and that's something you very rarely see. I feel bad in a way, because I would like to
see the race succeed and continue to grow, but with that being their first time
running the event, I find it hard to believe any of the participants would come
back next year. I know I probably won't.
 |
| The Actual Race Route |
 |
| The Route I Ran |
What's on Tap
Up next is the Bellin 10k.
Believe it or not, this will be the first time I ever run the
Bellin. the Bellin is probably one of
the biggest races in the state of Wisconsin.
Literally over 20,000 participants run this 10k. It draws some of the best runners in the
world. This year, Meb Keflezighi, will
be running the race. I am super pumped
to run the race along with him. He is a
Olympic Marathoner from the good ol' US of A.
He also won the 2014 Boston Marathon and was the first American to win it since 1982. Other than running the Bellin, I am
continuing to increase my weekly mileage and continue to prepare for my first
ultramarathon, the Fall 50 in October.
As always, thanks for reading!
Cheers!
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