No One Knows How Far I’ll Go - Comments Welcome

[sandam1]

Next up was the Monster Scramble 10K - Sunday, October 15

This race is actually run through the cemetery where my stepfather is buried. Throughout my childhood, he was the runner in the family. My mom ran with him - and was actually the better/faster runner - but she only got into running because Evan ran. Now, over 30 years after his death, it meant a lot to me to run this race in his memory.



This race wasn’t on my original schedule, but since I had a 5 mile run on the calendar, it was an easy substitute. The plan was to be conservative and run it at an easy pace.



Race day was cold and windy, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for me. The 10K was a double-loop of the 5K course. The entry was pretty small and most people were doing the 5K so I kind of expected to be running alone by the end of the race. What I didn’t expect was them to start pulling the directional signs (remember it was in a cemetery so the roads and course was super twisty-turny). I tried to stay on course as long as I could and then headed to the finish line to collect my medal (I thought that it was cute and I wanted to make sure that I got one) before heading back out to finish the mileage by my Garmin.



And now my thoughts:

1. Yes, I was slightly frustrated by what happened at the end of the race. It shouldn’t have happened. When I went to get my medal, I talked to the “race director” who was apologetic, but she was a representative of the charity running the race and didn’t “get it.” Afterward I talked to the timing officials who were absolutely horrified.
2. If I had been running this race as anything other than a training run, I might have been more upset.
3. This was two races in a row where I felt pretty disrespected at the back of the pack. That being said, I tried to handle both situations with grace. However, I was surprised by how irritated Chris was with the race directors as he is usually pretty chill about most things. He reiterated that this wasn’t acceptable and that it shouldn’t happen. That did make me feel validated.

Even with this experience (which honestly might have devastated me a year ago), I was glad that I did this race. As I was running the second lap, I truly felt like my stepfather was running with me. I know that he would be so proud of the hard work that I’ve put in and that my pace - whatever it was - would never have mattered to him. And I really think that he would have enjoyed running with me.

 

[jmasgat]

Congrats on your races--and particularly for your attitude in handling the problems, but truly sorry that they went down as they did. Makes you appreciate the whole "balloon ladies" concept as a marker for the race end--and for providing the required/appropriate support for every entrant.

I'm intrigued that there was a race through a cemetery. Some people have strong feelings about people's behavior/activities in a cemetery, i.e. they think it should be treated like inside a church. Wonder if they got any flak for that.

 

[sandam1]

Congrats on your races--and particularly for your attitude in handling the problems, but truly sorry that they went down as they did. Makes you appreciate the whole "balloon ladies" concept as a marker for the race end--and for providing the required/appropriate support for every entrant.

Yes, I was definitely longing for the "balloon ladies." However, apparently most "good" races with experienced race directors do have some version of them to keep the appropriate pace and make sure that runners don't have the type of experiences that I did. (I did not know that until Chris told me so I learned something new.)

I was actually going to volunteer to be that pacer (it sounds like an interesting task and would be helpful in solving the problem), but right now it looks like I'm going to be walking a marathon in Boston the following day this year.

I'm intrigued that there was a race through a cemetery. Some people have strong feelings about people's behavior/activities in a cemetery, i.e. they think it should be treated like inside a church. Wonder if they got any flak for that.

My weekday running course is actually in a cemetery (not the same one as the race). It's actually an ideal place to run because there are good roads with very little traffic, beautiful scenery, and there is even water spigots (unfortunately not drinkable) to use to cool down in the summer.

When I first started running, I actually called the cemetery's office and asked if it was okay. They said that as long as I was respectful (not problem there), I was fine. I've found that the visitors and the workers have been incredibly friendly and supportive while I'm on my runs. Most times, it's a wave or a head nod, but I've also had some short conversations with people as well. I hope that they see my presence as honoring their loved ones. The graves give me something to think about (sometimes trying to do math to figure out how old they were when they died, sometimes trying to wonder about their life based on their grave marker) during the run as well.

 

[sandam1]

And then I moved on to the Niagara Falls International Marathon 10K - Sunday, October 22

This was a goal race. I’ve done it twice before (2019 and 2022) and I really enjoy this race. It’s a relatively flat and very scenic course along the Niagara River on the Canadian side and usually has picture-perfect weather. Usually - until this year. Race day was cold (even for me), rainy and very windy. Since it was an out-and-back course, the entire second half was directly into a headwind, which was just draining. I wound up getting a two-minute PR, but I know that I could have done A LOT better with better conditions.

In spite of the crummy weather, the route was still beautiful.













My best friend, K, was doing her first half marathon so after finishing and getting some more food and warmer clothes, I walked back out to meet her. She was having a tough time with some back and leg issues - and the weather wasn’t helping any - so the last few miles were hard. I wound up doing over 12 miles and it was a lot of “time on feet” for me. But getting K to her first half-marathon was worth it.

 

[sandam1]

Okay, so I want to take a quick break in the race recaps to add a few things that happened in my life during the fall.

First off, four days after the Mighty Niagara half marathon, I left for NADAC Champs (dog agility) with Jack. This is a huge, four-day competition. Scheduling these two things back-to-back was not the smartest thing that I’ve ever done, but I honestly did not realize it until after I had registered for the half. It wasn’t too bad (I credit run/walk/run for an easy recovery), but I need to remember not to repeat this mistake in future.



And then, on the Monday after the Niagara Falls race, my mom spotted a shelter dog on our local news. My mom’s dog, Abbie, passed away back at the beginning of July. After we got back from Champs, we had been casually looking, but weren’t serious. My mom went to the SPCA to look at that dog, which turned out not to be the right dog for us, but her kennel neighbor was.

So let me introduce, Honey!





She was around 7 months old when we got her and wow, she is a lot! She reminds me of my first agility dog who we always described as “if you can’t see him or you can’t hear him, he’s in trouble!” Honey is the exact same way. Also, we haven’t had a puppy in our house in almost 15 years (Jack was a year old when we got him) so it was a culture shock to say the least. She’s incredibly cute, crazy smart - and soooo BAD. The good news is that I think she will be my running dog. While I love Jack, and wish that we could run together, he is very much a wanderer on walks. He’s like “let me sniff each bush, oh, look that blade of grass looks interesting, gotta pee on that.” In the little bit of run/walk that I did with Honey before the weather turned, she seemed to naturally get the concept of running with me. I’m looking forward to being able to do more with her as the weather gets consistently better.

 

[sandam1]

Mooooving on! The next thing on the race calendar was the Grassroots Gardens 15K - November 18

This was an odd race on my calendar. Back in March, I had done the same race distance on the exact same course and I thought that this would be a good opportunity to measure how much faster I had gotten in those eight months. But I also had another race, the Turkey Trot, five days later, so I couldn’t go crazy either. So it was a mix of a training run (my plan originally had a 10 mile long run on it) and a goal race.

The weather wound up being chilly like the March race, but this time it was sunny (March was quite rainy) which gave me some awesome views of the Niagara River and the rapids.





[This photo is of the brink of the American Falls, looking towards Canada]





I wound up with just over a 3 minute PR. I probably could have gone a little faster, but I eased up a little bit in the last two miles.

 

[sandam1]

128th Annual YMCA Turkey Trot 8K - November 23

This is THE race in my area. With a capacity of 14,000 runners, it is a mix of serious runners, casual runners (i.e. people like me), walkers, families, you name it. It is basically a big party! Quite a few people wear costumes and I even saw a group of guys running while carrying a wooden canoe this year.



For a whole variety of reasons, I’ve never run this race well. I was hoping that this year would break that streak. The night before the race, I looked at my journal entry and my stats from last year’s race, which reminded me of a few things:

1. The course is stupid crowded for the first mile or so. There are no corrals or wave starts. They just tell 14,000 people “go.” It usually takes at least five minutes between the gun time and when I actually get to the start line, which gives you an idea of how crowded it is.
2. Miles 2 & 3 almost all uphill. It is a gradual incline, but it is long and steady. I need to use conservative intervals to not gas out and/or question all of my life choices.
3. Once I get towards the end of Mile 3 (the point is actually right in front of where I work), the course starts going downhill and, as long as I banked energy on the front half, it’s time to GO!

I had my plan, now I just needed things to fall into place to execute it!

This is a point-to-point race and, in my experience, the provided transportation rivals that of Disney and not in a good way. In the past, it has taken me almost the same amount of time to get back to my car as it does to run the race. This year I asked my mom if she would pick me up at the end downtown and take me back to get my car. I was surprised when she agreed to both drop me off at the start and pick me up at the finish. Score!

Looking at the weather predictions, it looked like it would be almost perfect running weather for me - mid-40’s and kind of cloudy. Usually this race has some sort of inclement weather - one year, the starting temp was in the mid-teens and the next year, it was raining, etc. - so this was welcome news.

My original plan was to run in shorts and a t-shirt. I brought some mylar in case I needed it while waiting at the start, but I thought it would be okay once I got moving. Thankfully, as we were leaving the house, I grabbed a light running jacket “just in case.” I almost left it in the car, but in the end, I decided to take it with me. That was a very, very good call. Because you know those rosy weather predictions? Well, what they didn’t mention was a 20 mile an hour headwind that we would be running into for the entire race. When there were buildings to block some of the stronger gusts coming off of the cold lake, I warmed up and was able to take the jacket off, but when there weren’t, I was very happy that I could put it back on.



This billboard just made me laugh!

Just like the Niagara Falls 10K, the head wind sapped some of my energy, but I did get over a 7 minute PR, which made me incredibly happy. And next year, I definitely want to do some hill work before this race to have a stronger start. And hopefully we'll finally get a NICE weather day.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

What an adorable puppy!! My dog is more like yours, an ambler, so I get the excitement of having a pup who might like to run with you.

And great job on all the PRs!

 

[sandam1]

And great job on all the PRs!

Thanks!

 

[sandam1]

Holly Jolly 5K - December 2

This race was never even a possibility on my schedule until I posted my Turkey Trot recap in a Facebook group and someone commented “wow, have you PR’d at every distance this year?” Which had me looking at my records to realize that yes, I had, either by virtue of it being my first time at the distance (ex. the marathon) or a true PR. Except for one distance - The 5K!

This might seem strange to a lot of runners, but I hadn’t run a 5K for time (i.e. not at Disney) since September 2022. And there is one reason behind that - I absolutely hate that distance! I like running long distances and slow paces and the 5K is the opposite of those. Plus it usually takes me almost two miles to properly warm up and, with a 5K, at that point the race is almost over. But I figured that this might be the only time that I get a chance to say that I PR’d in every distance that I ran in a calendar year so I started looking for a 5K to do.

I chose this race because it fit in my training calendar (I was gearing up for the Disneyland race so I was working around my long runs). There were a few other 5Ks at the end of the month, but I was leery that there would be snow on the ground for those. This race was supposed to be cold, but at least there was going to be dry pavement.

I was pretty confident going into this race that I could get the PR. The race time that I was trying to beat was on a hot, humid day in North Carolina during a run that was more of a training run. (Like I said, I don’t do 5Ks often). All I needed to do was go out, get the distance, and don’t do something stupid. And that’s exactly how I ran it. It was a relatively small race through a nearby neighborhood so there was nothing interesting to look at. There were a bunch of walkers and slower runners so I had people nearby, but it was still pretty easy to run my own race.

I wound up with almost a 5 minute PR! And I did find one redeeming thing about 5Ks - I could get up, run a race, and be ready to go on with my day well before noon. That is pretty nice! But you still won’t see me adding any more 5Ks on my schedule in the near future.

 

[NYC_MW]

Amazing-PRing every distance in one year. Congrats!!

 

[sandam1]

Amazing-PRing every distance in one year. Congrats!!

Thanks! It wasn't something that I set out to achieve so it was kind of astonishing to realize that it was possible. 2023 was all about the "shorter" distances (half marathon and below) and getting faster so I definitely checked that box.

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

Honey is so cute! And your race locations are stunning. Well done on the PRs!