We had a grand plan for the weekend: arrive in Sandusky early Saturday afternoon, check into our hotel (the super-classy Quality Inn at the start of the Causeway) play at Castaway Bay for a few hours and pick up our race packets, eat pizza while watching the Rockets play in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, play some more at Castaway Bay, then get a good night's sleep in preparation to race on Sunday.
The only things in that plan that happened were that we checked into our hotel and watched UT. We ate wings instead of pizza. And we forgot to pack swimsuits. And we didn't get to Sandusky until 4:00PM. Oops...?
The only things in that plan that happened were that we checked into our hotel and watched UT. We ate wings instead of pizza. And we forgot to pack swimsuits. And we didn't get to Sandusky until 4:00PM. Oops...?
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| Joe and I , except not. |
On Sunday morning we got up shortly before 7:30 and leisurely got ourselves ready to go. On our way out the door we each had a Clif bar--Joe has made this our pre-race "thing" I think. He is good about fueling and always eats before any kind of long run, so he bought a box of Clif bars and just kind of made me feel like I needed to eat one for breakfast. I know it's the right thing to do, so I don't fight it, but it is so hard for me to eat anything in the morning. We strolled across the street in our Santa beards, Joe also wearing his hat. My head is too big for the Santa hat, plus I figured I would fidget with it too much throughout the race, so I left that in our hotel room.
The start and finish were in the Castaway Bay parking lot, which in the morning was lined with giant inflatables of Santa, a nondescript snowman, and Rudolph. In the middle of the hullabaloo was a small pen that held two reindeer and their keeper. I really, really didn't like that because the reindeer looked so sad and I could only imagine that they were overwhelmed and/or annoyed by all of the stupid humans flashing cameras at them. I'm not a hippie, but it made me really uncomfortable seeing them. I hope they have returned to a content home.
I'm going on and on way too much about details insignificant to the race, so I'll just cut to the chase now.
At 9:00AM Joe and I started the race together, but we didn't have plans set in stone to stay together for the duration. Not even a tenth of a mile into the race, Joe rolled his ankle running over a pothole in Sandusky's well-kept Cleveland Road. I checked to make sure that he was okay, he said he was and that he'd run it off, and so I just kept on moving. I feel like a bad wife, but I didn't see him again until the finish. I had mentioned the night before that I wanted to go for 1:50, since my other two halves were 1:53. I went out faster than I needed, which would have been 8:20ish, and wasn't so good at voluntarily pulling myself back. The Causeway, which was the first 2ish miles, wasn't as bad on the way out as I had anticipated--not even the peak in the middle of it. And then at the end of it, I could finally see Gatekeeper!
Mile 1: 8:09
2: 8:06
3: 8:13
4: 8:05
5: 8:11
That third mile was only so much slower than the second and fourth because of a little CF at a water station that caused me to come to a complete stop. I was glad it happened because it made it seem like I had slowed a bit, but I knew that it wasn't really indicative of my moving pace. I felt way too comfortable at the pace at which I was running, so I just went with it. A Clif Shot was in my near future at the 45-minute mark, so I figured that I'd get a little kick of energy after that.
Mile 6: 8:25
I thought about taking the Clif Shot, but it was too early. I passed the banner for mile 7 and looked down at my Garmin to see that I was only at about 6.7. Dammit. Did they measure this course wrong? Oh well.
Mile 7: 8:25
This is where I tried to open the Clif Shot, but my sweaty fingers couldn't tear the package enough. Not even my teeth could tear open that little bastard. Oh well, there was no water station anyway. And my Garmin was still three-tenths of a mile off of what the banners claimed. Maybe it would make up for itself somewhere, somehow.
Mile 8: 8:43
All right, there has to be a water station soon, but this son of a bitch still isn't open. Maybe if I suck really hard on the little bit that I've torn, I can get something out? Nope, nada. Should I veer off and grab a stick to stab this God-forsaken pouch until it bursts all over my hands? I can just lick it all off of my fingers and palms.
I battled with the Clif Shot using my fingers and teeth as weapons and finally, right around 8.5, it was open enough to suck out the chocolate goodness. I don't even like chocolate, but I was really happy to eat it.
Mile 9: 8:53
10: 8:34
This is the mile at which things got annoying. Mile 9 on Perimeter Road had been rough, the wind straight at my face off of the bay. Miles 10-12 sucked hard, straight up. The wind was ridonkulous and the runners near me were definitely slowing down, a couple even walking. I kept on telling myself that walking would be pointless because there would still be wind. I was a little concerned about making it up the peak of the Causway, but I convinced myself that the bridge I run near our house is worse. Once I was on my way back down, I was feeling good.
Mile 11: 8:41
12: 8:51
I was feeling butterflies at this point because I knew that I was going to PR. At this point, my Garmin still didn't match the mileage that ASM posted, but I didn't care because I did the math and even if the course were correctly measured, I would still PR.
Mile 12.89: 7:15
Garmin & "official" time: 1:48:29--that's a 5-minute PR.
I'm not sure if the course was not measured accurately or if it's a GPS problem. I am leaning toward the latter, not only because it benefits me, but because of our experience at the 5K we ran at Cedar Point in June. The same thing happened at the 5K, which my Garmin and Joe's Endomondo showed to be about two-tenths of a mile short. A local high school coach measured the 5K course, while ASM measured the Santa Hustle half. Maybe there's an anomaly in the park.
Joe finished with just a little discomfort from his early ankle-roll. We got our medals, jaunted over to our hotel to change into dry clothes (did I mentioned that it was 50 degrees and sunny in December in Sandusky and that I was wearing a running skirt?), returned to Castaway Bay for the post-race party, and had a couple of Bud Lights. I was feeling awesome. I enjoyed the entire experience; the route was a lot of fun, since I got to run next to Gatekeeper AND Magnum, the gear is funny, the medals look good hanging on the mantle with our stockings, and I like beer. I hope that next year the volunteers on the course are a little more enthusiastic ("Yay, good job"), that ASM uses CP's PA system to play Christmas music in the park, and that I PR again. That was a great race to round out a great year of running!
Mile 1: 8:09
2: 8:06
3: 8:13
4: 8:05
5: 8:11
That third mile was only so much slower than the second and fourth because of a little CF at a water station that caused me to come to a complete stop. I was glad it happened because it made it seem like I had slowed a bit, but I knew that it wasn't really indicative of my moving pace. I felt way too comfortable at the pace at which I was running, so I just went with it. A Clif Shot was in my near future at the 45-minute mark, so I figured that I'd get a little kick of energy after that.
Mile 6: 8:25
I thought about taking the Clif Shot, but it was too early. I passed the banner for mile 7 and looked down at my Garmin to see that I was only at about 6.7. Dammit. Did they measure this course wrong? Oh well.
Mile 7: 8:25
This is where I tried to open the Clif Shot, but my sweaty fingers couldn't tear the package enough. Not even my teeth could tear open that little bastard. Oh well, there was no water station anyway. And my Garmin was still three-tenths of a mile off of what the banners claimed. Maybe it would make up for itself somewhere, somehow.
Mile 8: 8:43
All right, there has to be a water station soon, but this son of a bitch still isn't open. Maybe if I suck really hard on the little bit that I've torn, I can get something out? Nope, nada. Should I veer off and grab a stick to stab this God-forsaken pouch until it bursts all over my hands? I can just lick it all off of my fingers and palms.
I battled with the Clif Shot using my fingers and teeth as weapons and finally, right around 8.5, it was open enough to suck out the chocolate goodness. I don't even like chocolate, but I was really happy to eat it.
Mile 9: 8:53
10: 8:34
This is the mile at which things got annoying. Mile 9 on Perimeter Road had been rough, the wind straight at my face off of the bay. Miles 10-12 sucked hard, straight up. The wind was ridonkulous and the runners near me were definitely slowing down, a couple even walking. I kept on telling myself that walking would be pointless because there would still be wind. I was a little concerned about making it up the peak of the Causway, but I convinced myself that the bridge I run near our house is worse. Once I was on my way back down, I was feeling good.
Mile 11: 8:41
12: 8:51
I was feeling butterflies at this point because I knew that I was going to PR. At this point, my Garmin still didn't match the mileage that ASM posted, but I didn't care because I did the math and even if the course were correctly measured, I would still PR.
Mile 12.89: 7:15
Garmin & "official" time: 1:48:29--that's a 5-minute PR.
I'm not sure if the course was not measured accurately or if it's a GPS problem. I am leaning toward the latter, not only because it benefits me, but because of our experience at the 5K we ran at Cedar Point in June. The same thing happened at the 5K, which my Garmin and Joe's Endomondo showed to be about two-tenths of a mile short. A local high school coach measured the 5K course, while ASM measured the Santa Hustle half. Maybe there's an anomaly in the park.
Joe finished with just a little discomfort from his early ankle-roll. We got our medals, jaunted over to our hotel to change into dry clothes (did I mentioned that it was 50 degrees and sunny in December in Sandusky and that I was wearing a running skirt?), returned to Castaway Bay for the post-race party, and had a couple of Bud Lights. I was feeling awesome. I enjoyed the entire experience; the route was a lot of fun, since I got to run next to Gatekeeper AND Magnum, the gear is funny, the medals look good hanging on the mantle with our stockings, and I like beer. I hope that next year the volunteers on the course are a little more enthusiastic ("Yay, good job"), that ASM uses CP's PA system to play Christmas music in the park, and that I PR again. That was a great race to round out a great year of running!
