Santa Hustle Cedar Point 2013

Joe and I ran the second annual Santa Hustle at Cedar Point on this past Sunday. We had a hell of a trip out to Sandusky on Saturday night with a half-foot of snow having fallen throughout the day. Really different from last year's conditions, which were 50+ degrees and sunny.

Last year I wore a running skirt and was too hot in my long-sleeved Santa Hustle tech tee. This year I wore tights, shorts, a tech tee, one of my Nike Element jackets, mittens, a balaklava, a hat, and a head-ear-band thing. I was pumped to get to run a December race in real December weather. It was much more wintery even than the A Christmas Story 10K I had run one week earlier.

On Sunday morning we got to Castaway Bay where the race starts shortly after 8:00AM. I peeled off my Yak Trax after seeing that the start of the race was free of snow. On our way into the hotel to keep warm a woman, who I'm pretty sure now was the race director, chatted me up for a minute about how diligently they had been working on plowing and salting the route to ensure it was clear. Joe and I then got inside, used the bathroom, stood around, and then made our way out to the start corral a few minutes before 9:00AM. The corral was divided into three waves but with no official estimated paces; a lady announced repeatedly that the front corrals were for "really fast people" but no one seemed to be listening, including us. We snuck our way up to the first wave, but we learned that it really wouldn't have mattered where we started. Before the gun start the race director emphasized that the route was clear, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

The first mile was relatively clear save for some slush. Right before we started crossing the Sandusky Bay on the Causeway the road was suddenly covered in packed-down snow. Most of us tried to run in narrow tire tracks that had melted down a bit from the lead runners, but with hundreds of people that got congested. At the end of the Causeway as we ran through the Cedar Point toll booths the route cleared, but not for long as starting at the parking lot we were again on top of packed snow. When we got out of the parking lot and onto Perimeter Road things got a little better, but we were still all trying to run in tire tracks.

Mile 1: 8:16

2: 8:19

3: 8:18

Eventually a plow came down Perimeter Road on the other side of the road so I ran over there for a while. Just like last year, I was pumped to run past and look straight up at Millennium Force's lift hill. Right after that the wind picked up and snow was blowing off of the bay and into my face. If you're not familiar with Perimeter Road, it's exactly as the name suggests: a road that runs along the perimeter of the peninsula, so we were running along a break wall that divides the road from the Sandusky Bay. Once I got back to Maverick the wind was less brutal until I could feel it at my back as I made the turn around Mean Streak. Right about there was where the packed snow made its return and I pretty much didn't see any asphalt again until mile 9ish.

This year the Santa Hustle folks took advantage of Cedar Point's PA and blared Christmas music throughout the park. The selection was kinda lame as it was mostly Jesus-y Christmas songs that could have put me to sleep if I weren't upright. What about Rudolph? Deck the Halls? Jingle Bells? Feliz Navidad? Last Christmas? Still, music was better than the silence from last year.

The mile markers shifted farther and farther from accurate starting in mile four, eventually being a solid half-mile ahead of where I actually was. This happened last year as well, so I was bummed that they hadn't figured out how to measure a course correctly and fix it. When my Garmin told me that I was at mile 7.49 I was allegedly at the mile 8 cookie station. Yes, the Santa Hustle has cookie stations. That cookie station was the best volunteer spot in the entire race. The boys had pulled the giant flags reading "COOKIE STATION" out of the ground and waved them frantically while they screamed at us runners to pump us up. Also, one high-fived me and told me to finish so that I could go home and watch the Browns. That was the last time I was excited prior to crossing the finish.

The middle 5 miles were significantly slower than I wanted to run because I'm weak and couldn't get my legs moving on all of the snow. Throughout those miles I couldn't stop thinking about how badly I wished I had kept my Yak Trax. Then I reconciled that I was in the middle of the park and thinking about it wasn't helping me at all, so I just tried my hardest to keep on moving. After so many miles so far from 8:00/mile I knew that I wouldn't PR, so I was just going to enjoy the scenery.

Mile 4: 8:14

5: 8:29

6: 8:51

7: 8:56

8: 8:44

9: 8:51

Perimeter Road on the way out of the park was way better than earlier in the race. Plows and salt had been through so there was way less slush. Unfortunately the parking lot was still covered in snow, but I distracted myself by thinking about the Santa hat lying on the ground that I had watched another runner toss off on the way into the park. I wondered if someone would retrieve it or if it would stay there to die and go where ever dead Santa hats go. Then there were the street cones on which someone had hung the Santa beards that runners abandoned. Deep thoughts.

The Causeway was again really bad. We were all running single file and occasionally I'd get a spurt of energy or I'd get annoyed running so closely behind others so I ran around them through the snow. After the bridge the road was clear, save for M&Ms that were spilled here and there along the road. I think the volunteers were giving them out, but I prefer to believe that it was reindeer or elf poop.

Somehow the mile 12 marker was where it should have been. I was relieved to know that I would indeed be running a true half marathon, unlike last year when I think it was 12.86ish miles. Simultaneously I was kinda annoyed because I had my hopes up that I would not have to run an entire 13.1. Again, thinking about it does nothing to help so I stopped doing that and just tried to run hard to make up for as much time lost on top of the snow as I could.

Mile 10: 8:22

11: 8:40

12: 8:48

13: 8:29

13.16: 1:12

Official time: 1:52:26

Joe came through the finish chute about a minute after me, we went into the hotel to warm up and check out the post-race party at which they were presenting the 5K awards, then we decided to head back to our hotel to warm up, get clean, and then hit the road for some lunch and home. Of note: We ate at Cheers in the Sandusky Mall. It, like the rest of the mall, is a complete dump, but the chicken wings were freakin' delicious. Also we had a couple of Great Lakes Christmas Ales. I am sad to admit that I like that beer now, although it's got nothin' on Maumee Bay Brewing Company Blitzen.

Later that afternoon on the way home I checked the race results to see where we finished in our age groups.

Lo and behold, I won my age group! I was far from a PR but still managed to beat the rest of the 25-29 females. It made me feel a lot better about how I handled the snow mentally and physically. I feel salty and kinda like a jerk for not staying for the half marathon awards ceremony, but I'm waiting now for the Santa Hustle folks to mail me my not-so-major award. It's a Santa Hustle coffee mug!

I hate to complain, but I have a handful about this race:

1.) The waves in the start corrals didn't do anything to help the flow of the race. Telling runners that a particular wave is for "really fast people" is not the way to get the race moving smoothly. For the first couple of miles I was fighting for gaps in the tire tracks to pass the runners who should have been in the later waves.

2.) Excluding the cookie people at mile 8, the volunteers sucked. Most water stations had a couple of volunteers holding over-filled cups with even more volunteers standing around, not even cheering on the runners. The course marshals who should have been warning us about slick patches were more concerned with socializing with one another. The water and cookie stations were being broken down when I was almost at the finish; given that I was the 83rd overall finisher, that left more than a thousand runners behind me who wouldn't get water or cookies.

3.) The Christmas music selection was depressing.

4.) The miles were inaccurately measured, just like last year except this year they at least corrected it in the final miles. This wasn't a big deal, but it irked me that some of them were up to a half-mile off.

5.) The race director announced at the race and the day before the race via e-mail that the route would be plowed and salted. Although I planned to run regardless (who signs up for a December race on a peninsula in northern Ohio expecting ideal conditions?), it would have been nice to have known that I should have worn my Yak Trax. I wonder if the race director had communicated directly with anyone in the city of Sandusky or in Cedar Point about the conditions of the course or if she just assumed that everything would be clear.

Now that I've complained I'm over all of it. I can't wait to run the Santa Hustle at Cedar Point again next year and I'm confident that the race director will correct all of the missteps.

Santa Hustle Half

Joe and I ran the Santa Hustle half marathon at Cedar Point yesterday and it was awesome!  We talked about running this race when there was a Groupon for it back in the summer, but I was skeptical.  The Groupon didn't offer much information other than there was going to be a half marathon "at" Cedar Point; I figured "at" really meant "near."  Once the folks at Adrenaline Sports Management finally released the course map, we saw that the majority of the race would be at, nay, IN Cedar Point.  Joe and I being Joe and I, we couldn't pass up a chance to run through Cedar Point in the off-season with Gatekeeper construction underway.  Nerrrrrds.

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...?

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!

Cedar Point 5K Challenge 2012

If you know me and Joe even just a teeny-tiny bit, you know that we love amusement parks and theme parks.  We had discussed how cool it would be to run a race at Cedar Point.  Lo and behold, last year was the inaugural year of the Cedar Point 5K Challenge.  We got word of this year's race several months ago and registered immediately.  Yesterday (Father's Day) was race day.

On Saturday we drove out to Sandusky for packet pickup at Castaway Bay.  This packet was the packet of all packets.  Photo and details are on my Facebook page.  Afterwards we headed home and went to bed too late (after 11) for the early hour that we'd be rising (4:30ish).  I don't think I fell asleep until nearly 1:30AM, so I wasn't thrilled when the alarm went off.  We needed to get moving on that 1+ hour drive to Cedar Point, so there was no option to snooze.  For whatever reason, I volunteered to drive and once we got on the road, I realized that I should have been sleeping in the passenger seat.

Without incident of me falling asleep at the wheel, we arrived at Cedar Point to some light rain around 6:15.  We waited in the car for the rain to stop, and then closer to 6:30 we stepped out and into the nasty, warm, muggy air and played the waiting game.  The forecasted high in Sandusky was near 90 and at the time of the race, humidity was hovering around 90%.  The men's race was beginning at 7:00 and the women's at 7:30.  At packet pick-up, we heard that there were nearly 400 runners.  On race morning, that became "more than 350."  Race results show just short of 300.  We're thinking it's due to the number of runners and the tight space in some of the midways that men and women didn't run together--less congestion.

Just before the men's race, I wished Joe luck and gave him a firm but gentle go-get-em smack on the left butt cheek, watched him run into the park, and then waited some more.  As the female runners began straggling over to the starting line, I decided I'd try something new: a pre-race warm-up run.  I just did a few laps at a really easy pace around the back end of the parking lot.  About 7 minutes before my race started, I saw Joe approaching, blue Gatorade in hand.  He finished in 22:30!

At 7:30, I was off.  For the first two-tenths of a mile or so I struggled to reach a comfortable and safe pace; I started around 6:30, but finally got up to 7:30ish.  Once I got through all of the women who started the race too far in front, I was feeling good.  The route took us into the park at what is basically a service entrance between Disaster Transport and Space Spiral.  After that, I failed to really pay attention to my surroundings--rather than relishing in racing in one of my favorite amusement parks, I found myself focused on passing each runner I approached and contemplating whether or not I'd be able to pull off veering off-course to run through a sprinkler.

I mentioned that I got myself to a 7:30ish pace.  In front of Dodgem, I finished mile 1 in 7:38, which had me feeling good and certain that I'd PR.  Honestly, I didn't doubt for a second that I wouldn't PR, as my first and only other 5K was my first race ever, run in just over 28:00.  As I passed Millennium Force, I looked down at my Garmin and my pace was up around 7:50.  Crap.  I was really going to need to pick up the pace to get the 5-minute PR that I secretly wanted.  I just couldn't get my legs to move at the pace I needed.  I tried to think about what was holding me back: The thick, wet air?  The tight turn-around at Maverick?  These practically non-existent inclines?  No water in a 3-mile race?  Are you noticing that my excuses became more and more pansy-ish?

Mile 2 was at Camp Snoopy.  We ran through there, down the Dragster Midway, and turned left toward Windseeker.  In front of the Giant Wheel was a race volunteer, cheering us on and letting us know that there was only about a half-mile left; my Garmin confirmed that, showing 2.61.  At this point, it was obvious that I would get no chance to splash any water at my face, nor would I cross a sprinkler close enough to the course to not lose any time.  Nevertheless, I was feeling positive having passed a handful of people and not a single runner had passed me.

At about 2.8 miles, the rest of the race was a straight-away to the finish.  There was one young girl a bit ahead of me and one close behind.  The girl behind me kicked it into high gear around 2.9 and passed me, ending up a few yards ahead.  I passed Joe, cheering me on near the finish, and then high-tailed it, caught up to the girl who had just passed me, and finished one-tenth of a second behind the girl who had just been yards ahead of me.  My pace across the finish was 6:06, so I was feeling pretty beat once I hit the brakes.  I haven't run a lot of races (this was my 7th), but this was the first time that I thought I was going to dry-heave.  I kept composed on my way to the post-race refreshments, but didn't feel well enough to turn around and greet Joe just yet.

The results are in:

23:46.6 (PR!!!)

14/147 females

5/33 females 20-29
73/284 overall

Marathon training time--again!

The time has come to register for my second marathon.  Joe and I are going to run the Detroit Free Press Marathon together in October!  The timing for me couldn't be better--school's out for summer and I am finally back to feeling great after running in the morning.  I've felt lately that I need to register for Detroit ASAP to motivate me to run a little harder.  No more procrastinating for me, as this coming Sunday marks 18 weeks from October 21st.  Here we go!

For the few days after Glass City, although I was stiff, I was energized almost enough to register to run Cleveland a month later in May.  At the advice of my friends, I didn't do it, and about a week after Glass City, I was glad that I had swallowed my pride.  For about a month, either my IT band or my hamstring was hurting like the dickens, but generally while walking and not running.  I kept pretty quiet about it--I didn't want anyone to worry about me and I was kinda in denial.  I have been pain-free for several weeks now.  That should have gotten me back into kicking ass and taking names on the pavement, right?  Well, it didn't.

As the school year neared its end and my leg returned to its good health, I noticed I was a bit irritable.  Always on my mind was, "It's time to run more!"  I was frequently struggling to get up early enough to run before school and on the days that I was awake early enough, I couldn't get in more than 4 miles (my running group wouldn't compromise to start 10 to 15 minutes earlier).  I could have run after school, but with no "tangible" goal (not yet registered for another long race), I found myself happier to come home to clean, cook dinner, and relax.  Each day I'd inevitably and regretfully think, "I should have run instead."  It's totally true what "they" say: a runner who isn't running is a crab.  That's not any fancy saying, but you get the gist.  Wouldn't it be fun to see me transform into a crustacean, though?  I pinch.

My last day of work was last Monday.  I looked forward to using the week as my first 30+-mile week since the marathon.  I was heading down to South Carolina to visit my parents for Tuesday through Saturday, so my mom and I had planned to run each morning together.  My plan was to do 6 miles Wednesday and Thursday, 8 on Friday (20 miles), travel on Saturday, then do 10 or more on Sunday morning.  I did well Wednesday and Thursday, including one strong run in the heat and sunlight on the bridge to the right.  Friday morning came and I reluctantly did four miles--we had waited, in my opinion, too long to get out and run, and I don't so much enjoy running in heat and humidity.  When Sunday came, I was too beat from traveling and drinking beer the night before, so I figured I'd run that evening as the sun went down; that plan was shot when 8:00PM rolled around and it was still 90 degrees outside.  So I didn't get my 30-mile week.

This week, I am liberated from any restrictions.  I have no obligation to be anywhere other than home each morning, so I can take my time after our group runs and even tack on some extra miles afterwards.  This Sunday, Joe and I have a 5K at Cedar Point.  I still haven't decided what that means for the long run on Saturday morning.  Maybe I'll do it on Friday morning instead.

Beginning next Monday, it's training time for Detroit.  For Glass City, I loosely followed Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1.  I'm feelin' Intermediate 2 this time around.  Maybe I can get Joe to follow it with me.

Can you recommend a training plan for an intermediate runner like me?  Any big races on the docket for you in 2012?  Experience a post-race slump like I did?