Terror Trot 5K (3.15 miles)
41:55
Average Pace 13:30/mile
A couple of weeks prior to the Terror Trot, I received an email from Anderson Races that included a $20 registration discount code good for any of their upcoming fall races. Being that cost to participate in the Terror Trot 5K was at $45 by then, the discount meant that even with online handling fees, I could sign up for this race (and take home a fleece and a finishers medal) for under $30.
Ok ... you know me. And Halloween. And costuming. And races.
So even though I'm in terrible shape right now, I figured what the heck?!
JUST TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!
I know in the past, I've said I'm not a tremendous fan of Anderson Races, so you might be wondering why I knowingly signed up for another one of their events. Before I get too far in this recap, I should clarify: while they're not on my sh!t list like Team Ortho is, I do feel like Anderson Races' management style just ... leaves somethings to be desired, I guess you could say.
For example, packet pickup on Friday prior to the race was ... interesting.
When I walked into Fleet Feet Marathon Sports, two women were running check in - one who I believe to be the owner of Anderson Races (she was busy doing something with race gear, possibly sorting sizes or something), and then another woman manning the check in table itself.
The woman manning check in was technically fine, though somewhat slow. Overall, she seemed a little confused about what was going on. And since I was the only person there, the amount of time it took to get my fleece and so on seemed a little much. But honestly, I couldn't care less about that part.
What I did care about was: when I was handed my fleece shirt, it looked MIGHTY SMALL. Especially because online registration specifically said "unisex sizing" and I had paid to receive what I expected to be a men's XL. (At point of registration, I waffled on what size to get since I wanted room to layer my fleece and didn't want it to be too small ... but also worried my selection would leave me swimming in fleece depending on the cut.)
Imagine my confusion, then, when I held the fleece up to my chest and determined it would be on the fitted side.
I mean - really?! Have I gained THAT much weight post baby?!
As I checked my size tag to make sure I was given the correct item, I noted that the tag said "XL WOMENS". Wut? That's definitely not unisex. Well, whatever. I actually typically prefer women's cut anyway. And apparently these particular fleece shirts ran small. I'm just glad I decided to order larger than I expected needing - my friend, who did packet pickup a little after me, barely fit the large fleece ... and she is maybe a women's medium on a good day!
Funny story about that, BTW - when she was trying on the fleece, both of the Anderson Races staff members were telling my friend enthusiastically that her fleece fit well. We realized why once my friend settled on the large, because they continued on saying "good thing you like how that fits, because women's large is the smallest we have".
Already out of stock on smaller sizes at noon on day one of packet pickup? What about anyone coming on race day? I was pretty shocked on that one.
And then they tried to sell us on the Chocoholic Frolic race. My friend and I both looked at each other and at them like ... um, that's next weekend and we just dropped $30 for this. I guess kudos for Anderson Races realizing they had a captive audience to promote to but ... they didn't even have the shirt up on display or any kind of registration info out. If you're that eager to drive participation, maybe a little pre-planning from the marketing side ... ?
So now you see what I mean regarding "leaving something to be desired".
---
Fast forward, race morning.
Despite lack of solid info regarding the race on Anderson's web page (there was no picture of the fleece, the medal, or even a course map), I knew upon arriving at Lake Harriet that the 5K run was scheduled to start at 9:05 (5 minutes after the 10K runners left).
Since it was fairly cold, and my friend drove the family mini van ... with the family in it ... we decided to stay in the van for as long as possible prior to running. With an added benefit of having a sweet parking spot about a block away from the start, we figured there was no need to be outside freezing, especially since we already had our bibs.
About 5-10 minutes prior to gun time, we finally left the insulation of the van and headed to the start. There, I was a bit surprised to see such low participation numbers. Typically a race held around a lake near downtown Minneapolis is packed, but if I were to guess there was maybe 300 runners there TOTAL, and that was adding the 5K and 10K together.
I can't help but wonder ... how much of the poor attendance could be attributed to Anderson Races' lack of marketing, and how much of it is due to market saturation for races available these days? It would be interesting to know the answer to that question ...
Even though numbers were what I would consider low, I definitely wasn't complaining. A cheap race that isn't crowded? Sounds good to me!
Bang! Time to run. (And yes, it was pretty much that blunt. We didn't even hear the race announcer try to get the crowd ramped up or anything. All the sudden he just says 3... 2... and the gun banged.)
Ok ... let's run, I guess!
The course started at the Lake Harriet band shell and followed the trail that circles the lake there. Since we were late to line up, my friend, her family and myself all lined up at basically the very back of the pack - but were pleasantly surprised to find that the trails were wide enough to handle the crowd and allowed for easy passing as we went. In fact, over the entire course there was very little bottle necking. Score!
I wish I had done this ... alas, I did not.
As we ran, my friend and I (and her daughter, who we lost around the 1/2 mile mark) hung together. Meanwhile, my friend's husband and their son took off ahead. Keeping a fairly conservative pace of maybe 11-12 minute miles, my friend and I chugged along, chatted, and enjoyed people watching.
One of my favorite costumes of the race was a mom in a terrific witch costume (complete with puff sleeves and ground sweeping hem line), running with two children (which I think were girls due to their longer, tinsel haired wigs ... but I didn't look that close). The two kids were dressed as tin men in what has got to be one of the most spectacularly home made costumes I have seen in a long time.
As I mentioned, the kids costumes started with a shoulder length blend of gray hair and silver tinsel wigs. Then, they were clothed in gray sweat suits. To create the "tin" look, they had wrapped silver foil chrome duct tape around their pants in bands, spaced out every 3-4". Additionally, they had created some "circuitry" on their backs out of those new style, hard plastic 6 pack beer can holders, which were spray painted gray and with various computer motherboard parts and wires glued onto them. I wish I would have taken a photo of them because the end result was awesome.
Of course, I couldn't resist telling them as I ran by ... "Best costume of the whole race BY FAR!" The kids beamed. I hope they keep that creative spirit into adulthood.
Since I was in terrible shape for race day, around the 1 mile mark we took our first walk break. Not wanting to spend too much time walking, though, we picked back up again maybe around 1.25 or so, running to the 2 mile mark. It was shortly around starting to run again around 2.25-2.5, however, that my Apple watch decided to be a brat ... and shut itself off. WTF!
Here's what I have for splits on course.
Over half a mile missing. Boo. Well, what do you do? At least the race was chipped timed.
Besides, it wasn't like we were in it to win it. Not to mention, the last half mile on course was pretty uneventful anyway. So, no big loss.
With 41 and change on the clock, we rounded the last corner of the course and scurried across the finish line. Boom, another race (and medal) on the books!
Yes, those are my Bay to Breakers wings. I figured I might as well put them to good use again. Funny thing, there was just enough juice in the batteries after Bay to Breakers to make it exactly to the finish line photo. As we walked away, I noticed my wings were starting to sag and the fan was running slow. All the sudden, my wings were flat and the fan just wouldn't turn on. I couldn't have timed that better if I had planned for it!
Secretly, I think the people at the snack line were just as happy that my fan shut down. No one ever seems to enjoy working around those giant things. Heh.
I would have gladly sacrificed my wings anyway for what I picked up at the snack table: a bottle of water, a bag of dill pickle potato chips, and some various other snacks (the usual mini candies and granola type bars). All of this I promptly inhaled in the name of breakfast while we awaited our long lost running partner to finish the distance - my friend's daughter, who we lost at the 1/2 mile mark, wasn't terribly far behind us.
With a fun, but not record breaking, experience on the books ... that was it. We decided to wrap it up and head for home. Once there, I gladly bundled up in my fleece and added my new medal to the collection.
---
Well! That's the story of how race bib #83 joined my collection. Here's to another race soon ... but with Halloween races pretty much in the tank at this point, my guess is I won't run again until the snow melts.
Here's to 2018 and (hopefully) a stronger training season!
No comments:
Post a Comment