Race Report and Recap of the Week

First race of 2018 - my #FiftyOnderful year was the Groundhog Run 10K - a race that I have never wanted to do and still never really want to do again but it was part of the 100K Challenge that I signed up for so I needed to get it done. The Groundhog Run is a pretty big event here in Kansas City, and it is for a great cause, BUT - it’s run in the Hunt Midwest Underground - aka a cave.

For 90% of the race it’s hot and stuffy - not really muggy, just stale, stagnant, warm air that is incredibly uncomfortable to run in (in my opinion). Only very briefly do you run past some passages where there is air moving, cool air, coming from outside (one is a kinda creepy dark tunnel with railroad tracks that I really just wanted to run past as fast as possible). I’ve spectated at this race before, and I’ve run a different race in a different cave here in KC so I knew what to expect - but that doesn’t always help. Amazingly I’m able to overcome any fear of massive cave collapse or claustrophobia (but it does cross my mind) but I absolutely hate running in these caves. The running in the cave thing is part of the draw for the Groundhog theme, and Hunt Midwest does a great job making it a clean-ish, safe environment - and it’s usually bitter cold outside so you’d be grateful for a temperate place to run in January - but it was in the 50’s outside on race day, making being inside in a cave to run even more frustrating.

All of the hate of caves aside, it’s still an extremely well done event. Very well organized, a lot of care taken to make the experience as pleasant as possible for runners, gear check, great shuttle service to/from parking at the Ameristar Casino across the highway, a nice assortment of food goodies after the race (and yes, there was still a great selection of food even for the last runners to finish which is rather unusual), an abundance of ports-potties, even on the race route at the aid stations, an appropriate number of water stations, and course guides (they might need a few more of these spaced out purely for medical issues - you should be able to see a volunteer at every corner, not any part of the course unseen by a volunteer with some sort of communication ... cell phones do not work in the cave... to get medical assistance down to runners if need be - asthma attacks are not uncommon in these races because of the air quality.) The finish bling is cute and nice, different sizes for the 5K and 10K finishers, and age group award winners won a very nice tech jacket this year - a nice bonus in place of the usual plaque or additional medal.

So - my race ‘plan’ was to just do the best I could without feeling crappy or hurting myself. I hadn’t run more than 4 miles at any one time since the Longview Half Marathon in early November last year, so I did not have any expectation of a stellar performance. I felt pretty good during my 4 mile run last week, but it was not a speed record then either. I set my Galloway app intervals for an 11 minute mile pace (pretty sure I was going to be around a 12 minute mile but I wanted the music faster to push me along) - with a 0:45/0:15 interval. So - mile one felt LONG but pretty good physically (all of the miles feel incredibly long - but for me that’s another hazard of the cave running - nothing but white walls to look at, and lots of turns). Mile 2-4 felt, well, normal. I wasn’t enjoying the run, but it had nothing to do with effort. My body was fine, it was my head that was ready to be done out of pure boredom. Mile 5 the evidence of my lack of longer runs immediately began to manifest - I actually felt like my blood sugar was dropping much lower than it had in a long time - and I took a short ride on the Struggle Bus - I opted to drop my intervals back to a 0:30/0:15 which helped a bit. I found a bit of a second mental wind for the final 1.2 miles so I jumped off the Struggle Bus pity party and wrapped it up back around the pace I had been at for miles 1-4.

Mile Splits:
     1 - 12:08
     2 - 12:02
     3 - 11:58
     4 - 12:21
     5 - 13:10
     6 - 12:15
     Final 0.2 distance @ 10:43/mile

I should mention I was already hungry before the race started even though I had eaten my signature breakfast bar (Belvita store brand from Aldo) but it clearly did not carry me to the late race start time. I don’t think that had a huge impact on my overall pace, but didn’t help with my mile 5 struggle.

I was tired when I got home but that was mostly from just staying up much later than normal for me the night before. Tim took me to 54th Street Grill and Bar for some lunch, and I gobbled it all up - and took a tiny catnap when we got home. I was a bit stiff after my short nap, but moving around doing normal weekend house work took care of that.

Overall a pretty decent start to my 2018 races - lots of room to improve, nothing to be ashamed about.

Non-race recap - I hit my January weight goal Friday morning, but I won’t lie it will be a bit of struggle to hold that through the end of the month - after my post-race eating frenzy.

I didn’t make it to TriKC Big Spin this week (week 4) out of pure laziness I suppose. Tim had a doctor appointment in the afternoon so I had had enough of driving all over creation by the time we got home. I did, however, still get a run and swim in that day, so the day wasn’t a total wash. Week 5 Big Spin will be a Bike/Run brick again.

Next race: Kickoff 5K - last year’s time to beat 37:25 (12:02 pace)

I feel like I’m finding a smudge on of the focus I’ve been missing - Oly Tri training plan also kicks off next week - so the year is ramping up!