Throw Back Race Recap- and one Tonight!

I HAVE actually done a few races in the last couple of months- one I actually raced, and one I paced my husband for.

On Memorial Day weekend I ran the first in the Craft Beer Series in Portland, ME.

I pushed it in this race even though I was in the throws of my butt pains, tiredness, etc.  I believe that even after a full  night’s sleep I was chugging a large turbo D&D iced coffee on the way to the race!

Recap/Review:

Organization was simple, and no swag other than entry into the beer festival following the race.  We were OK with that!

The start:

I didn’t warm up (I KNOW), and didn’t see many people warming up.  Most people truly seemed “in it for the beer”.  They had corrals set up by expected pace- I lined up in the 7 min/mile area- with no expectations and 32 oz of iced coffee sloshing around- who knows what will happen?

my next thought was “why the heck is there NO ONE IN FRONT OF ME”.  Finally a couple of BAA runners found the front, and a few other lanky club runners, and some ladies that looked pretty serious.  I looked ridiculous, since I had my Boston jacket tied around my waist like I was heading out for a walk with Isaac.  (It was cold, I knew I would want it after, and no bag check).

I ran garmin-less- but used the Map My Run app-  which didn’t find our location right away so my data from the run is off.  It over-ran the first mile (and gave me a 7:24 split?), under-estimated the second (6:24??) and who knows about the third since I forgot to shut it off and later in the day after wandering around the beer festival for awhile it had logged 5 miles.  Whoops.

During the race I felt my butt in the first mile- it mostly felt like I couldn’t extend my legs the way I wanted to.  No matter, I just worked on improving my turnover- shorter, quicker steps (as I should be running, anyhow).  The race proceeds slightly down hill, then moderately uphill (but nothing any hardy New England runner would really consider a “hill”)- before a complete downhill finish.  I hadn’t realized how fast the last mile would be and it was  a real boost!  I ended up passing quite a few people in the end of mile 2 entering into mile 3-

They clocked me at 20:52; 6:43 avg pace.  Not terrible.  4th in AG (w/out removing winners)

NOTE:  there were NO water stops.  I didn’t need it- but if you did, I would bring a hand held.  I am not sure what the plans are for future Craft Beer Series races.

Hydration post race:  PLENTIFUL water.

Medal?  YES. AWESOME, heavy medals with a built in bottle openers.

Awards?  Only to the top 3 finishers, open male and female.  No age awards.

Beer Festival?  PERFECT.  It wasn’t too big, wasn’t too small- NOT overly crowded.  All Maine craft brewers and many actual brewers (not just sales reps) there to discuss the beer as well as hand out samples.  It did need more food for sale though-  we ended up just this side of hangry.

Would I run another in this series?  SURE.  Considering this was the very first time they had ever done this race I thought it went off without a hitch.

Register for the races here: http://www.craftbrewraces.com/

….   and tonight?  I am headed to Manchester, NH to run the HASLAW Manchester Mile and 5k.  I am running the 5k.  My plan?  We’ll see- but as of now I am planning on gutting it out and seeing where I am at fitness-wise.  I am pretty sure that I won’t be getting a PR- but I would love to be closer than Memorial Day.  The only hitch is that it could be 100% humidity and 87,000 degrees- which means just running to my potential in the given conditions and not worrying so much about my time.  *fingers crossed*

Anyone else doing a 4th of July race?

 

 

 

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