Race Recap: 2013 Steamboat Classic 4-miler

I was traveling for work again this week, which means lots of driving, some crappy food, minimal exercise, and very long work days.  It was fun working with a new client this week, though - lots of new problems to solve, puzzles to work out with my team.  Good stuff.

Friday we pulled anchor about 3pm and I started the 3-hour drive home... except I needed to go past home, to Peoria, to pick up my race packet for Saturday's race.  Technically, I could have waited until Saturday morning for pickup, but they had a mandatory Friday weigh-in for the "Athena" division... and after my third-place showing in the "Foot-Pounder" division at the Lake Run, you bet I'm signing up for the weight class.  Mandatory weigh-in the night before seems a bit much if you ask me, but what the hell.

So I picked up my packet, and headed back home.  I had a nice evening with the hubby, packing my race gear, listening to too-loud music and had a couple of adult beverages, and off to bed, just a little too late.  Summer has arrived here in central Illinois and the races are starting earlier.  The 40th running of the Steamboat Classic was set to start at 7am.  I got up a little before 5am to run through the shower, get dressed, locate coffee and hit the road.  MAN, I hate getting up that early, but I really enjoy my races!! 

Here's what I noticed before I headed out:

I get to ask them for a Large shirt this year (NOT an Extra Large), and they give me a shirt with "XL" plastered across my chest!  What the HELL, people??  

I've run this four-mile race several times (last year's race recap is here).  It's fun, it's flat, it's fast.  It's HOT.  Last year I started out way to fast and did a lot of walking, finished at 54:29.  The time before, I was on a run/walk interval program and not yet running continuously, and even then I finished in 54:09.  I'm still dealing with some pain in my hip and calves so I wasn't sure how much running I should plan on today, but I dared dream up a goal of finishing under 49 minutes.  I didn't have a plan for a run/walk interval or anything, just "take it as is comes" and walk if and when it felt necessary.  

I met up with Joe and his brothers with about 45 minutes to spare; we chatted it up for a while, and I decided to hit the restrooms while there was still time.  What I found was a line for separate men's & women's restrooms (of course the line for the women's was about half-mile long).  I passed that up in favor of seeking out the porta-potties.  What I found then, was another line about a half-mile long!  Twenty minutes later and I realize there are actually TWO lines, fanning in opposite directions, BOTH of which were about a half-mile long (explains why the line was moving so s l o w l y...)  

Five thousand runners. Twelve porta-johns. Yeah, that math works.

Potty issues aside, I made it to the starting line just before the gun.  It was threatening rain, but all I saw were clouds.  It was a bit hot - about 70 degrees - and super humid.  I ran for about 5 minutes and then checked in:  how are my calves?  How's my hip?  My ankles were feeling weird yesterday after driving all afternoon, how's that going?  I felt GOOD.  I decided to just run by feel, and keep checking in along the way.  If I needed to walk, I'd walk.  

They have quite a few water-stops, especially for such a short distance, but with the heat, that's usually a blessing.  I got to the first stop a little after the 1-mile mark - and NO WATER!  After the whole wait for the bathrooms, I was annoyed about this.  But it was early yet, and I wasn't desperate for hydration or anything.

I made it to the second water stop at mile 2 without any issues.  My Garmin notified me I'd finished the first mile in 11:30 - on pace for my goal - and I was still feeling good. My hip was fine, my calves were starting to loosen up, so I happily kept on going!

After the 2-mile mark there was another water stop - this one WITH water - and I took a break to walk a bit, drink up, and assess my situation.  I was still feeling good so I revved up and got back to it.  I had finished mile 2 in about the same time as mile 1 - 11:35.  With that 90-second break, mile 3 was a bit slower, but I must have sped up a little because I only lost about 40 seconds.
I was feeling great. This is awesome - I feel like I could do this all day!  Only one mile to go!  I could FLY if I want to.  There's no stopping me no---OUCH! What the hell just happened to my hip?!? Oh, Jesus that hurts.  Yup.  Thirty-seven minutes in; Stopped me dead in my tracks.  I walked for another minute, massaging that thing in my hip... right where the PT works on it every week, that thing felt like it was just a little bit on fire.  It hadn't burst into flame but it was definitely smoldering.
OK, so I walk a bit.  Maybe I walk the rest of the way - it's less than a mile to the finish line, it's not that big a deal.
Who am I kidding - only a mile to go, I'm NOT going to walk all that way. This is a race!  For crying out loud, I train for this!  I PAY to do this!  The pain in my hip eased back a notch and I decided to run another quarter-mile and see what happened.  I figured one of two things would happen:  1) it's fine, works itself out in a minute or two, a minute of walking was all that I needed; or 2) it's not fine, and it's not going to be fine, and I'll be walking again within a minute or two.  But I wouldn't know unless I tried running on it again.
And you know, it eased up even more after I started running again.  I was able to run the rest of the way in, and even managed a sprint in the last 30 seconds - the Garmin says I got up to a 6:30 pace in that last burst!!

RESULTS: 

Overall:  2450 of 3124

Females 35-39: 161 / 229

And check out the Athena Division results: 

Again, it's a REALLY small field and my chances were pretty good to place!  Sadly, I did not.  But I'm happy with 5th place.  I'll take that.

Post-race, the poor organization continued:  this is definitely a theme for this year.  I remembered from last year, they keep the water stowed away about a mile from the finish line - last year I gave up before I found the damn water!  I did find it this time, and stretched for quite a while before I found Joe and his brothers again.

We went for food & snacks and found lines even worse than the porta-john lines.  And don't even get me STARTED on the line for free beer.  Ugh.  We chatted for a while and decided to skip the whole thing.  The guys had a golfing date, and I decided I could probably get myself a free beer at my friend Heather's house.  (She understands the occasional need for a beer at 9am... you know, after a race of course!)

All in all I'm still a fan of the Steamboat Classic.  The weather makes it a very challenging race every year, even though it's flat.  And now, I've got a new personal best to try and beat next year.  (But I may bring my own snacks and a cooler of beer for afterward.)

Physical Therapy: Euphemism for Torture?

I've had this nagging pain in my left foot, and a recurring issue with my hip, and then there's the chronic back pain.  (Welcome to Being Over Thirty-Five, right?)

I went to my doc a while back to check on things, my biggest concern being the potential for developing a stress fracture in my foot.  I figured I can expect to live with the back pain but once he suggested a physical therapist, I decided to make sure and get help from them on the hip and back pain as well.

My first visit was last Wednesday, right before heading out of town for work.

Overall, the diagnosis is that I need to develop a LOT more flexibility in my hip flexors and my calves.  (And that the high heels I favor are not helping.)  I also need to build strength in my hip flexors.  The PT, Josh, did a whole lot of muscle massage before having me do some specific stretches to work on these area. He took some photos (definitely the MOST FLATTERING photos EVER taken of me!) of the various stretches and whatnot that he wanted me to work on as my "homework" and sent them to me.  By the time I left, my back, at least, was completely pain-free.  I bought a foam roller on the way home and I've been doing these a couple of times a day ever since.

I went back yesterday for my second visit.  Uh, let's just say the Gloves Are Off!  I had Josh working on me and then an intern.  They had me do three new exercises, MUCH harder than the stretches I've been doing, and really worked me over.  This was no massage; this was a beating!  They did clear me to do cardio and strength training after my appointment, just avoid the legs.  So I hit the gym and hopped on the bike for 20 minutes and then did arms, back and core work, NO LEG WORK.  Josh warned me I would be feeling it today, and he was right.  It felt dangerous to walk around the office - I worried my hip may actually dislodge from its socket if I wasn't careful.  

I was worried about trying to run after work but decided to give it a try.  I decided to just go by feel, not have any set distance or time, just try some intervals and walk whenever necessary.  It went okay.  Coty and I walked our normal half-mile to start, then tried some 2-minute running intervals.  My hips felt... weird, but alright.  My calves were another story.  They were so tight I had trouble WALKING once I started running, but when I was running, they just BURNED.  This was a tough workout, and it only lasted 30 minutes!  

I have another appointment tomorrow and we'll see how it goes from there.  I sure hope I'll be able to run Steamboat - just 10 days away!  It's only 4 miles, and I was just thinking this morning about how if this lovely weather holds out, I ought to be able to finish around 48 minutes this year, even if I take a walk-break half-way through.  (And yes, I checked my race history and that would be a 3-minute PR.... I want to keep my streak going!)

On that note, I gotta go stretch and make friends with my foam roller.

Oh one more thing:  weigh-in on Sunday was a plus:  down 0.2 lbs! First loss in a while, so I was pretty happy about it, even though it's basically a goose-egg.

Race Recap: Steamboat Classic 2012

Today's race went fairly well.  It was the Steamboat Classic 2012 in Peoria.  Here's the breakdown.

TRAINING:
I have been running the TNAM route as often as possible - about once a week, 4.37 mile route - as my training for this 4-mile race, so I felt pretty well-prepared, but haven't been running as often as I would have liked.  It may have been a mistake to run 4.37 yesterday morning, but I just couldn't help myself:  I had the day off work and it was great to get out there on Constitution Trail in the morning with my dog!  We took it pretty easy, did plenty of walking and didn't push too hard, knowing I was racing this morning.

PREP:
I laid out all my gear last night, got up at 4:45am, hit the showers, dressed & headed out the door.  I planned to get coffee at the gas station on my way out of town but had to wait several minutes as they weren't open yet when I arrived!  It was me and the 5 old men who clearly gather there each morning for their coffee klatch, waiting for them to unlock the joint.  Got the coffee but in my caffeine-deprived state, I forgot to put any sweetener in it (guess it's been quite a while since I hit up Casey's for my morning joe) - turns out it wasn't half bad.  Maybe I can start reducing the amount of artificial sweetener I use each day??

Hit the road about 5:35 headed for Peoria (about 40 miles), feeling behind-schedule but knowing the race doesn't start till 7am and my race bib / chip / packet had already been picked up by my good friend and former boss, Joe.  I made great time - ate most of my PowerBar on the way so my stomach wasn't empty, parked the car and texted Joe right about 6:10am. (It was already over 70 degrees and fairly humid.)  Joe and I failed to properly designate where we were meeting so that he could give me my bib and timing chip, so a bit of confusion followed.  I did get a good stretch and warm-up walk in while waiting for him to meet up, but ended up making a last-minute rush to find him (amid approximately 5,000 people) and get my gear on with just a couple of minutes to go before the starting gun!

RACE RECAP:
Last-minute snafu aside, I found the group of 11-12 minute pacers and headed out.  I felt like I was stuck behind a whole bunch of really slow runners, might have joined the group too far behind the starting line... but then I got to the first mile-marker and my phone (MapMyRun app) announced my first mile was at a pace of 10:40!!!

I knew I was in deep trouble.  I started out WAY too fast.  Tried to get my pace under control at that point, but it was tough because the runners never really spread out the way they normally do:  usually, within the first mile, especially if you're relatively slow like me, the pack spreads out quickly and you can find a nice space where you're not jockeying for position and cutting through / around groups all the time.  This didn't really ever happen with today's race... it got better after about the 2-mile mark, but not until the last 800-1000 meters did it really clear up. 

There was also the issue of water-stops (or in this case, the lack thereof).  When I ran this race two years ago, there was a stop with water and Gatorade just before the 2-mile mark.  My habit of running with a bottle of water in hand saved my bacon today for sure.  In the heat today, even with my bottle (which was getting warm and also a bit salty from all the sweat on my lips as I took a sip every few minutes), I was looking for the water stop, hoping for a few ounces of Gatorade to keep me going.  NOPE!  The first water-stop was just before the THREE-mile marker today, and then another was set up at about 3.5-miles.  (I'm still pondering what the hell was the point of that.)  And, you guessed it, no Gatorade.  Just a couple of really nice families, filling pitchers from their front-yard garden hose!

At this point in the race, having started out way too fast, I was flagging.  My walking breaks were getting longer, and my running intervals were getting shorter.  I was really pushing, using all my willpower, to run for just 3-4 minutes at a stretch. If I remember correctly, my phone told me I was at 23 or 24 minutes at mile 2 (still not bad for me, but I was really feeling spent already), and about 37-38 at mile 3.  I was getting slower.

One really great thing about Steamboat is the route for the 4-mile run.  It's essentially an out-and-back route, on major roads near downtown Peoria, with a (mostly) gradual uphill terrain for the first two miles, and mostly flat or downhill heading back.  I pushed on and found a little energy once I saw the "800M to go" sign.  Not coincidentally, I think that was about when the leaders in the 15K race began to pass us.  Then "400M to go" and finally rounded the corner for the final straightaway to the Finish Line and I REALLY found the Afterburners!  For better or worse, I did finish strong.

POST-RACE:
Steamboat had a kind of disorganized post-race party.  I had trouble finding water, and food, but they DID have plenty.  In fact I wished they'd had little grocery bags or something to carry things in, because I grabbed a couple of granola bars, a banana (only at a little of that, was NOT what my body wanted today), and a nectarine, plus a can of Diet Pepsi and an ice-cold bottle of water.  Did you catch that word, "nectarine"??  I say this is the best damn post-race party anywhere, I've never seen nectarines after a race, and wow, do I LOVE me some nectarines!!  What a great surprise!  I went back for a couple more after I rested a bit.

I went and found Joe, with his brother, his son, and two of their friends.  We compared notes and decided to head back to the food/ water area and get our free beer.  There really is nothing quite as tasty as a Bud Light at 8:30am after a hard-run race in the heat!!

I didn't take any "Before" picture today, and normally don't take "After" pics, but when I met up with Joe, and the others they insisted on taking several.  I haven't seen them yet but I'm certain I look positively abominable!  If they are at all presentable, I will consider posting one (but don't hold your breath).

OK now for the stats:  I've run this race only once before, and two years ago at that.  Time to beat today was 52:45.  I haven't checked online yet for my official time.  I was concentrating so hard on sprinting to the Finish Line that I failed to check the Big Clock, but my phone said I ran today in just under 54 minutes.  This would be disappointing, except the phone also says (based on GPS) that I ran nearly 4.5 miles! (Not the 4.0 that I was racing...)

So, drum-roll, please...  (I'm sure you'll wait patiently while I go check the web site.)

OH SONOFABITCH!  The results haven't yet been posted, though the race has been over for 3+ hours!!  Guess you'll have to wait along with me!