Because this is Holidailies time, the plan is to post every day in December. I missed yesterday, so this is the topic that I wanted to write on. It still counts!
Yesterday, I ran my 18 miler. One more long run left before the marathon (20 on December 21). I’m a very lucky girl – I had friends willing to run it with me.
The first 9ish miles were with Kim during the Annapolis Striders’ Anniversary Run 15K. This was the last run in the Champs Series. I had missed too many races to be eligible for an award and I’m too slow to be eligible for an award, so we just went out to have a good time. Kim’s coming back from an injury and this was her make it or break it run – if it went well, she was going to run the marathon. If not, she was out.
Thankfully, she will be running a marathon!
The race itself was okay. Pretty course through Quiet Waters park. I have to admit though, it was emotionally hard running the Champs Series races this year. Usually, Striders races are very slow runner friendly, and I don’t want to say that this race was unfriendly to slow runners, but we slow runners certainly weren’t feeling the love. By the time we ran through the second loop, the volunteers at one of the road crossings were gone, and that particular crossing was the one that all the fast runners were driving down to get out of the park, having finished their race. Thankfully, most runners are kind and won’t plow down other runners, but that’s not a guarantee. When we reached the finish, there were two very enthusiastic volunteers there, but according to Kim’s husband, some of the finish line had already been disassembled. There were two other volunteers handing out water and pointing us to food, but warning us it might be gone. They were also awesome. We didn’t even venture in for food.
Now, we weren’t fast. We were slower than normal because I think we both wanted to be very careful on Kim’s injury and because I was headed to another 9 miles afterward. But we weren’t last. We were in the bottom 10, but we weren’t last. There were people slogging along behind us. And I have to admit, it hurt a bit to feel like we finished strong and to then feel like we were failures for being so slow. Nothing I can do about it.
Then I met up with Jen who was willing to drag me through Annapolis for the second 9 miles. It was a fun run in areas that I haven’t seen before. I loved running the Naval Academy. Such a great place to run. Not the prettiest, given the misty weather, but it was still a lot of fun. And then we ate pancakes. Best pancakes ever. They always taste so much better when you’re covered in sweat.
All in all, I ran just about 18.5 miles yesterday, at an average pace of 14:20. I’ll take it. One more long run. I can do this.
I used to run a 20K race — it was a very pretty (but hilly) June run in upstate New York. A friend of mine used to run that race every year, a woman around thirty (I thought of her as young because I was in my mid to late forties) who was not an elite runner but she loved running and she had a ton of determination. I don’t recall her ever being last, but she was usually one of the final eight or ten runners. She used to tell me that it didn’t mater what her time or position was — she finished the race and that made her far ahead of the millions who couldn’t be bothered to move away from their television sets all weekend.
She was so right.
I have seen races that announced a cut-off time after which the course volunteers, etc. would close their posts and the timing would stop, but those were always cutoff times that would only affect the slower walkers. Other than that kind of announced closing times, all course marshals should still still be in position and aid stations open until the slowest entrants who were within the announced time limit that passed that point on the course. You are correct — it is insulting (and unfair — you paid the same entry fee) and and counter to the proper spirit for recreational running (and, let’s face it, at least 95% of us fall into that category).