Rudolph Ramble 8K

When I registered for this race it seemed like such a good idea, a fun race in December to keep me motivated to run through the cold winter months. Then I forgot I had registered. With the end of the year push at work, the added activities at home, and general busyness of life, the race snuck up on me. Thank goodness for reminder emails. And thank goodness for race day pick up.

With late fall and early winter races, there is the advantage of later race starts because the sun doesn't rise as early. Can't say I blame the sun, not being a morning person myself. To be downtown in time for picking up my number, I "only" had to get up at 6 a.m. Good thing I was able to sleep in until 10:30 a.m. on Saturday! :-) Normally, I prefer races that have a technical t-shirt, but I was pleasantly surprised with this cotton tee with a very cute Rudolph.



Rudolph Ramble 8K



After picking up my number, I happily spent the next hour waiting in my car. Sunday was not the coldest day I've run outside or the worst weather conditions, but given the choice, I still opted for waiting inside rather than outside. About 30 minutes before the start, I meandered back over to the start area. By this time, there was a coffee truck serving (selling?) warm beverages, a live reindeer for picture ops, and Santa (also live) in his sleigh for more picture ops. I opted out of both photos. Volunteers were also handing out Rudolph noses, which I took but didn't wear, and red antlers, which I took and wore proudly. I thought it added nicely to my already "lacking all fashion sense" running outfit. (What you don't see in this pic are my black running tights under a camo skirts...yeah...I'm not winning any fashion awards...)



Rocking my Rudolph look



Field of Antlers

Holiday races are fun for people watching. There was an oddly dressed spectator dressed like Dracula who looked like he was interrupted while shaving. Only the lower half of his face was white, very confusing. I saw him later with a bike helmet and chalked it up to not wanting white makeup on his helmet. But still, Dracula? At a Christmas race? Dracula aside, there were a lot of fun holiday socks, one Santa, at least one elf, a sugar plum fairy (I think), and two girls dressed up as Ralphie in the pink bunny and leg lamp from A Christmas Story. I wish I had snapped a picture of them. They were the most unique costumes out there.

This race was limited to the ~1600 participants. However, being run on the lakefront path, it was still an elbow-to-elbow race. I seeded myself in the 10 min/mile, with a stretch goal of sub-10s. The beginning of the race went better than expected given the number of people fighting for position. It had rained overnight so there were puddles to dodge and muddy ground to consider when passing in the grass. I felt pretty good that I had established a good pace. I worked on not surging too much when getting around people so as to not tire myself out. I also worked on not stepping on anyone. Tightly spaced races can be tricky. In general, people don't have brake lights or turn signals. Although one woman would wisely point to the direction she was planning to go. I didn't employ that technique, though I did try to at least check before darting one way or the other. After about a mile in, we were still side-by-side but were able to establish a decent running space. The first mile went well for my sub-10 goal, even with the crowded start. For the remainder of the 8K, I just needed to maintain. I hadn't looked at how many miles an 8K prior to the race (it's 4.97097), I just knew it was between 4 and 5. I felt pretty well on target at each of the mile markers, but without knowing how far past the mile 4 marker I had to run, I definitely had a mental game from mile 4 to the finish. Promptly after finishing I felt sick with a metallic taste in my mouth. The metallic taste I attribute to the zinc I've been taking to (hopefully) avoid catching the cold my coworkers and kid have. The sick feeling...well, if you don't feel like you're ready to throw up at the end of a race, you probably haven't run hard enough. At least that's what I'm telling myself. ;-) Fortunately, one of the food items the race organizers gave us as we finished was a ginger cookie. It was soft and yummy and ginger always settles my stomach. I left the race feeling satisfied with my run, feeling as if I had achieved my goal of sub-10 min miles. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that I knew for sure. And I was quite pleased. :-)

Blew away my sub-10 min/mile goal