Arcata Bottoms 3 and 8 Mile Races

On Saturday, I technically ran two races.  The first one began at 9am, the next at 9:45.  I could do both, right?  Why not?  The Arcata Bottoms 3 Miler was half 10 year olds.  My plan was to jog a slow warm-up, get myself another circuit race, and then be ready for the real race, the 8 miler.  A small handful of others did the same thing, including a girl in my age group.  I spent most of the slow run wishing I could run faster and beat the kids that beat me, their ponytails passing at waist-level.  

We did a little bit of everything that morning, even manned the registration table.

The other AG girl beat me, by 15 seconds—okay, fine, she can have one win over me this year (I beat her by 20 min in the 8 mi. so I guess we’re even).  I moved by slowly as Bob was doing his warm-up.  “You’re running the 8 miler too, right Karen?” he asked.  “Yeah, this is just a warm up, don’t worry,” I replied.  I’m sure he was a little concerned to see how slow I was going.  I completed the 3 mile course in 26:06, an 8:42/mi., if anything, a little fast for a warm up.

I quickly changed bib numbers and downed some water.  I had dressed too warm for the 3 miler and was already very sweaty.  I forgot to eat my snack.  I would regret all that later.  Oh well.

The 8 mile started off sluggish.  A tailwind for the first half made my sweaty dehydration problem worse.  My legs felt heavy and unresponsive.  I planned to run MRP (8:00/mi.) for this run and even that was difficult.  I ran mostly alone for the first half.  Just me, the cows, and another runner, whom I recognized as the woman I chased at Dow’s Prairie back in June.  Her long brown braid swayed back and forth with each footfall.  She made the pace look graceful and effortless, that is until we turned back into the wind.    She struggled in the wind and I passed her, then she passed me back, then I passed her, and she again.  When I got up close enough behind her to possibly draft off her, she began weaving around the road.  She did NOT want me to use her as a windshield.  But when I passed her, she had no qualms about drafting off of me.  What the heck?  The only thing I thought to myself was if she followed me until the last half mile and then beat me, I’d be a little miffed.  

The race was thankfully in that dry spot just before a bout of heavy rainfall, but at the same time, the 100% humidity and swift wind was almost worse.  I prayed for rain.  Just before mile 5, I hit the lone water stop with the braid girl (Grace, I later learned) and one of my running buddies Tracy.  I drank down my glass of water in a single gulp and went back to refill it.  The rest and water helped a lot. 

The three of us, Grace, Tracy, and I took off from the aid station at the same time.  This was the first time I ran with a group for more than a mile at a time.  It was fun and motivating.  I took the lead, Tracy drafting off of me, and then Grace behind her.  A neat little line of runners formed moving down the road.  When I crossed the road to avoid poor footing, they followed.  I heard heavy footsteps following me, little claps, like the ticking of a metronome.  I matched my pace to those claps and suddenly found myself picking up the pace a little bit.  Soon it was just me and Tracy.  We took turns through the last two miles, drafting and recovering out of the wind.  It worked and we soon found ourselves just half a mile from the finish.  

We splashed through what we hoped was mud in front of a dairy farm (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t) and then caught sight of the finish line.  We both mentioned how difficult the race was.  It wasn’t hilly, was it?  It wasn’t really that hard?  The only thing we could think of was how we underestimated the swift wind and high humidity.  “We can do anything for five more minutes,” I offered.  “Not sure I can at a sub-8:00 pace though!” Tracy replied.  As I pulled away, she shouted from behind, “you go girl!”  Hands down, Tracy and Tanya have been my biggest running club cheerleaders through this training process.  I think they believe in my abilities more than I do myself.

I crossed the finish line with nothing left.  I couldn’t believe how horrible that pace felt, and that was supposed to be my marathon pace!  It took a little while to reason with myself, that it was okay.  I don’t really have much of a top speed.  The online calculators predict a 5K time off of my marathon that I could only dream of someday hitting.  I’ve been marathon training for so long without much speed work that it makes sense that my best times come from long distances.  Anybody else have this problem?

1:04.44.

8:04/mi.

1^st AG.

4^th woman.

Everyone I talked to after the race agreed that there was something we couldn’t pinpoint about the weather that made it feel especially difficult.  At least it wasn’t just me.

Matt had a great day too, he said if the 3 mi marker was in the right place, he would have had a 3 mi PR.  Since it was our first 8 mi race, technically both of us ran PR races anyway.

His time was:

51:26

6:26/mi.

All photos courtesy of SRRC.