Race #205
10 Miler #4
2023 Race #2
2023 10 Miler #1
Green Valley Road Race #3
I hadn’t originally planned to run this race, not sure why, but then Mom asked if I wanted to run with her. Ellis’ company encouraged employees to run or donate because the race benefited an ALS charity. (One of the other employees was recently diagnosed with ALS.) I, of course, said yes.
The day before the race, I decided to stop by Greenville Running Company, the place I purchase my shoes, to pick up the bibs since I needed to get a new pair of shoes. I got the shoes and then attempted to pick up the bibs, attempted because Mom had already picked them up. Whoops. Apparently we should have communicated a little better.
On race day we arrived with plenty of time since the 10 miler did not start until 15 minutes after the 5 miler. We waited in the car for a while, as long as we could, because the wind added quite a bit of chill to the air.
Soon enough, the time came to start. As soon as that happened I could feel myself start out way too fast. Oops. A little after realizing that I pulled back on the pace a little and we settled into the run. After the first street, we headed into the first of several neighborhoods and the multiple hills that filled this course.
As the miles started to tick by, I realized that while I found myself enjoying the run, because I decided to stay in the moment and not stress about the race, I also did not pay enough attention to the details to fill out a lengthy race report.
I do remember, though, that at the first mile, I thought that we would likely wait until the second mile to walk. Then the second mile came and neither of us said anything so we kept running. When mile 3 came and went, I figured that we would just run the whole thing without walk breaks. That did become a little more difficult as the miles ticked by thanks to not only the fact that we haven’t done that in a while but also the nearly relentless hills. None of these hills lasted a significant amount of time or had a severe grade like trying to run up Altamont. They kept coming though so the fact that we made it all the way through this race without walking once makes me feel quite accomplished.
Unfortunately, I do not remember any more of the details save for not liking a couple sections near the end where we ran on the road (not closed to traffic) with no shoulder. At one point a woman came up behind us and shouted something about hating blind curves. This started Mom immensely since she didn’t see the woman coming up behind her.
With a little less than a mile (or half mile-I actually can’t remember) we saw Ellis. He, of course, “cheered” us on in his usual form of urging us to go faster. I had to smile and shake my head at that since at that point we made a turn right onto yet another hill.
I could definitely feel all the work we had put in and could not wait until we finally finished so I could walk. We didn’t have much left so I kept going, getting only mildly frustrated when the cop directing traffic at the last turn/intersection decided not to stop a car that turned right, hugging the curve at the exact same time that the runner up ahead was on that same stretch of road. (Aka…it looked like the car was going to run the runner off the road and the cop said nothing.) I definitely did not appreciate that.
Once we made that turn, we had only a short stretch down that road before turning into the park with a slight uphill before the finish line. Both Mom and I picked up our speed as much as we could at that time before we finished.
Running this race definitely sparked, once again, the desire to train harder and race harder in future races which helped motivate me in a later speedwork session. If I don’t put in the work then I can’t get these faster finishes that I desire.
While I managed only 4th in my age group, Mom won hers which included a gift certificate to the running store where we get our shoes.