Hustling In My Home Turf

Everything below is my own opinion. I did not receive compensation for mentioning any products or services.

Ack! Another back-to-back series, I’m writing late. I don’t remember much happening before the race. I can see on my Garmin that I did my regular Saturday 10K run with the Olathe Running Club. My thought is that if I do the same series next year, I can do six miles the day before as well. That way I can hit the 50K with my friends and do 50 miles on my own. In case you didn’t read my last post, I’m turning 50 next year and I want to do something to mark the occasion.

The packet pick-up was at REI in Overland Park. It isn’t too far away from us, parking is fine, and it is easy to find. No issues with this one either. There was no shirt for this race which is fine. I mean at this point I have a million shirts. The item with your bib was a nice warm beanie. Living in the Kansas City metro, you do have use for a nice warm beanie. I think I only have three or four others from running events. At least I don’t have a ton like I do shirts. Anyway, I was in and out pretty quick. It was kind of a rainy day if I remember right, but there was no rain for race day.

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No need for a ride or to get up super duper early. I got there and parked where I normally do for the Mother’s Day 5K. I didn’t check and realize the start was all the way across the parking lot. I messaged my ORC running pals, Amy and Jane. They were headed my way actually because the porta-potties happened to be right in front of my car. I got out of my car and chit-chatted with them for a bit while they waited in line for the bathroom.

After we left the bathroom line we caught up with some more running buddies, Allison, Stephanie, and Jennifer. We walked to the start and asked someone to take our picture. Little did we know it was one of the Mile 90 Photography photographers. She got one for the photo website too.

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  Photo Credit: Mile 90 Photography

The weather was really nice. It was only slightly wet from rain the day before and the nearby sprinklers. We were a little huddled to the right of the start due to some sprinklers shooting off toward us. We once again all lined up together, but after a very lovely National Anthem, we all headed off on our own race. I had heard that Kyle from the Back of the Pack podcast was going to sweep this race since this was his baby. He had mentioned it in one of his episodes. It almost made me want to hang out with his group, but I was kind of curious as to what I could do.

Usually, when the days get shorter I jump on a treadmill because it is too dark for me to comfortably run on my own. Most of my groups meet waaaaay early for me. That or I wait to run in the afternoon. I used to do that a lot, but it really ate into my day and all the things I needed to get done. The treadmill here recently is my early morning winter go-to. I watch or listen to something on my phone as I log my miles. I do feel like I get some good speed work though because I can control it better. That is another reason I was curious as to what I could do for this race.

I had my music ready instead of a podcast. I seem to run faster with the music. I was jamming along. I remember wishing the leaves were changing already. This area is really beautiful around October when the leaves turn a really pretty yellow. I saw another running buddy, Karen on the course. I saw a lot of them at the turnaround point for the 10K people. The race happened to have a 5K as well. I think the only thing that was tricky was passing on such a narrow path, but we made it work.

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  Photo Credit: Mile 90 Photography

I was getting tired toward the end, but my time was really good for me. I thought maybe I might get a PR (personal record) if I picked it up a bit. As I got closer to the finish I could hear someone gaining on me. I figured it was just the push I needed to get to the finish. From my view, I finished before the other person, but the pictures make it look like a photo finish. My time was 1:07:29.9.

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  Photo Credit: Mile 90 Photography

I saw Allison, Karen, and another runner I know, Lynda at the finish. I chatted with them a bit. Allison wanted to go back and run with her friend Stephanie who was pushing a stroller. I saw a video later where Allison pushed the stroller the last bit so her friend could just run. I thought that was so nice.

Not a lot was going on that day except the Chiefs game which was out of town. I didn’t have to worry about rushing to a tailgate or anything. I think it was a pretty chill day the rest of the day. I did check to see if I had a PR. Looking at my Garmin, my best 10K was in October of 2016. It was under 58 minutes! How can I ever do that again? I wish it had been for a race so I could have celebrated it. It was a training run I did before the Disneyland races (Disney Gauntlet Challenge) that November after we did the Goofy Challenge to get our Coast to Coast medals. I don’t know if I can ever beat that.

Next week will be a challenge. We have the KC Zoo run the whole family is doing on Saturday right before My Girl’s Youth Chorus of Kansas City fun event. Then Sunday I have the Boulevard 10K right before we tailgate for the Chiefs game. I can’t wait to tell you how that went.

Looking Ahead To Fifty

Everything below is my own opinion. I did not receive compensation for mentioning any products or services.

Well, my last post said my next race was the KC Zoo run. Wrong! How could I possibly forget I signed up for the Heartland 30K series! My Olathe Running Club pal, Jennifer, did it last year. It sounded like so much fun that when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, and one of the running companies sent out a coupon code including the series, I signed up super fast. Of course, my other running pal, Amy, and I have discussed this series. We were trying to figure out something to do next year when we turn 50! Her birthday is in early September and my birthday is in early October. That gives us a month to do something big for our big birthday. Jennifer suggested this 30K series since she was familiar with it. We just have to find two more 10Ks to round it out to 50K representing our 50th birthday.

I’ve never run any of these 10Ks. Here recently half marathons and the four milers around town have been more my jam. I usually run a 10K every weekend as my long run. I figured it would be fine. I just need to figure out if I’m doing my usual long run, a shorter run, or running at all on Saturday. First on the list is the Plaza 10K which Kyle from Back of the Pack podcast says is one of the biggest 10Ks in Kansas City.

The packet pick-up was no big deal. It was at The Running Well store. I’ve driven by it so many times when my hairstylist used to have a shop just around the corner. Also, Olathe Running Club did a run from there once or twice. I had no problem finding it or parking. However, when I saw my shirt, I was a little concerned. In a woman’s cut, I usually wear a large. This looked awfully small to be a large. I wish women’s sizes were more universal like men’s sizes. I mean pants and jeans, they actually use a measurement instead of something subjective like size 8, 10, 12, etc. Seriously one brand’s size 10 can be huge compared to another brand’s size 10. I guess that is where we are going with small, medium, and large now. I got home and compared it to the Rock The Parkway half marathon shirt I have which I love. It fits so nicely. It is a few inches bigger than the Plaza 10K shirt and they are both a woman’s size large. Ugh! I emailed them to see if there was anything they could do. No response yet.

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  Shirt size comparison between Rock the Parkway and Plaza 10K both are a woman’s large

My Saturday run ended up being shorter than usual, but not because I was racing the next day. My Girl started acting classes. The company wanted to do a float in the Olathe Old Settlers parade. We’ve never been to the festival or parade out of all the years we have lived in the Kanas City metro. Of course, we would be in the parade for our first time. My Girl got up early with me to meet the Olathe Running Club. She rode her scooter two miles out and back with me running on one of the trails near downtown Olathe. We drove out of the trailhead parking lot just in time to get to the parade meet-up.

I don’t know my way around downtown Olathe except we have been to the library. I figured we would park there. It was about a half mile to the meet-up. They wanted us to meet about 2 hours before the parade started. We had to get one of their shirts to wear with the company name on it. I wasn’t sure why they wanted all of us to be there so early. A lot of the kids were a little grumpy and tired before the parade started because they were tired of standing. We did help with decorations a bit.

The parade was about a mile and then we had to walk back to the library. We were trying not to cross the parade, but we kind of got ourselves stuck with where we parked and the way we were going. We made it all the way back to the beginning of the parade and believe it or not, there were still floats pulling out to start the parade! Wild! We were finished and they were just staring! My Girl was tired and just wanted to go home. She did not want to see the rest of the parade. We got something cold to drink at the cafe in the library and headed home. We only had a slight issue with people parallel parking behind me where there were no parking spots. We got out okay, but barely.

I got up early the next day and got my things together. Amy and another running pal, Jane, were coming to pick me up and carpool to the Plaza. I got my car keys just in case they wanted me to drive. Nobody said for sure. We just said we were going to carpool. We ended up taking my car and I parked in one of the few garages I knew was free. The weird thing was that Google was trying to tell me that the garage was permanently closed. Uh oh! It didn’t say that yesterday when I looked. We headed to the garage anyway. It was open and I was shocked at how full it already was. Usually, when I park there for the Trolley Run in the Spring it is quite empty. I guess this is a popular race!

Amy, Jane, and I made our way to the start. Jane and I both brought our shirts just in case we could exchange them. There was no mention of a packet pick-up on race day, but they had one. We asked about an exchange at the booth and of course, they said to come back after the race. Thankfully we left our shirts in the car and didn’t have to deal with taking them back before the race. We decided to get pictures in front of the backdrop before the lines got bad after the race. We found a few of our other Olathe Running Club pals, Jennifer, Terry, Dave, and Dave’s daughter. We took a few pictures with the backdrop, but we lost Dave and his daughter when we went to take a picture at the bridge with the statues. We caught back up to Dave and his daughter in the corral and took a selfie with those who were still with us.

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Amy started to talk to a few other people she knew in the corral before the race started. I was surprised that there were no waves with a race this big. When I think of all the races I’ve done in the KC area, Rock The Parkway is probably the strictest about starting with waves. If you don’t know what that is, it’s when you group runners by what they think their time will be at the finish. The faster runners are in the front and so on with the walkers and strollers in the back of the corral. Although, there are quite a few fast mommies and daddies out there that really book it through the race route even with a stroller.

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  Photo Credit: kcruncophoto

When we started our race, I was a little confused. During training runs and other races, I’ve run with a lot of these ladies. This race was a bit different. Jennifer wanted to mostly walk, Amy was zooming out front, and Jane stayed beside me a bit, but I don’t think she realized it because there were a lot of people between us. I thought, “Okay, we are doing our own thing this race then.”

I turned on one of my podcasts, I don’t remember which one now, and trucked along. There is a guy who likes to wear costumes during a lot of the KC races. I think he goes by the KC Cosplay Runner. In a lot of races, I end up near him for quite a bit of it. He passed me early on in this race dressed as a member of the band Kiss. I had to pause my podcast because he will also have music playing as he runs. I run with Shokz for safety reasons. If you don’t know what that is, it is a headset that allows you to hear without putting an earbud inside your ear. You can still hear what is playing and still be aware of your surroundings. I really couldn’t hear my podcast that well the closer he got to me. I didn’t mind though. I like music too. Lynda, a nice runner I met at a Brew Crew run when the ORC was running with them recognized me and said hello during the run. She trucked on by me because she is pretty fast.

I really liked the scenery of this race. It is a lot like the KC Half Marathon I did a few years ago as training for the Goofy Challenge. You get to see the museums, and the Plaza, and I even saw parts of town I don’t think I have ever even driven through. I saw a Gates BBQ restaurant that I had never been to before with a big statue out front. For some reason, I didn’t get a picture of that.

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My time was good for me. It was 1:11:39.4. I remember I was out of breath and just pouring sweat. I saw Karen from our running group, KC She Runs This Town. I talked to her for a bit before I saw Amy. Amy mentioned how she heard the KC Cosplay Runner catching up to her and she just booked it to the finish. Later I would see Amy’s photos at the finish line with the KC Cosplayer Runner right behind her. Jane texted us that she finished, but she went to see about shirts. I walked back to find Jane while Amy talked to some friends. I hoped she had some good news on switching the shirts. When I saw Jane, she pretty much told me there was no such luck.

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  Photo Credit: kcruncophoto

Jane was ready to go, but we stopped to say hello to Lynda and Kyle from the Back of The Pack podcast before we left. It’s funny how the garage where we parked didn’t seem that far away when we started, but boy, that walk back to the garage seemed a lot longer. We got to the car and then headed back to my house. I don’t really remember much else happening that day. There was no Chief’s game since we attended the one on Thursday. The next race in the Heartland 30K Series was Kyle’s KC Hustle Run 10K. I can’t wait to tell you how that went.