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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Goofy For Twins 