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Pug
The Movie Geek
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Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Posts: 8924
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 Posted: 12/05/05 - 13:36 Post subject: Race Report - Reindeer Run
When I took the dog out Saturday morning around 7:20 the snow was coming down. I first stepped out of the door and there were flurries. By the time the dog was done with his business the snow was much heavier. This should be fun, a nice snowy race. Sandy was originally going to do it as her second 5k, but with play rehearsals on Saturday mornings until January she asked me to run it instead. The Reindeer Run is just a fun run, so I didn't have to worry about placing ahead of a woman in Sandy's Age Group. There are no official results. I had some breakfast and drove over to Lake Harriet and parked over by Lyndale Park which is fairly close to where I usually park when I'm going for long runs at the Lakes. It's probably a quarter mile or so to the starting area. Maybe a little bit more, I really can't tell. I had hoped to be able to make it back to my car and drop off Sandy's race shirt, but it just wasn't going to work out. I tie it around my waist and tuck the shirt into my pants and we're good to go. I would get the shirt after the race, but they are already out of small and extra large and I don't want Sandy to have to wait for another shirt as they ran out at her first 5k. Big turnout. Lots of snow falling.
I line up a little bit closer to the front. Not in the first three rows or anything, but I just want to be a bit ahead of the crush so I can actually "run". It's not too cold, but I am getting a little chilly waiting for the start. I look around try to see what some of the other bib numbers are. I'm in the low 2000's, I see one that is 752, another in the 3000's, there's one in the 5000's, and oh my god, there a mid 7000 number. Can there really be that many people here? The crowd is kind of huge and I can't see too much behind me, but I'm thick in the middle of a press of people.
The race starts and I'd start my watch but I didn't bring it. I count the seconds for how long it takes to reach the starting line. We move, then we don't. We move again, walking. I can see the finish line clock and I cross the starting line after 90 seconds, and then it takes another 40 second to get to start running. Race officials wave us onto the grass so we can start moving and I take advantage of that. The first mile or so involves me weaving back and forth and up on the snow covered grass so I can move forward at any sort of a pace. Maybe more than a mile as there are people walking up ahead and slow moving runners. The idea of slower runners in the back does not apply here to this fun run. There are plenty of runners dressed up as Santa, and some pulling a sleigh. My favorite is the guy dressed up in a big Pac Man suit and his friends as the Ghosts.
So I'm running now, and every time I plant a foot to push off my foot slides as I push off. So, a lot of short choppy steps and most of the race has slush and heavy snowfall and weaving back and forth. I know that I used up way more energy than I would like in the first part of the race, but I have to stop thinking of this as a race. It's not. There is no racing going on except maybe by whomever is lined up in the front row. I'm just trying to run, not slip, and go harder. But I also am focused so much on the ground that I don't see any mile markers and I realize that I've just passed the area near where my car is parked so I'm coming up on three miles. Huh. Okay.
I come up around the bend, don't fall, run to the finish line and look at the clock, don't fall, cross the finish line and see a time of 28:34.
Well, okay. Subtract the 90 seconds from the time it took to get to the starting line and I'm down to a 27:04. Still slow, but with a race that likely had between 5000 and 7000 people, a moderately narrow road, lots of slush, snow, and slippery conditions, I'm okay. It's not really a race, it's a fun run and it was fun. Running with the snow coming down was fun, seeing folks in costumes was fun, and the whole thing was fun. Not worrying about the clock was fun. Doing the best I could in the conditions and situation was fun.
What was also fun was when I was walking back to my car I still saw plenty of people finishing and coming up the 3 mile mark I see a squad (that's smaller than a platoon, right?) of Marines. The one in front had a Marine Corps flag, the rest were in formation. Probably about 20 or so of them. They were running and doing their Corps chants (well, the ones that they can do in public, I'm sure there are a few they don't share) and the line I heard was something like "unlike the Army, we never retreat". Made me laugh. The whole thing made me smile because that's just cool having a Marine squad running in formation at the race.
And then I get back in my car, turn on the heat, and drive home with the snow still falling.
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sounds like the weather for my thanksgiving day run.
