Miles for Moffitt 5K: race review

I ran a 5K on Saturday in memory of a wonderful woman.

It was not my best 5K performance, and I did something really stupid: I stopped at the wrong finish line. Yeah, I was that girl.

Idiot

The event, Miles for Moffitt, is held on the University of South Florida campus. I assumed because of the location, parking wouldn’t be an issue. Parking wasn’t an issue, but getting to parking was a bit of struggle. It was slow going getting onto campus and getting to a parking spot.

The event had a 5-mile run, a 5K run, a 5K walk and a kids’ fun run. They all had staggered starts. The 5-mile run started at 7:30 a.m., the 5K run started at 7:45 a.m., and the 5K walk started at 8 a.m.

The 5K run started on time, but I think a lot of the 5K walkers decided to start at that time, too, instead of their scheduled 8 a.m. start. I went across the start line and immediately had to start dodging walkers.

It was a pretty packed course throughout. It was a constant dodge-and-weave run for me. That is not my favorite way to run … at all. That is why I run at night.

And, this course had “hills.” I put hills in quotes because a hill in Florida is probably more of a slight incline. People that deal with real hills will call me a wimp. But, when you’re not used to dealing with inclines of any type, this adds another level of difficulty to an already difficult race.

And, speed bumps. Holy cow. I forgot how many speed bumps are on a college campus.

Oh, another thing: it was hot. And, I was wearing a heavy cotton T-shirt. Yuck.

But, it was cool to see all of the people running in honor of or in memory of someone who battled cancer. And, to see all of the money being raised for the Moffitt Cancer Center.

As I made my turn toward the finish line, I kicked it in. I felt really good about my speedy finish, and stopped my watch and started walking at what I thought was the finish line. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the finish line. Sorry to anyone behind me.

Heading toward the "finish line"

I noticed everyone else was still running, so I started running again to the “next” finish line. It wasn’t too far away.

Oops.

I'm getting ready to cross the real finish line. Looking at the photo,
it seems pretty obvious.

I’m still not sure why there were two mats and two finish lines. I didn’t look at either of them clearly (obviously), so I’m not sure what happened.

The time on my watch: 35:08. Yeah, not great. I know I’ve got a much better time in me waiting to bust out. It just wasn’t at this race.

My official time: 35:26. So, my finish line snafu probably cost me about 15 seconds. Sheesh.

Me and Theresa in the shade ... where we belong

The food spread after the race was incredible. The most food I’ve ever seen for any race. I didn’t eat anything after the race, but I took some for later (I have a problem resisting free stuff).

Post-race food (minus the Double Big Gulp; that is the iced tea my
boyfriend used to stay awake for the race)

I wasn’t going to miss this race this year, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again.

It’s a bit of a drive for a short race, the traffic was a pain, the course was not my favorite, and all of the walkers in the run are really frustrating. 

Day 21 (Sept. 25)

The day: Sunday. The time: 7:30 a.m. My mission: run 7 miles.

Mission complete!

I'm so happy I made it to our group run on Sunday. It's so much better to run with a group and knock out the run early in the morning.

The first 2.5 miles of the run were really smooth, and then I hit a hill. I know I said Florida is completely flat, and it is. The hills are bridges. Since we added more mileage to our runs, we have to run a bridge across the bay (a very small portion of the bay) to get to an area to increase our mileage. Curses! So, I hit the hill, and I walked.

Once I got across the bridge, I wasn't sure of the route, and I lost the faster folks in front of me, and the slower folks were too far behind me. So, I had no idea where to go. I picked a route, which was a very bad choice (lots of street crossings). I ended up getting to an area where I could run along the bay fairly uninterrupted, but it was a frustrating process getting there. While frustrated, I walked. I managed to get my 3.5 miles in, took an energy gel and headed back. 

I missed the bridge entrance on my way back (argh!), but managed to realize it and correct myself in a  reasonable time. I walked the bridge again. Pesky, hilly bridge!

But, back on the flat land (and after a water refill — it was blazing hot by this time), I managed to run the last two miles without a walk break. I was super-impressed at myself, as was my assistant coach (who ran with me). Yay!

And, I'm super-impressed I felt as good as I did. My legs weren't sore. And, they weren't sore later in the day or the next day. I defnitely felt like I did some physical activity, but they weren't overly painful. Sweet!

I learned three things from this run:

1. I need a bigger water bottle. My baby bottle didn't cut it (despite its cuteness). Thank goodness there is a water fountain (with surprisingly cold water) along the route, so I could refill it.
   
2. Plan your route before heading out on your run. Kind of a duh!, I realize, but I never really experienced the misfortune of not doing this. It is extremely frustrating to not know where you're going or stumble on a bad route.
3. Training really works! I never thought I'd be able to say I ran 7 miles (with minimal walk breaks). And, not be in excruitiating pain from it. Mind-blowing!

Day 12 (Sept. 4)

I’m still in Kansas, and I need to run 5 miles — my long run for the week. I hit the Shunga Trail, which really rocked (aside from those portions where they were replacing sections of the trail and had blockades and no trail).

It was a cool day (a breezy 70 degrees). Yes, 70 is cool for me. If you’re used to dealing with 90 degrees with 100% humidity, you’d find this almost chilly. And, this made running a breeze. I guess all those people that kept telling me that once it cooled off running would seem easy were right!

I went 2.5 miles in one direction and turned back for the remaining 2.5 miles. I walked a few portions (those mentioned portions with no trail and blockades). I also walked a few sections that had an extreme uphill portion to come up from under a road — extreme uphill could be an exaggeration, but when you’re used to flat land, any hill is extreme (or so says Jina). I tried running them, but I swore I was just making the running motion and staying in the same spot.

This trail took me through neighborhoods, soccer and baseball fields and wooded areas. It really was an enjoyable way to see the city.

Progressive run (Sept. 3)

As part of my plan, I’m supposed to do a 30-minute progressive run (get faster throughout) on either Friday or Saturday. I’ve not been great (OK, pretty crappy actually) at accomplishing this. But, this Saturday (Sept. 3), I did it. Well, not exactly. I attempted it.

I was in Kansas for Labor Day weekend, so I didn’t have my usual running routes at my disposal. My dad and I went searching for places to run. I found two that I thought I’d give a try (one Saturday and one Sunday). The site of my progressive run: Cedar Crest trail, a 2.7-mile trail in front of the governor’s mansion. I thought I’d get one loop in about 30 minutes. Well, somewhere along the way, I went on a different trail and ended up back where I started in about 10 minutes. Also, I went up a gigantic hill (OK, gigantic is most likely an exaggeration, but it sure felt gigantic). People say Kansas is flat. They are wrong. Florida is flat. Kansas is hilly. I’m used to no hills or inclines of any type. This was killer. After the first 10 minutes, I gave up on getting any faster since I had to deal with the hills. After my first loop that was a little less than one mile, I stuck to one stretch that I kept running back and forth for the remainder of the time. It was somewhat flat, but gravel, so that was a little different than I’m used to, too.

I ran 30 minutes, but not progressively. Not exactly what I was supposed to do, but I’m happy I at least ran.