Post by alanmoore on May 6, 2012 20:32:16 GMT -6
Jonnene and I spent the weekend in Pensacola, Florida celebrating our sixth anniversary and did the usual variety of things you do on trips like this. Of course, we scoured the internet to see if there were any competitions we could enter for a good workout and to be part of the local color.
We found two races but decided on one called the Sunset Stampede 5K being held on May 5th for the fourth year in nearby Navarre. The course sits on this spit of land...an barrier island, if you will...between the Gulf of Mexico and an inlet that separates it from the mainland. There is zero elevation change. The reason it's called "Sunset" is that the race starts at 6:30 pm and, after the race, everyone heads over to a local bar & grill to eat and listen to live music followed by the awards ceremony. The sun is setting over the Gulf during this time. Very nice.
We signed up on Friday night at the Navarre Best Western. A difference here was that food was available at pre-registration! Yes! There was also a Newton running shoes display booth where you could check out the product and be assessed for a pair of the unusual running shoes. I like my New Balance and Asics so I skipped that part. BTW, the bib numbers were the most colorful I'd ever seen and included the B-tag timing system strips on the back.
On Saturday we did the usual touristy stuff around the area, then headed back to our hotel room to rest our legs to prepare for the run. Finally we dressed and took the slow drive to the race site (slow because we had to drive thru a bird nesting area, had to go 20 mph for seven miles...ugh). The lot we parked in was also the finish area but the start was almost a half mile away! We had to walk there along with the rest of the 800+ runners and walkers but it was all good...the area had port-o-lets, water, etc. Jonnene and I got our stretches out of the way and did some shorts runs. It was windy out of the southwest which meant we'd have the wind in our face on the way out but a tailwind on the way back. Good!
The start reminded me too much of the FireCracker 5K. The wrong people crowding up to the front of the field...the walkers, kids, folks that you can tell by looking at them aren't fast enough to be at the front. Then the gun goes off and you're trying not to trip and working like crazy to get around people who shouldn't be in front of you in the first place, mainly for safety's sake. But the start happened and I survived the first 100 meters well enough. Jonnene had moved further to the back where she thought she should be, especially with a couple of minor nagging injuries she has.
The first mile and a quarter is pretty much straight and it feels like you're making no progress at all. I took a quick glance at my Garmin and it told me I was going at a 6:38/mile clip which really surprised me since I don't really go that fast! I ended up getting a 6:47 on my first mile but I could tell I was starting to slow down. The first turn is to the right onto Arkansas Street where you run past the only water station on the course for a quarter mile to the cul-de sac (sp?) at the end. You go around a manhole cover and retrace your steps back down Arkansas. I saw Jonnene at this point and we high-fived each other as we went past. She looked okay. Anyway, then you make a turn to the left, not onto the main road you earlier came off of, but onto a parallel bike/walk path.
By this time I'm feeling the humidity but now I have a tailwind and it helps. My second mile has dropped to a 7:19 but I'm not at all unhappy about that since that was the overall pace I had wanted to maintain in the first place. I was getting tired and, again, it was a matter of dealing with the straight-on path and feeling like I'm making no progress. Landmarks looked so far away but eventually I would pass them and then concentrate on the next one. Then suddenly I was approaching the entrance to the parking lot where the finish line was and my Garmin tells me my third mile is a 7:20! My last two miles were dead-on even...I'm happy. I made the left turn into the lot...there were lots of signs put up to encourage the finishers...then a right for a 100-meter straight shot to the finish line! Then, about 20 meters from the finish, a 26-year-old girl from Georgia shoots past me! I didn't even hear her coming. I was upset for a moment but got over that quickly. She beat me fair and square...by a second. Rats! My official finish time is a 22:19.
I grab a cold bottle of water with a souvenir coozie on it and went back to wait for Jonnene's finish. After about 5-6 minutes here she came and she was going about as fast as she could! A guy passed her in the last few meters and he suddenly stopped at the finish line right in front of her. Jonnene was not happy with that and slipped around him to avoid a collision. She would finish with a 28:04, finishing 11th out of 32 in the women's 45-49 age group. The interesting thing was that the two ladies behind her at the finish were also in her age group, finishing 2 and 4 seconds behind her! A close finish indeed and the difference between 11th and 13th places! Jonnene would get 199th place overall out of 541 finishers and I was proud of her for that.
I ended up with 42nd place overall and winning the men's 55-59 age group. I was just hoping to place!
Afterwards everyone went over to Juana's Bar & Grill, a race sponsor, and we had gumbo and drinks with a live band preforming. There were tents set up next to the beach for the racers. The only problem was the time it took to process the winners before awards could be presented. It took almost two hours! And this was electronic timing! The results had been posted this whole time but they were having some kind of problem. We could have gone back to the hotel and changed and returned if we knew it would take this long. But I got my prize for first place, a coconut mug with hand-painted graphics on it. It's great!
If you go to Pensacola the first weekend of May I'd recommend this race. It's pretty well organized and there's plenty to eat before and after the race. It's fun to go to other places far from Shreveport and see how you measure up to the folks in those places.
We found two races but decided on one called the Sunset Stampede 5K being held on May 5th for the fourth year in nearby Navarre. The course sits on this spit of land...an barrier island, if you will...between the Gulf of Mexico and an inlet that separates it from the mainland. There is zero elevation change. The reason it's called "Sunset" is that the race starts at 6:30 pm and, after the race, everyone heads over to a local bar & grill to eat and listen to live music followed by the awards ceremony. The sun is setting over the Gulf during this time. Very nice.
We signed up on Friday night at the Navarre Best Western. A difference here was that food was available at pre-registration! Yes! There was also a Newton running shoes display booth where you could check out the product and be assessed for a pair of the unusual running shoes. I like my New Balance and Asics so I skipped that part. BTW, the bib numbers were the most colorful I'd ever seen and included the B-tag timing system strips on the back.
On Saturday we did the usual touristy stuff around the area, then headed back to our hotel room to rest our legs to prepare for the run. Finally we dressed and took the slow drive to the race site (slow because we had to drive thru a bird nesting area, had to go 20 mph for seven miles...ugh). The lot we parked in was also the finish area but the start was almost a half mile away! We had to walk there along with the rest of the 800+ runners and walkers but it was all good...the area had port-o-lets, water, etc. Jonnene and I got our stretches out of the way and did some shorts runs. It was windy out of the southwest which meant we'd have the wind in our face on the way out but a tailwind on the way back. Good!
The start reminded me too much of the FireCracker 5K. The wrong people crowding up to the front of the field...the walkers, kids, folks that you can tell by looking at them aren't fast enough to be at the front. Then the gun goes off and you're trying not to trip and working like crazy to get around people who shouldn't be in front of you in the first place, mainly for safety's sake. But the start happened and I survived the first 100 meters well enough. Jonnene had moved further to the back where she thought she should be, especially with a couple of minor nagging injuries she has.
The first mile and a quarter is pretty much straight and it feels like you're making no progress at all. I took a quick glance at my Garmin and it told me I was going at a 6:38/mile clip which really surprised me since I don't really go that fast! I ended up getting a 6:47 on my first mile but I could tell I was starting to slow down. The first turn is to the right onto Arkansas Street where you run past the only water station on the course for a quarter mile to the cul-de sac (sp?) at the end. You go around a manhole cover and retrace your steps back down Arkansas. I saw Jonnene at this point and we high-fived each other as we went past. She looked okay. Anyway, then you make a turn to the left, not onto the main road you earlier came off of, but onto a parallel bike/walk path.
By this time I'm feeling the humidity but now I have a tailwind and it helps. My second mile has dropped to a 7:19 but I'm not at all unhappy about that since that was the overall pace I had wanted to maintain in the first place. I was getting tired and, again, it was a matter of dealing with the straight-on path and feeling like I'm making no progress. Landmarks looked so far away but eventually I would pass them and then concentrate on the next one. Then suddenly I was approaching the entrance to the parking lot where the finish line was and my Garmin tells me my third mile is a 7:20! My last two miles were dead-on even...I'm happy. I made the left turn into the lot...there were lots of signs put up to encourage the finishers...then a right for a 100-meter straight shot to the finish line! Then, about 20 meters from the finish, a 26-year-old girl from Georgia shoots past me! I didn't even hear her coming. I was upset for a moment but got over that quickly. She beat me fair and square...by a second. Rats! My official finish time is a 22:19.
I grab a cold bottle of water with a souvenir coozie on it and went back to wait for Jonnene's finish. After about 5-6 minutes here she came and she was going about as fast as she could! A guy passed her in the last few meters and he suddenly stopped at the finish line right in front of her. Jonnene was not happy with that and slipped around him to avoid a collision. She would finish with a 28:04, finishing 11th out of 32 in the women's 45-49 age group. The interesting thing was that the two ladies behind her at the finish were also in her age group, finishing 2 and 4 seconds behind her! A close finish indeed and the difference between 11th and 13th places! Jonnene would get 199th place overall out of 541 finishers and I was proud of her for that.
I ended up with 42nd place overall and winning the men's 55-59 age group. I was just hoping to place!
Afterwards everyone went over to Juana's Bar & Grill, a race sponsor, and we had gumbo and drinks with a live band preforming. There were tents set up next to the beach for the racers. The only problem was the time it took to process the winners before awards could be presented. It took almost two hours! And this was electronic timing! The results had been posted this whole time but they were having some kind of problem. We could have gone back to the hotel and changed and returned if we knew it would take this long. But I got my prize for first place, a coconut mug with hand-painted graphics on it. It's great!
If you go to Pensacola the first weekend of May I'd recommend this race. It's pretty well organized and there's plenty to eat before and after the race. It's fun to go to other places far from Shreveport and see how you measure up to the folks in those places.