I finished the race at 40:23. About how I thought I would. But I am still disappointed. I felt "off" about the whole thing all day. I never run in the evening, and when I do, I have some water, make a pit stop and get on the road (or the track or trail) and start running. In this race, there were so many participants that I had to arrive an hour early, find parking and get organized. Unfortunately, this led to being outside in hot and humid conditions, sweating.
I was concerned about drinking so much water that I would have an "urgent need" during the race, so I stopped fluids once I arrived to Veteran's Park. This was a mistake. Just after the first mile marker, I had stomach cramps - something I hadn't had since my very first days of beginning running. I pulled it together since my mom was just a block ahead, ready with her camera (gotta love Mom) and waiting for me to run by. She snapped a few pics, it gave me a little lift, and I ran on.
Thankfully the water stop was just a few blocks ahead. As soon as the water hit my stomach, I felt back to my old self and felt instantly energized. That confirmed I was dehydrated. I grabbed another cup of water from a volunteer and slowed down very slightly to drink as much of it as I could. The volunteers shouted encouragement, and that was also very helpful.
After the downhill slope onto Canal Street, the cramps hit again. My breathing sounded like I had never heard it while running.
I asked my sister to stand at Gold's Gym with my nephews as I knew mile 2 would be a time for encouragement. My sister ALWAYS has bottles of water in the car or in her purse. I waved my arms and yelled, "Do you have any water?" Yeah, I'm quite the athlete, huh? I ran this race course twice on my own without any water, and suddenly I was ready to die on it.
She heard me but didn't understand what I said, so she smiled and stood up, the boys stood up and smiled. I practically screamed again, "DO YOU HAVE ANY WATER?" My sister said, "no". I said, "great!", the boys laughed, I thanked them for coming out, and ran on. It turned out one of my nephews had an emergency like one I was hoping to avoid, and my sister needed to dump out their usually constant water supply so he could have a place to relieve himself. She felt bad for not having any water, but I've never needed it before on a 5k run, so why would anything be different?
Luckily I got a surge of energy on the last uphill. I felt pretty good, was jazzed to see my 3 mile split time (right on track, even with all the dehydration cramping drama), so I ran with a little more pep up that last hill. I crossed the finish line but didn't feel any sense of accomplishment. All I could think was, "Wow, that sucked".
I unlaced my Champion Chip from my shoe and turned it in for my "Finisher's Prize", a nylon drawstring backpack sort of deal. I grabbed some water and a few sodas for later, and found a quiet spot in the shade to stretch. The post race refreshments were surprisingly ick, so I didn't partake.
Another runner wrote a very accurate race report on coolrunning.com. I edited out his personal info and added my comments.
"The starting line was located in downtown Manchester, NH – the core of an old mill city in the midst of a comeback. Streets are bustling with cafes and restaurants spilling out from under the eves of historic, turn of the century brick buildings. The starting line is in front of an urban park, replete with historic civic art and architecture, within which the thousands of runners gathered for the start. The Kenyans were bounding around, looking supernatural seeming to float above the pavement as they warmed up.
It was a wave start and I picked the ‘recreational runners’ wave. This was supposed to be for those who expected to finish the course between 23 and 28 minutes but in reality, served as a catch bin for all those who considered themselves not to be walkers [This was me. I knew I couldn't finish in under 28, but there was no way I was going to be classified as a walker!]. I chatted with a lady standing next to me and she confided that the start would be choppy, lots of fits and starts, until the thousands of runners streamed out a bit and sorted themselves out.
The MC worked the crowd lightly until a minute or two before the gun. This was followed by a powerful, albeit dirge-slow rendition of the national anthem performed by some local lady talent. The money note at the end of the rendition got everyone in the right frame of mind, and by the end, the crowd was in an uproar and raring to go.
Moments later, the starting gun sounded. I walked the minute or two to the mats, [There were so many runners that us recreational runners had to wait before we could even pass the start line. This is the purpose of the Champion Chip. The clock is running from the time the gun is fired, but you may not even get to the starting line for another two minutes. The chip records your time from when your foot passes over the start line and again at the finish line, resulting in your actual race time] chatting with the lady who I had spoken with earlier. She confided that she has run a triathlon this past weekend which made me doubt whether or not I could hang with her, in a running sense. She intimated that she was a seven’s gal, and told me she has run this race many times in the past, so I decided to attempt to stay at her pace and, hopefully, benefit from her experience (she weren’t bad looking, either – just sayin’).
The first ½ mile or so was interesting. I never would have imagined how many folks would flame out within the first half mile. It was difficult to navigate through this crowded, uneven field and I expended a great deal of energy maneuvering around the lurching and struggling, up on the sidewalk, back down onto the road, over grates and manholes, around trees, folks stopping or nearly so in groups several abreast – the tri-lady was right – this was a challenge.
The tri-lady, wee-lass, was more adept at navigating the crowd, and she pulled away over the first mile. I kept her in my sights, determined to reel her in when given a clear path through the crowd. After about a mile, the initial wave of flameouts faded into the distance. Finally, I could settle into comfortable pace.
The course was really easy – nice and flat for the most part. If it weren’t for the conditions (near 90 and humid) and the crowds I surely would have PR’s [Personal Record] . Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, and I knew so when I crossed the first mile marker with an 8:10 split.
The second mile was a dream – gradual downhill, straight even pavement – plenty of onlookers cheering us on. There was what appeared to be an open hydrant, or perhaps a fire hose geysing cool jets of city water over the course. That was a wonderful antidote to the oppressive heat and humidity and I slowed the pace to linger there longer than I maybe should have [I stayed clear of the fire hose. I didn't think running in sopping shoes would help me].
I lost track of the tri-lady somewhere around the two-mile marker. By this point, many of the recreational runners, and some of the ‘competitive runners’ (you could tell who was who by the color of their numbers) were walking. This was another novelty, and I expect something you only see in very large races. In my previous two races I had never seen so many otherwise fit looking people just give up and start walking – especially with a two mile split of around 15 minutes. I expect there was a lot of overzealousness over those first two miles and many were paying for their initial pacing errors [It's a common mistake for runners to start out very fast, then burn out less than halfway into a race. I was aware that this can happen to even the most experienced runners, so I was careful to maintain my normal pace].
In any event, the course wandered down near the historic mill section of the city, down by the river. At the three-mile mark, it took an abrupt left and presented a largish hill as the final obstacle to the finish line. I had my usual kick and pelted up the hill at a good clip, feeling pretty good all around and passing lots of folks.
This was indeed the easiest course I’ve run and the best I’ve felt at the end of the race. The tri-lady ended up finishing about quite a ways behind me - I must have passed her somewhere after the two mile mark. Sadly, my time wasn’t as good as could have been. The heat, the crowds were too much to overcome and I finished 8 seconds behind my PR that I had set the previous week on a much tougher course.
That’s ok, though- it was an interesting experience I’m glad to have under my belt – though I’m sticking to the smallish races from now on."
Big Apple Runners Win Cigna 5K
The 13th annual Cigna Healthcare Corporate 5K Road Race drew nearly 4,000 runners to downtown Manchester on Thursday. The men's winner was 23-year old Alene Reta of New York, NY with a time of 14:22. Guor Majak of Concord came in second place at 15:01. The women's winner was 25-year old Alemtsehay Misganan, also from New York, NY. She finished with a time of 16:15. This is the third largest road race in New England, behind the Boston Marathon and the Falmouth Road Race. Source: WMUR Channel 9
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