Race Report: Thankful 13

The Details:
Race Name: The Thankful 13
Distances offered: Half Marathon, 5K, Kids Run
Distance I ran: 5K
Timed? Yes, chipped.
Location: Lehi, UT
Traveled? No
Recommended? Yes!






Time to earn our turkey! We had played with the idea of doing some kind of Turkey Trot for the past couple of years, but then we would wind up either travelling elsewhere or hosting at our house and feeling like lousy hosts if we left. This year though, we had to stay home for other reasons, and we didn't wind up hosting anyone either - the time had finally come!

Utah is great for runners, and as with many other categories of races, there are lots to choose from for Thanksgiving. The biggest and most popular is the Utah Human Race - which benefits the Utah Food bank. While that one is undoubtedly a great cause, its huge and seemed likely to be a little unwieldy, when we were looking for something a little more low-key. The Thankful 13 had lots of things going for it - it is a Runtastic Events race, which we've had great experiences with, it is partnered with a charity (food bank), and offered medals!

A few highlights of this race: Turkeys, pies, and hot chocolate!

Pre-race communication: 3.5/5
The pre-race emails for this race were a little confusing. I registered myself and both kids using my email address, while hubby was registered using his own email. In the past, I would get 3 copies of the same email (one for me, and one for each kid). This time, I got the 3 identical confirmation emails, but then the race guide email a few days ahead of time were different. I got two different versions (one came to my son, the other to me and my daughter) that had different information. Then, my husband got a third version that was entirely different from either of the ones that I got. I probably wouldn't have even noticed, except that in the email that hubby got there were very specific instructions for packet pickup (enter between Calvin Klein, etc), but those instructions weren't in the email that I got.

Packet pickup: 4.5/5
Packet pickup was at the Traverse Mountain Outlets in Lehi and took place on the Tuesday before the race from 3pm to 8pm and the day before the race from 10am to 8pm. Since hubby had specific instructions on where to find packet pick-up, it was quick and easy.

The schwag: 4/5
The race shirt was a long-sleeve super soft polyester. Aside from the shirt and race bib, there were a couple of inserts for local running stores and races, a granola bar, and an Emergen-C drink packet.

Race parking and getting the race started: 3.5/5
Parking at the race was at and around the Mountainland Applied Technology College (MATC) behind Thanksgiving Point. There was little parking, so there were cars lining the street and side streets, and right up to the Megaplex theater - which is only about a block or two away and is where we parked.The Half Marathon and 5K were both loops and shared the Start/Finish line. There were plenty of port-a-potties at the start/finish line area. The finish line area was set up and playing music, and it was freezing! I should say that we actually got a very mild Thanksgiving (as far as Utah Thanksgivings go), but right before the race started, it was frigid! The only one of us that thought to wear a hat was hubby, so we were mostly aware of our ears hurting! The Half Marathon started with a loud count down at 8am, and then us 5kers started at 8:30.

Half Marathon race start.

A special escort by the Utah National Guard - who ran in full uniform and carrying flags!

The course: 4/5
The course ran through Lehi residential neighborhoods and the Jordan River Parkway trail.  The route was mostly flat, but did have one pretty serious dip (that is, it had an uphill going both directions) in the first/last quarter mile - it only lasted for about 1/2 block, but it was steep! The route was well marked and the only spot where we could feasibly have made a wrong turn, they had a flagger to direct everyone. Prior to the race, runners were encouraged to submit things that they were thankful for. All along the route, signs appeared that had some of these thankful thoughts. Some super funny ones, "I'm thankful for horizontal running" (with a picture from the scene in Pitch Perfect), and others were super sweet "I'm thankful for the baby in my tummy....surprise!"

The atmosphere: 5/5
Before the race, the predominant feeling was cold! On the course, everyone seemed relaxed and like they were having a good time. There were lots of kids, and lots of people just chatting and having a good time. Several people that lived along the route came out and waved and yelled 'Happy Thanksgiving!' as we went by. After the race, there was lots of loud music, and most people that had finished gathered around to cheer on the runners as they came in.

The aid stations: 3/5
The 5K course had 1 aid station with water, PowerAde, and port-a-potties. The Half Marathon had several - hubby doesn't remember if there were 4 or 5, but he says they were well spaced, well stocked, and well manned!

The bling: 5/5

Front

Back

I loved this! That quote may well become my personal mantra!

The finish line: 5/5
The finish line was full of hot chocolate, pumpkin pie, and dinner rolls in addition to your more standard bananas, oranges, water, and PowerAde. The music was cranked up, and had lots of good variety. There were giveaways and mini-contests for turkeys and pies. It was generally a fun time!

Apparently this was the only finish line photo I took, lol!

Overall Fatty appeal: 4/5
The hot chocolate and pumpkin pie were pretty awesome!

Final thoughts:
The race was well thought-out and well organized. We all had a great time! We especially loved seeing the "I'm thankful for..." signs along the route - it was a great way to liven up the run!

A Guide to Running in Costume

Because I'm less of a runner and more of a have-runner, I'm always looking for something to spice up my runs and races. Fun, silly, super scenic locale, anything so that its not just another miserable 3-6 miles...

Confession time: I am both a huge Halloween nerd, and a massive Disney fan. For running, this means that it was only a matter of time before I ran a race in costume.

I've been looking for a good costume race (and trying to convince hubby to run it with me) for a long time. We actually have several costumed Half Marathons near us, but I wasn't ready to commit to that many miles in costume just yet. And then a wonderful thing happened: one of those Half Marathons added a 5K! I signed up myself and my two kids, and even convinced hubby to slum it with us in the 5K instead of doing the half. So without further ado, a few things we discovered about running in costumes:

DO: Work with what you have.

The best running costumes use running gear. No surprise, right? There is a reason we run in tech fabric and why we choose the the styles and cuts of running gear that we do. We choose our running gear according to what we're most comfortable running in. So, if you can work running gear that you already have into your costume - awesome!

Case in point: Hubby ran as Zorro.

He wore black running tights and a black running shirt that he already had. The cape is one we've had for years and was in our costume box. The hat was a re-use from a past pirate costume. The only new thing that we got was the fabric for the mask which we literally bought on the way to the race, and I cut eye holes while he drove!

DON'T: Use big accessories.

Think about it: you don't want to have to carry extra crap. Another thought though - there are usually A LOT of runners on the course, so not only do you not want to carry this stuff, but if its big, you have to worry about not hitting/running into other runners with it.

Example: fairy wings.

As you can see, her wings expanded way, way out past her shoulders. This became a pain for her in a number of ways. First, at the race start, everyone within 10 feet of her got smacked, poked, whacked, or stabbed with fairy wings. Then, nearly everyone she passed on the course got hit too. Also, fairy wings move. I know, shocker. Her wings spent much more time folded up and shifted down so that they were on her sideways. By the end she was so annoyed, that she took them off and carried them.

If you're going to do wings, a couple of pointers: 1) keep it small - the smaller they are, the less they'll move around. 2) consider immobilizing them - maybe use safety pins to attach to the back of your shirt instead of just relying on the shoulder straps. 3) take them for a test run - yes you will look like a crazy person running around your local park wearing wings, but if they annoy you after 100 yards, you definitely don't want to wear them in a distance race.

DO: Be careful of too many layers. 

Ok, so this one was my own fault. I was trying to go with my first point about wearing running gear if possible. I was going as Lady Zorro, so I was wearing a black knee-length skirt with a red stretchy corset and fishnets. That sounded like it would be awful to run in, so I wore some knee-length running shorts and a tank top underneath. Now, due to the nature of how a corset is worn over a skirt, that means that around my mid-section, I had undies, fishnets, running shorts, a wool skirt, and a corset. That's FIVE layers!! That wound up being hot, constricting, and generally uncomfortable. 

As hot as my middle got, I'm surprised that my race bib didn't melt off by the end...

DON'T: Assume that a mask will be 'fine'

We had mixed results with the masks. Mine was TORTURE. I made it a little over a mile before I took it off. It was hot and made me sweaty way earlier than any other part of me got sweaty (including the parts that were wearing 5 layers!). To make matters worse, nothing stays exactly in place when you're running, so the mask kept riding up and bothering my eyes. Hubby, on the other hand, had no such issues. We made his mask to mirror the original Zorro mask, so it covered his whole head. He still wore it for the whole race with no complaints. To be fair, we were running WAY under his pace, so he never really got hot or sweaty.

Do: Be make small changes to make some things more running-friendly

We made minor modifications to several things to make them more running friendly. For hubby's costume, the cape was one of the cheap Halloween capes that ties at the neck. You can imagine that running along with that flapping behind you and the ties pulling on your throat would get old fast. So we safety-pinned the ties to his shirt. Similarly, my son dressed as Bill Nye the Science Guy, who famously wears a bow-tie. We had a bow-tie in the costume box, but it was one with an elastic band to wear around the neck. Again, we just safety-pinned it to his shirt. Small modifications, but they make a big difference!

We're running another costumed race this weekend, so I'll come back and update with any new lessons learned. Do you have any tips? I'd love to know your tricks!

Displaying your Bling

Ok, I admit it, I'm in it for the bling.

Race medals are cool, and are a tangible, visible reminder of your accomplishments - of how far you've come. Not nearly enough 5k races award their runners with medals, but if you can find one, I highly recommend it. As the race distances get longer, the medals get to be more of a given.

I often just peruse message boards and forums about running. Sometimes I'm looking for something specific, but most often not - I just like to absorb as much knowledge as I can on any subject that I love. On one of these perusals I stumbled upon some amazing medal display racks. Allied Medal Displays makes amazing die-cut aluminum medal holders. With designs from personalization such as your name (or whatever else you want it to say), to standard designs that say things like "Always Earned, Never Given", "Runner Girl", "I Run This Town", and my personal favorite "Pigs Fly", there is an amazing rack for nearly everyone. My only minor complaint is on the pricing - and even then, the price is perfectly appropriate to the product, I just happen to be a broke grad student.

I do however happen to have a very modest amount of creativity, so I set out to find a way to make something at least approaching the clean elegance of Allied Medal's designs. Here is what I ended up with:

Not nearly as cool as the Allied Medal ones, but at less than $15 total, it fit my wallet better. Maybe I'll ask for one of the Allied Medal ones for Christmas :)

How about you? How do you display your medals? If you haven't gotten any yet, how would you like to display them?

When to Run: In a summer storm

As I am writing, thunder is booming outside, there's an occasional flash of lightning, and the rain is falling in fat, heavy splatters. This my friends, is my favorite kind of weather to run in.

"Are you nuts?!" You may be asking...Well that point is debatable, but in this case I don't think so. See, in the dead of summer, with high temperatures reaching over 100 degrees, its hard to find a good time to run without putting yourself at risk of heat exhaustion.

But when it rains, everything turns magical. The icky, sticky feeling is washed out of the air. Since its still 90+ degrees outside, the rain isn't actually cold, its just refreshing. Its hard to get over-heated with a constant nice, refreshing rain cooling you off. Plus there's the unique smell of summer rain.

And, hey, as long as you're not the tallest thing around, you should be fine, right? All in all, a beautiful time to run. :)

Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go!!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!!

Well today was the day. This morning I hauled my butt out of bed at 5:30 am in order to get to the race and be on the shuttle at 7am. The weather was...interesting. It was overcast and about 80 degrees at the start. It sprinkled for the last quarter mile or so, which felt amazingly nice - I kept hoping it would turn into an actual rain, but the sprinkle was nice anyway.

The hardest part of the whole thing was trying to find my "race pace". In case you're unfamiliar, your race pace is typically faster than your training pace. I wanted to feel like I really gave it my all, but I didn't want to die half-way through the race either. I know where my training pace is, so it was a little tricky to find a pace that's faster than that, but not so fast that I would burn out before the finish.

Another thing, if at all possible, I recommend running the race course beforehand. We went and drove it (also a good idea), so we knew where the route went, but since we hadn't actually run it, we didn't realize that nearly all of the last 3/4 mile was UPHILL!! That was a decent kick in the ass...

All in all though, it went very well. I finished, I ran the whole thing, and I beat my best training time. Also, I picked a race that has finisher medals for the 5k, so I got to come home with a nice new medal to show for it!