Outer Banks Race Weekend

November 9, 2015November 9, 2015 veggiefueledrunner Race, Weekly #outerbanks, #race, #run, #runcommunity, #runfriends, #runhappy, #running, marathon

Friday:

After work I set out for the Outer Banks, the GPS said it would be about a 5 1/2 hour drive down. Along the way I decided to stop when I saw a sign for Wawa and get a sandwich. Much to my disappointment as soon as I exited the highway the sign for Wawa said 3 miles, rather misleading from the highway sign, but I still went refueled and had a sandwich.

When I finally made it to the Outer Banks it was dark, but much to my surprise my hotel was right on the beach! (I didn’t notice when I booked the hotel) After I changed I walked down to the water, it was ice-cold! I didn’t go in any deeper than my ankles, there were still a few people trying to eek out the last little bit of light as they were surfing.

I came back to the room and text my friend who is also running the Outer Banks Marathon this weekend. He and his wife are doing their first marathon. We made plans to meet for dinner at a place nearby called Chili Peppers. For dinner there were seven of us, he and his wife had brought along four friends who were doing the half marathon. It was great to meet everyone, the conversation was light as I got to know everyone. One of Jim’s friends mentioned they were thinking about starting a blog, and I recommended doing it! Of course we talked about mine and then how I become a vegetarian. Jim’s wife and a few of her friends said they were going try being vegetarians for 30 days, they were inspired! Woot Woot! I told them they have to keep me in the loop.

Lots of business had signs up welcoming runners! First one I saw when I entered Kitty Hawk.

After dinner, I went back to the hotel to watch some television. There wasn’t much on, I watched a show on Discovery called Pacific Warriors. It was about ‘local’ Hawaiian fisherman. It was hard not to laugh. I lived in Hawaii for four years, the people on the show were no way locals. They didn’t talk like the locals and had problems getting the native dialect (pidgin) correct. I could be wrong but I very much doubt these people actually grew up in Hawaii. After a good laugh I went to bed.

Saturday:

I slept in, all the way to 0900 hrs. That is actually pretty late for me. When I woke up I had a few banana chips and went for a shake out run. I ran about two miles, trying to keep a slower pace. I want to start the race really slow around a 9 min pace. I know I have said that before but I really mean it. It was already warm and humid outside. I am hoping the weather forecast is right and the cold front comes through or it is going to be a long race.

After the run I walked down to the beach for a little while and there were quite a few people surfing and doing stand up paddleboarding. I took a shower and made my way over to the running expo. The parking lots were small and I had to drive around to find parking but the expo itself was pretty nice. They had lots of vendors and a nice swag bag. I walked around the expo for a while before deciding it was time for lunch. A Harris Teeter was only a mile away so I made my way there to get some lunch and sunscreen. I’m not sure if it is going to be sunny tomorrow, but I figure I should probably get some just to be safe.

Maryland Harris Teeter's need this section! — Maryland Harris Teeter’s need this section!

I had pizza and some desert and then took it easy. I decided to take a nap, hey you can never have too much rest before a marathon 😉 While I was napping I thought I heard a knock at the door, before I could answer the door was opening. It was someone trying to check in. Apparently, the hotel does not have good record keeping. The people apologized and went to sort out the issue, I did notice it was raining pretty hard. Hopefully that will cool things off.

Surprisingly I’m not nervous or worried about this race like was for Baltimore. I don’t know why. I have a plan for this race and hopefully everything comes together and I can break the 4-hour mark.

Around 1800 hrs. I went over to where Jim and his friends were staying. Some of his friends had made a runner’s dream dinner, Ziti! Time to carbo-load. I had gone to Harris Teeter and bought coconut cake for dessert. Dinner was excellent, on top of the Ziti in pasta was OBX made with noodles (Forgot to take a photo). After eating we watched the movie Inside Out, normally I am not one for animated movies, but it was pretty good! When the movie was over we all wished each other good luck and I headed back to the hotel. I arrived and my room key did not work, I went to have it rekeyed and told the desk staff about my unexpected visitors earlier. She said she would let the manager know. I watched some television, set me alarms and went to sleep.

Sunday:

Very windy, these waves were between 6-8 ft.

0400 hrs. I woke up to have a small breakfast and went back to sleep for a little while. 0530 hrs. time to get up and prepare for the race before leaving around 0630 hrs. I drove to where the parking lot was near the start line and took a quick shuttle ride to the start line. Before getting on the shuttle I ran into Jim and his wife and we rode over together. The start line had plenty of porta-potties so the line the use the bathroom was not long at all. The race started right on time 0720 hrs. and we were off! I will have a full race recap later this week, let’s just say things did not go according to planned and it was a painful race. After the race I took the shuttle back to the parking lot, hopped in my truck and went back to the hotel to shower. My body has never hurt so much after a race. I didn’t feel like eating anything so after showering I hit the road to get home. I stopped once to refuel and grab a little something to eat. I still didn’t feel like eating but knew I had to. I finally made it home around 1930 hrs. I unpacked, put my laundry in the wash and went over my best friends to watch Sunday Night Football. After the game, I came home and fell asleep almost immediately.

The race didn’t go as planned and it wasn’t a PR, I will detail that more in my recap, but looking back I don’t think it was a good idea for me to run two marathons within a 3 week period. Especially after my 365 day running streak. My race season is officially over, it is time to rest and let my body repair itself.

How was your weekend? What recovery tips do you have?

-Veggie Fueled Runner

BRF Marathon in…

October 21, 2015 veggiefueledrunner Race, Race Recap #baltimoremarathon, #baltimorerunningfestival, #brf, #pr, #run, #runcommunity, #running, marathon

My alarm went off at 0400 hrs, thank goodness it wasn’t time to get up just yet. I wake up early to eat and then go back to sleep for a little while before big races. I had an Extend Nutrition bar with some water and went back to sleep until 0530 hrs. A cold front was suppose to have come through overnight and the weather was cooler than it had been the past week, which made for good running conditions. I dressed in the tank top and shorts I had been running in all summer, but put on a winter hat, gloves, and arm warmers since the temp was only in the upper 40’s.

I pulled into the parking lot at M&T Bank stadium around 0645, I sat in my truck till 0730 then made my way to the start line, it was cold but I knew I would warm up once I started running. As I waited in the starting corral I went over my game plan in my head; go out slow and try to make up time later in the marathon. A woman came up to me while we were waiting to start and we started to make small talk and introduced each other, her name was Sandy. She noticed my Garmin and asked what pace I planned to run and I explained my plan; she said if it was okay she was going to run with me for a while. I didn’t mind and she said she was hoping to finish under 4:19. This is just another reason why I love the running community, you never know when you are going to meet someone new!

The marathon started just after 0800 and we were off, we took the first mile out at around a 9 min pace, right on target, the first few miles were a slight uphill towards the Maryland Zoo. My hat at gloves were gone by mile 2, I threw them off to the side of the road. As we ran Sandy and I talked about where we were from, running, and just got to know each other. Our pace quickened a little without either of us really noticing to around an 8:30 pace. That was a little faster than I wanted to go out, but I was feeling comfortable. The first few waters stops were pretty crowded, so crowded only one of us got water, but runners being courteous people, we got enough for each other. As we passed through the Zoo, some of the animals were out to greet us. We saw some penguins; while some runners stopped to take selfies we kept on moving through. Our pace had quickened again and we turned in a sub-8 mile, I knew we had to slow down and bit and we eased off the pace.

Sorry for the thumbnail, I’m not paying $65 for 5 photos, waiting for the discount!!!

As we left the zoo, the course had a few hills but then flattened out. St. Paul street to the Inner Harbor was downhill, so we could relax a little bit. Running through Harborview we saw some of my friends and I dropped my fuel belt with them. It was getting really lose during the run and was becoming annoying. I took the bloks out and put them in my pocket before dropping it. As we circled the Under Armour factory I really had to pee; Sandy said she would slow down and run along the side of the road so I could catch back up. A tree made a great substitute for the port-a-potty that had a line, hey I wasn’t the only one doing that! To catch up to Sandy I threw down a 7:30 mile, I had a feeling that would come back to hurt me.

Passing the 13.1 mile marker, Sandy saw some of her friends. I thought my Garmin said 1:50, but looking at my times on the marathon website it said we ran the first half in 1:54, I could have seen my watch incorrectly. Either way we were making good time maybe a little too fast. I mentioned to Sandy maybe we should slow down a bit, she said we should just keep up the pace. I was still feeling good and we did. Going through Harboreast I saw all the people I know from Lululemon at their cheer station, it was motivating to high five all of them as we went by. Coming out of Harboreast Sandy and I both noticed how quite it had gotten along the course, there weren’t many spectators for the next couple of miles.

Approaching mile 16 and Patterson Park I slowed the pace a bit; Sandy kept the pace going and we lost each other in the crowd as the half marathon and marathon merged together. I saw my parents cheering on the sidewalk, which was some more motivation. After passing Patterson Park, I didn’t see Sandy anymore and the climb to Lake Montebello started, for the next 4 miles there would be an incline. In mile 18 I lost my steam, someone was handing out full bottles of water and bananas, I grabbed both and walked while I drank the water and ate the banana. I finally cleared the hills and made it to Lake Montebello at mile 20 I started doing the math in my head of how fast I had to run each mile to make it under 4 hours.

Alternating between walking and running I watched the time tick away on my Garmin. Going out faster than I wanted was coming back to haunt me. I tried to find the energy to keep going, my legs were exhausted. Mile 22 was the final incline and it really slowed me down. I was going back and forth between 9:20 pace per mile and 11+ min a mile, I was in trouble. At mile 24 I still thought I had a shot at breaking 4 hours, but I would have to throw down two sub-7:30 miles, my legs didn’t have it in them, or my mind wouldn’t let them do their thing. Either way it wasn’t going to happen.

Still waiting for the MarathonFoto discount emails!

I crossed the finish line at 4:11:16. So close to breaking the 4 hour mark yet so far away. Even though I didn’t break 4 hours I was happy with my time; I PR’d by 32 minutes. I immediately started analyzing the race in my mind and where things went wrong. Then I started thinking about when I can run another marathon and when I could be ready.

I made my way over to get a foil blanket, I was freezing, I had tossed my hat and gloves a long time ago and the temp dropped after that. I finally got a foil blanket, met my parents, and got my jacket from them but I could not get warm. I think it was in the low 40’s or upper 30’s by this point. We took some pictures and stood in line for a while to get my Maryland Double Medal and King Crab Challenge medal holder, in total I was outside for about an hour and shivering the entire time.

I did get to ring the PR Bell!!! Everyone before me went up got there picture and struck the bell once, after my mom took the picture I struck the hell out that bell several times!!!

Waiting around the finish area I looked for Sandy but didn’t see her anywhere, we actually connected later in the day and caught up a bit, she finished in 4:01:40 a PR for her as well.

When I finally made it to my truck I was so happy to be able to turn the heat on and get warm. The warm shower felt great once I was home, except on my arm pits, the arm warmers had rubbed my arms raw, really raw. I continued to analyze the marathon in my head for the rest of the day and watched it on television. I had recorded it. That night the tradition of the marathon party continued, it was smaller than usual, but still a good time!

I have continued to think about what I could have done differently over the last few days and will probably do that for a while. I am looking at doing a half marathon soon, but will probably wait until the spring to tackle another marathon.

How was your race season? What are your goals before the end of the year?

Check back tomorrow for Thinking Out Loud and see if the streak continued…

-Veggie Fueled Runner

Charles St. 12 (PR)

September 8, 2015September 8, 2015 veggiefueledrunner Race, Race Recap #charlesst12, #chuck12, #personalrecord, #pr, #race, #run, #runfriends, #runhappy, #running, #training

The alarm was set for 0400 hrs. when I woke up and looked at the clock it was 0345 hrs. I thought about going back to sleep for 15 mins, but decided I would rather get up now and eat than wait to hear my annoying alarm clock go off. I got up made a shake, drank it, and went back to sleep for another hour. I’ve been getting up early before long races and eating something, I think it helps to get something in my stomach and eating earlier gives it time to settle.

0515 hrs. I woke just before my alarm went off, I had a nightmare that I slept through my alarm and missed the race completely, thankfully it was only a dream. I got up got dressed, packed some clothes for after the race, and I was out the door to meet Elizabeth. We were going to ride to the race together since it was a point to point from Towson to Power Plant Live in downtown Baltimore. We arrived at the start line and immediately got in line for the bathrooms, let’s be honest that is pretty much what everyone does because you are going to have to go if you have hydrated properly. After we used the bathrooms, we warmed up a little and did a 5 min run near the start line. We ran into one of our friends Laura, we briefly chatted and made out way to the start line. I decided to use the bathroom one more time, and made it back to the start line just before the race started. I saw two of our other running friends Sarah and Lauren. I talked to them and they were planning on starting at a faster pace then I wanted to, so was Elizabeth. I wanted to use this run to simulate, the best I could, what I wanted to do in the marathon.

We were all at the front of the starting line around the 1:35 pace group, when the race started. Sarah, Lauren, and Elizabeth took off and I hung back and slowed down that first mile. My first mile was 8:17, still a bit faster than I wanted to be and it was uphill. I wanted to start around an 8:30 pace. The Charles St. 12 is an overall negative downhill race, the key word being ‘overall’, it is actually a pretty hilly course. Just after the first mile there was a water station, which I though was great this early in the race. The second mile was mostly downhill, and I ran it in 7:51. I remember thinking without a plan this race could get out of control quickly because of all the changes in elevation. I made a conscious effort to slow down a bit; I was feeling strong but I didn’t want to burn out and not have anything left for the end of the race.

At the end of mile 2 there was another water stop; I thought to myself this is great if there is a water stop approximately every mile. That was not the case. Mile 3 I slowed to 8:30 on a pretty steep climb and then my pace evened out around 8:15 a mile. Miles 3, 4, and 5 came and went without a water stop. I was getting pretty thirsty and even some other runners around me began to comment on the ‘now’ poor placement of the first two water stops, they were to close together. Finally around mile 6 there was a water and Gatorade stop. Just after the stop I heard someone from behind call my name, it was my friend Pat. I was surprised to see him, he had told me he wasn’t running the race, we ran together for a few miles and talked politics. He decided to slow his pace just a little but I was feeling strong so I pushed on. Normally, I would have hung back but I wanted to make sure I could keep the pace and feel good at the end. Now my pace was just below 8:10 a mile and I was still feeling strong.

The water stops picked again in frequency and were much better placed for the remainder of the race. In mile 8 my right shoe came untied twice which really annoyed me. I finally tucked in my laces, which I should have done earlier. After each time I stopped to tie them I sprinted back to where I was, I had noticed which runners were behind me. So while I didn’t lose any time I didn’t make up any either. At mile 9 there was a water stop at the bottom of a steep hill which followed a steep ascent, near the Washington Monument. I think it was poor placement of the water stop but that late in the race I’ll take water whenever I can get it.

With only 3 miles to go I though about really starting to push the pace, but I was also feeling like I could use a bathroom break so I decided to keep the pace the same and not pick it up to much. The rest of the course was downhill, from mile 10 I was pretty familiar with the terrain, since it was in downtown and I run a lot there. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a final climb in Federal Hill, some of those streets can be pretty steep. We ran through Fed Hill mid way through mile 10 and thankfully there were not any hills. All of mile 11 was along the promenade of the Inner Harbor which made for a great finish, after the final water stop at the mileage marker I decided to pick up the pace. Just before the finish line my Garmin 220 beeped, I looked down I had run a 7:44 mile, the fastest one of the race. I sprinted the remaining few hundred meters and crossed the finish line at 1:38:16 an 8:11 pace! That was PR! It was PR by default because I had never run that distance but I had also never run that long at that pace so it was a great feeling.

After quickly grabbing my medal, I saw Sarah and Elizabeth waiting for me, but I made my way to the bushes. I though I was going to vomit after my sprint. I didn’t and Elizabeth came over, and said ‘Let’s go get our beers!’. That’s the whole reason to run right, free beers at the end! We stood around and chatted for a little while and then decided to make our way back home, I was meeting Sarah and FKBT for brunch, Elizabeth had to work. We walked back and stopped at Lululemon, because well you just have to stop in when you walk by. I bought some boxers because I had forgotten to pack some; I used this as an excuse to finally buy the one thing I had been holding out on buying. I’m so glad I bought them they are super comfortable, no surprise there. But I digress.

I went back to Sarah’s apartment, showered and changed, our friend Theo, came back with us too and we went to brunch at Warehouse 518. Tim’s (FKBT) friend Aiden is the head waiter there and he took care of us! I have met him a few times and he is a pretty fun person and made sure to take care of Sarah and I since we just finished the 12 miler. It was great to catch up with Tim, I haven’t seen him much since he moved and it had been quite some time since Theo, Tim and I hung out together. Brunch was delicious! If you are in the Mt. Vernon area I recommend Warehouse 518!

You have to put back the depleted carbs after a race!

Overall it was a great day with friends and we all PR’d, so we were all happy! It was a good way to judge where we are all at in our marathon training, though I think we all agreed we would have liked to run that extra 1.1 miles to see if we could have PR’d at the half distance. The Charles St. 12 is a race I will consider doing again next year.

Did you race this weekend? How did it go?

-Veggie Fueled Runner

Week 12 (8/31-9-6)

September 7, 2015September 8, 2015 veggiefueledrunner Race, Training #chuck12, #marathontraining, #run, #runfriends, #runhappy, #running, #temporun, #training, marathon

Week 11 ended on a bit of a rough note with the long run, but overall it went pretty well. I was happy with the week and felt I made the most out of it. I’m looking forward to the lower mileage week this week and the Charles St. 12 on Saturday.

Monday: 4 Miles (Pace 8:21)

Last week it was rather cool for the last week of August, in Baltimore the heat can return in an instant! The heat and humidity came back today. It was in the low 90’s with 70% humidity, so I waited until later in the evening to run. I hydrated throughout the day and was feeling better after yesterday’s long run. I started my run feeling good and then just like yesterday around mile 2, I felt like a ton of bricks hit me. I felt wiped out. I pushed through and finished my run. I chalked it up to not having enough water throughout the day, even though I thought I had. Glad to get this one behind me.

Tuesday: 2.25 Miles (Pace 7:58)

It is looking like the heat will not subside until the weekend, which will be better nice since I have a race this weekend. I was suppose to go 6 miles today, but I waited till later and didn’t have the time. I was meeting a friend to move lacrosse goals which turned out to be harder than one might think. Anyway, I digress. I figured since I wasn’t running 6 miles I would run a bit of a faster pace. I got my miles in around the neighborhood and felt pretty good today. I think I am rehydrated!

Wednesday: 5 Miles (Pace 8:00)

This evening I ran with my friend Cat and her brother. She wanted to do a tempo run and I was fine with that, I’m suppose to do speed work tomorrow but I figured I could just swap days. We ran around Canton and Fells Point, we started out pretty slow around a 8:30 pace, we chatted and caught up on what everyone had been up to, then John (Cat’s brother) really picked it up. We quickly dropped to a 7 min mile and averaged 7:30 for the next 3. The conversation dropped to a minimum during those 3 miles, the last mile we slowed down and cooled down. It was still muggy but it felt good to get a tempo/speed work in. I decided at the end of the run I wasn’t going to do intervals tomorrow.

Thursday: 3.3 Miles (Pace 8:14)

Since I wasn’t doing intervals I figured I would still do the mileage I would have running intervals. I looped around my neighborhood and had a strong run. It was negative splits which I am always happy with.

Friday: 1 Mile (Pace 8:24)

Tomorrow is race day! I made sure on my short run tonight to deliberately run a bit slower. After my run I made some pasta for dinner, which I had also had for lunch and dinner on Thursday. Carbo-loading!

Saturday: 12 Miles (Pace 8:09)

See Charles St. 12

Sunday: 3.1 Miles (Pace 8:09)

This morning I was little sore from the race, my feet and quads mostly. I hobbled around a bit and then got ready for the day. I was meeting a friend from high school; we were going scuba diving in in a quarry in Westminster. We drove up spent about an hour maybe a little more in the water, had lunch and then came back. I showered and sat on the couch for a little while to rest and I started to dose off, I texted some friends and asked if the wanted to go see a movie, they said yes. That gave me the motivation to get up and run before going out. My first mile was pretty slow, I think swimming loosened my legs up some but I was still tight. Close to the end of the first mile it felt like my legs released and my stride was back to normal. I didn’t want to push it to much I wanted to use this run to stretch out. My next mile was smooth and 40 seconds faster, my 3rd mile felt just as good and was 20 seconds faster. I didn’t mean to run negative splits today but I was really happy that I did and even more surprised I was able to do it at my race pace just a day later. In my mind I’m hoping that means the training is paying off!

Total Miles: 30.65

-Veggie Fueled Runner

Becoming a Race Director

July 3, 2015 veggiefueledrunner Background, Race #5k, #funrun, #globalhealth, #hopkins, #race, #racedirector, #run, #runchat, #running

In late July of last year, the team that had traveled to Liberia months before were having dinner with some of our Liberian friends who had flown in for a conference. I couldn’t make dinner because it was the first time Tin Roof Runners were running and I had committed to that before I knew about dinner. I was sad I wouldn’t be able to see our Liberian friends, after the run they were still at dinner at a restaurant close by so I decided even though I wasn’t dressed for it I would stop in and see them. It was great to see them even if only for a few minutes and get updates on how everyone was doing. As I was getting ready to leave our team leader, Dr. Sampson, asked if I would be interested in helping get a 5k together to raise funds for our next trip and to assist in the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa. I told him sure and to give me a call to discuss it.

We didn’t discuss the 5k again until late fall, sometime in November. Once we did, we talked about what would make a good 5k, a list of things we needed to do, and where a good place for a course would be. I recommended somewhere that we would not need to shut the roads down. Since this was the first year of the race, Dr. Sampson and I were pretty much funding the start up cost ourselves we wanted to keep cost down. Dr. Sampson suggested Perry Point VA Property in Havre de Grace, MD. We went out and looked at the property, it was pretty flat, right on the water, and no major traffic on the property. We both agreed that it would be a good site.

In December we met, to develop a more detailed list of things we needed to do; start to look for sponsors, race insurance, advertising, confirm we could use the property, the date, shirts, medical on site, volunteers, and a few other things. At this meeting Dr. Sampson asked me if I wanted to be the project lead (race director) and I happily accepted. We started to compile a list of volunteers and who would be the point person for them, we started to list business to ask for sponsorships, digital timing companies, and then we needed a name and logo. We talked about several different names for a a while and after about 30 minutes we settled on Global Health 5k and Fun Run! We thought it fit our message perfectly, our goal is to affect global health and in the future we want to expand the race to around the World. We also checked the race schedule on a few websites for the upcoming year and picked our date, April 18th, 2015 With that we wrapped up the meeting and we had our marching orders.

I designed the logo, Dr. Sampson had it cleaned up and rendered.

Over the next few weeks Dr. Sampson began to round up volunteers from the hospital and other organizations he was a member of. I worked on a logo and called around to digital timing companies. Once we had our logo, I began to build our website. Dr. Sampson was able to secure the Rotary as a Title Sponsor and they would provide the insurance for the race, we were really making progress. One area I was having difficulty with was finding a digital timer, all of them were booked. I asked a friend Paul, who has organized several local races, if he could recommend anyone and he had a guy he thought I should meet with. I emailed the person he recommended and set up a meeting to discuss the race and where we were at. When I met with him in January, he said we did a lot but was concerned we did not have enough time left for a successful event. He gave me a timing company we could use for a good price but did not do digital timing. I left the meeting feeling a bit worried. Dr. Sampson and I talked it over and we had the same thought, what if we bought the digital timing equipment and set up a separate company ourselves and did digital timing on the side.

I looked around at several different product lines and even attended a 3-hour webinar to get more information. After all that it was not financial feasible to purchase the base level equipment and be able to recoup our money within the first year, we estimated it could take over 3 years to make our money back. We stayed out of the digital timing business and ultimately decided to have the race without digital timing and hired the timing company that was suggested RASAC Harford County Running Club.

As the race got closer, more sponsors were coming in, I had gotten permission from the director at Perry Point VA to use the property, we laid out the course on google maps. Then we realized the date we picked for the race was the same day as Sole of the City in Baltimore. It was February now and we had been advertising for a few weeks, it was to late to change the date. That would explain why we hadn’t had that many runners sign up. I told Paul about it and he said that is just the way it works most of the runners will sign up in the last 2-3 weeks. That was a scary thought! For our first year our goal was to have 200 participants, we currently had 10.

In mid-March the sponsors were really starting to coming through, I thought this would be a good time to start doing some more social media advertising. I started running more paid ads on facebook and through active.com. Slowly but surely runners started signing up! I was starting to feel better about the race.

April had arrived, only a few weeks till race day. Dr. Sampson and I were feeling good about where we were at with the number of runners but knew the next few weeks would be hectic. We met at the Perry Point VA on a Saturday morning to run the course and make sure we planned out a good route. It had been a harsh winter and though I ran everyday we waiting to run the course. It was a good thing we did, we actually had to modify the route. On the google map it showed a road that was no longer there. It actually worked out for the best, with the modification runners would run along the water and have a better view for a longer portion of the race. We needed mileage markers as well, I had been thinking of things we could use and put a sign on to note the mile and the sponsor for the mile. I couldn’t find anything that looked good, so I decided to build the mileage markers myself. I went to Home Depot, bought wood, hinges, and paint and went to work. Total it took me 3-4 days working on and off to finish the mileage markers.

Almost finished, photo of start and finish was lost when my iPhone died :( — Almost finished, photo of start and finish was lost when my iPhone died 😦

The week before the race was super hectic, I had to finalize the shirt design make sure all of our sponsors were included. Sponsors were asked to provide a high-res logo when the signed on, since I’m not a graphics person I didn’t realized some of them were not. After scrambling Dr. Sampson and I were able to get all of the logos in high-res and I had to have our logo redesigned to meet the same standard. Just as Paul said more runners were starting to sign up, which I liked seeing more sign up everyday. Once I had the shirts sorted out, I ordered our trophies for the race. The winners would get a trophy and gift card provided by Road ID, who also provided the bibs. I would recommend Road ID as a sponsor! Two days before race I went to Sam’s Club and purchased water and refreshments for on the course and at the finish line. The night before we had packet pick up, which went pretty smoothly.

Race Day:

I was up at 0500 to drive to Havre de Grace and make sure everything was good to go. Security would be opening the gates at 0600, Dr. Sampson was calling me by 0530 to ask why the gates weren’t open. By the time I arrived around 0550 Dr. Sampson had found security and had them open the gates even earlier. At the start line we set up registration, and then the phone calls started coming in of people who were lost. On the website, I guess it was not clear enough where the start point was. In generally talking with the runners we said Perry Point VA hospital, the actual start line address was on the Perry Point Park side of the property. Dr. Sampson and I fielded calls like that all morning, including from our timing company. The race started at 0800 and it was 0700 and I hadn’t set the mileage makers out yet. I went to do that, one part of the course I needed to drive into a field to place the marker on the other side of the road. The field was pretty muddy, but I wasn’t worried since I have a 4-wheel drive truck…I got stuck. I started to panic. Even in 4-low the truck kept spinning wheels, at the same time my phone was ringing with people trying to find the start line. I was really starting to freak out. I gave directions again, took a few deep breaths and got my truck rocking back and fourth and finally got it free! I was so relieved. After I set up the course and made it back to registration, everyone asked why my truck was covered in mud, I simply replied “Don’t ask”.

This pic doesn't really show how covered my truck was. — This pic doesn’t really show how covered my truck was.

There were a few hiccups at the registration table of people who did not realize you could only pay cash if you registered on race day, though it was clear on the website. I was able to go into active.com and open registration again and we got it resolved. Earlier Dr. Sampson had suggested I run the race as well, I hadn’t planned on it, but I did since he suggested it. After getting everyone checked, explaining the 5k course and the Fun Walk route we got the race underway at about 0810. I finished in overall 6th place and immediately made my way back to registration table to make sure everything was good to go for the finishers. What I didn’t realize was some of the water that was meant for the finish line was taken to the water stop on the course. That caused a bit of a backup as people finished but we got it under control.

Even though there were a few problems on race days, we learned some good lessons for when we do it again next year! Both runners and walkers commented on how nice the course was and really enjoyed the water view. We again thanked everyone for the participation, recognized the sponsors, and held our awards ceremony. By 1015 everything was wrapped up and the first Global Health 5k and Fun Run was in the books. It was stressful at times but well worth it, knowing that the money we raised would be going to help out those affected by Ebola in Liberia and Western Africa. Between runners and walkers our final count was 180, we were pretty happy with that. Look for more information in the coming weeks on how you can participate next year!

Have you been a race director before? How do you handle stress on race day, as a runner or organizer?

-Veggie Fueled Runner

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