Rock 'n Sole Half Marathon
Jul. 11th, 2011 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beige_alertI ran in the Summerfest Rock 'n Sole half marathon on Sunday July 10. This was, yes, the race that ran out of water at some of the aid stations at some points in the run on a beautiful hot humid July day, with some number of runners ending up hospitalized. That said, with over five thousand runners, some people had better or worse experiences than others, and my run went just fine. I finished in 2:08:11, 964th place out of 2995, 599th of 1356 men, 79th of 183 men age 35-39. Considering the warm weather, some amount of delay getting water at each station, and the fact that I deliberately wasted a bit of time taking photographs while running the race, that's a reasonable time for me. My real goal for the event wasn't the time but the chance to run on the bridge. I figured I'd do the longer run instead of the 10k since I've run the full 21.1km a number of times by myself and occasionally do my 14km-each-way commute to work running, so I was prepared to run the full distance.
The big appeal of the event is the course over the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge, which is part of Interstate 794 and normally utterly forbidden to the non-motorized. The view is indeed as awesome as you'd hope, and it was great to actually be able to look. Driving over the bridge in a car it's very hard to see anything at all, running and being able to get right over to the edge to look over is very different experience. That's why I brought a camera. Since I can't see a darn thing from a car I wondered just how high the walls at the side really are, but standing at the side it's just a low wall that doesn't block the view at all.
This was only the third organized race I've run in, the other two being two years at the Instep Icebreaker indoor run in the Pettit center. The Icebreaker is a super-smooth super-organized event, which is run by super-organized people but which also has the organizational advantage of being held indoors in a big room where nothing is much more than about two hundred meters from anything else. There is only enough room for around one hundred runners on the track at once. I wasn't sure what to expect in an outdoor run with a few thousand runners.
I suspect part of why I had a pretty good experience in the run was that I didn't really know what to expect. I wore my Amphipod belt so I could carry the camera and I had my bottles of water and sports drink on it just as I usually do. I didn't try to carry enough water for 21.1km on a hot day and of course I was expecting to be able to get water on the course, but I figured I'd carry some of my own supply, not really knowing how things were going to work. While walking from where I'd parked to the start area another runner pointed to my belt and commented that I was really prepared. I just said I was used to running by myself with it and figured I'd just stick with what I'm used to. As it happens, the water supply didn't work out so well, so that turned out to be a great idea rather than just extra weight.
The Hoan bridge and the approaches at each end worked out to roughly 5km, so the 10k course was essentially over the bridge and back. The half marathon started first, the 10k a half hour later. By the time I got to the aid station on the far end they were out of cups but still had water. Since I had my own bottles that wasn't really a problem for me, but it certainly was for many, many other people. By the time the 10k runners got there I understand they were out of water, which was an even bigger problem. The rest of the half marathon course had both water and cups. At the indoor marathon, you bring your own water bottles, they have one set of tables you run past over and over again every 443 meters, and the helpful volunteers will get your bottle if you call out your number on the way by so that 443 meters later you can take it from them, sip for a lap or two, and hand it back. You lose roughly no time in this process. Here each water stop involved, well, a stop, with a small mob around each table as volunteers frantically scooped paper cups full of water to hand out. At least we had water, though this was, in fact, a race, and some non-negligible amount of time was spent getting water, certainly a lot of time compared to the indoor race I've done before, but I don't have any experience with other big outdoor runs to compare it to so I don't know if this was about average or not.
As another organizational note, prior to the race start, if you happened to be in the very limited area where the announcer could be heard, he did say that an entrance gate to the actual Summerfest grounds was open and that water and toilets were available in there. The four drinking fountains probably would have been mobbed if more people knew about them, and the huge near-unused indoor toilets presumably less empty if the people waiting in line for the porta-potties knew about them.
During the race I saw a number of people on the ground being treated by EMTs, which is not something you want to see. I also saw several people just sort of stumble and fall, and get up and continue running saying they were fine. I don't know if that was unusual or if that's just the normal level of random stumbling multiplied by more runners in one place than I've ever seen before.
As I said, my own run went fine. The climb up the bridge approaches is long and relentless but it's a very gentle slope. The view is fantastic. After turning around and heading back clouds came in, there was a bit of a breeze, and it seemed pretty comfortable. Then the sun came out in full force for the long (and in places noticeably uphill) run up Lincoln Memorial Drive. I think in general somewhere in between one-half and three-quarters done is the psychological low point. Before that you aren't worn down yet, after that you can fool yourself into thinking you're nearly done, somewhere in that range you wonder what you were thinking when you signed up for this. Out in the sun in the heat sweating like something that sweats a hell of a lot, it seems all the more crazy. Then we headed back into the trail through the trees, at least out of the sun, and by then the end started to seem, well, nearer. For me the last kilometer or so was the best part aside from the run on the Hoan. (Running on the Hoan was fantastic. A perfectly legal pedestrian on the Hoan, able to look over the side and enjoy the fantastic view, the enjoyment of which is under normal circumstances strictly forbidden.) I was feeling no more worn down than expected for having run 20km on a warm day, and so I went ahead and upped the pace. It looked like a lot of other people were not feeling like they wanted to speed up at that point, so I ended up passing quite a few people. I may not have been too obsessed with my time, but that still feels good.
The race ended in the Summerfest grounds. Maybe it would have been better to spread out the distribution of snacks and water rather than putting that all right by the finish and constantly urging people to move along as more finishers arrive. Again, I'm just not used to so many runners in one place. It was interesting to see Summerfest invaded by thousands of extremely skinny endurance runners. Wearing colorful Lycra and giant GPS-equipped heart-rate-monitor wristwatches. I kept walking around thinking "Dude! My tribe showed up! All of them!"
In some sort of bizarre marketing concept, finishers (over age 21 anyway) could get a free Miller MGD64 beer. Might as well start drinking in the morning, we'd already been awake for five or six hours anyway and did a full day's worth of something. This might have been a brilliant marketing idea, actually, because while MGD64 is not a good beer, after running 21.1km on a hot day it seems pretty good!
On the other hand, it seemed like the day was well underway to us, but to Summerfest, it was too early to start. I got tired of hanging around before any music at all began. Most of the food shops were closed. The cigarette sellers were open but I don't think they did very much business on Endurance Athlete Morning.
The big appeal of the event is the course over the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge, which is part of Interstate 794 and normally utterly forbidden to the non-motorized. The view is indeed as awesome as you'd hope, and it was great to actually be able to look. Driving over the bridge in a car it's very hard to see anything at all, running and being able to get right over to the edge to look over is very different experience. That's why I brought a camera. Since I can't see a darn thing from a car I wondered just how high the walls at the side really are, but standing at the side it's just a low wall that doesn't block the view at all.
This was only the third organized race I've run in, the other two being two years at the Instep Icebreaker indoor run in the Pettit center. The Icebreaker is a super-smooth super-organized event, which is run by super-organized people but which also has the organizational advantage of being held indoors in a big room where nothing is much more than about two hundred meters from anything else. There is only enough room for around one hundred runners on the track at once. I wasn't sure what to expect in an outdoor run with a few thousand runners.
I suspect part of why I had a pretty good experience in the run was that I didn't really know what to expect. I wore my Amphipod belt so I could carry the camera and I had my bottles of water and sports drink on it just as I usually do. I didn't try to carry enough water for 21.1km on a hot day and of course I was expecting to be able to get water on the course, but I figured I'd carry some of my own supply, not really knowing how things were going to work. While walking from where I'd parked to the start area another runner pointed to my belt and commented that I was really prepared. I just said I was used to running by myself with it and figured I'd just stick with what I'm used to. As it happens, the water supply didn't work out so well, so that turned out to be a great idea rather than just extra weight.
The Hoan bridge and the approaches at each end worked out to roughly 5km, so the 10k course was essentially over the bridge and back. The half marathon started first, the 10k a half hour later. By the time I got to the aid station on the far end they were out of cups but still had water. Since I had my own bottles that wasn't really a problem for me, but it certainly was for many, many other people. By the time the 10k runners got there I understand they were out of water, which was an even bigger problem. The rest of the half marathon course had both water and cups. At the indoor marathon, you bring your own water bottles, they have one set of tables you run past over and over again every 443 meters, and the helpful volunteers will get your bottle if you call out your number on the way by so that 443 meters later you can take it from them, sip for a lap or two, and hand it back. You lose roughly no time in this process. Here each water stop involved, well, a stop, with a small mob around each table as volunteers frantically scooped paper cups full of water to hand out. At least we had water, though this was, in fact, a race, and some non-negligible amount of time was spent getting water, certainly a lot of time compared to the indoor race I've done before, but I don't have any experience with other big outdoor runs to compare it to so I don't know if this was about average or not.
As another organizational note, prior to the race start, if you happened to be in the very limited area where the announcer could be heard, he did say that an entrance gate to the actual Summerfest grounds was open and that water and toilets were available in there. The four drinking fountains probably would have been mobbed if more people knew about them, and the huge near-unused indoor toilets presumably less empty if the people waiting in line for the porta-potties knew about them.
During the race I saw a number of people on the ground being treated by EMTs, which is not something you want to see. I also saw several people just sort of stumble and fall, and get up and continue running saying they were fine. I don't know if that was unusual or if that's just the normal level of random stumbling multiplied by more runners in one place than I've ever seen before.
As I said, my own run went fine. The climb up the bridge approaches is long and relentless but it's a very gentle slope. The view is fantastic. After turning around and heading back clouds came in, there was a bit of a breeze, and it seemed pretty comfortable. Then the sun came out in full force for the long (and in places noticeably uphill) run up Lincoln Memorial Drive. I think in general somewhere in between one-half and three-quarters done is the psychological low point. Before that you aren't worn down yet, after that you can fool yourself into thinking you're nearly done, somewhere in that range you wonder what you were thinking when you signed up for this. Out in the sun in the heat sweating like something that sweats a hell of a lot, it seems all the more crazy. Then we headed back into the trail through the trees, at least out of the sun, and by then the end started to seem, well, nearer. For me the last kilometer or so was the best part aside from the run on the Hoan. (Running on the Hoan was fantastic. A perfectly legal pedestrian on the Hoan, able to look over the side and enjoy the fantastic view, the enjoyment of which is under normal circumstances strictly forbidden.) I was feeling no more worn down than expected for having run 20km on a warm day, and so I went ahead and upped the pace. It looked like a lot of other people were not feeling like they wanted to speed up at that point, so I ended up passing quite a few people. I may not have been too obsessed with my time, but that still feels good.
The race ended in the Summerfest grounds. Maybe it would have been better to spread out the distribution of snacks and water rather than putting that all right by the finish and constantly urging people to move along as more finishers arrive. Again, I'm just not used to so many runners in one place. It was interesting to see Summerfest invaded by thousands of extremely skinny endurance runners. Wearing colorful Lycra and giant GPS-equipped heart-rate-monitor wristwatches. I kept walking around thinking "Dude! My tribe showed up! All of them!"
In some sort of bizarre marketing concept, finishers (over age 21 anyway) could get a free Miller MGD64 beer. Might as well start drinking in the morning, we'd already been awake for five or six hours anyway and did a full day's worth of something. This might have been a brilliant marketing idea, actually, because while MGD64 is not a good beer, after running 21.1km on a hot day it seems pretty good!
On the other hand, it seemed like the day was well underway to us, but to Summerfest, it was too early to start. I got tired of hanging around before any music at all began. Most of the food shops were closed. The cigarette sellers were open but I don't think they did very much business on Endurance Athlete Morning.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-12 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-12 11:47 am (UTC)Epic Beard!
Date: 2011-07-15 05:29 am (UTC)Isn't it excellent to see a whole mass of active people, up so early in the morning to seize the day? That's something that will never get old.
Thanks for stopping by my blog to comment. Cheers!
Re: Epic Beard!
Date: 2011-07-15 02:38 pm (UTC)This was definitely a day when I was glad I'd set out with my usual supplies instead of trying something new!
I arrived pretty early and didn't really see how big the field was until the race got started, but I sure noticed as I walked through the city from my car to the Summerfest grounds suddenly I went from seeing pretty much nobody else out to seeing a bunch of people with numbers pinned to themselves. Clearly I was going to the right place!