Weekend report
Run from the noise of the street and the loaded gun -- Garbage, Run Baby Run
I (rslight) got off to a very slow start at Friday night's Run to the Lights 5K at Branson's Silver Dollar City amusement park, which had about 800 participants. Although I was somewhat close to the starting line, I was trapped behind a wall of walkers for the first two minutes (my finish time of 26 minutes reflected that).
It was a very pleasant experience to run through the amusement park. There were lots of characters in silly costumes to delight the eye. I managed to catch up with my friend Brent Barnett halfway through as we tackled a tough hill. We agreed that the Alvin and the Chipmunks music playing in the park was not the most motivational.
Since the Branson race wrapped up after 11 p.m., I got maybe five hours of sleep before Saturday morning's Parkinsons 5K in Springfield. I managed to get a sweet new PR of 23:04 (having 700 fewer runners helped).
I didn't get a trophy, which is no huge deal. I attend races because I love to run, and not because I want an award.
However, it's disheartening to be empty-handed when you outran many people who received trophies. When they gave a trophy to a woman who finished in about 52 minutes, I felt like laughing and saying, "Hey, go ahead and just give an award to everyone who finished behind me."
After Parkinsons, I immediately went to Oklahoma for my third and favorite weekend race: McNellie's Pub Run!
The 3 p.m. Saturday 3.5 mile event in downtown Tulsa had a raucous, frat-party atmosphere that was the opposite of the clean, family-friendly event at Silver Dollar City. I loved it.
The Pub Run gimmick is this: You can don a white bib and run a normal race like I did. Or you can pin on a green bib and take the Guinness challenge. That entails stopping at each mile marker and drinking three pints of beer. Race officials insist that green bibbers get all the beer in them. They watch to make sure people aren't spilling it.
I never drink alcohol, but I thought it looked like great fun. Of course, the beauty of being a sober runner is that you get to outrun hordes of drinkers. My 29:23 finish time placed me at 141 out of 551 runners, even though my knees were very sore during the race.
Forgive a potentially sexist comment here, but the Pub Run easily had the most attractive women of any race I've done. Made me wish I was a young, handsome college dude.
On Sunday, I agreed to go on a 10-mile run with bl on a Springfield greenways trail. I thought I could handle it at a slow pace, and I did okay for the first 9.5 miles. Then I really hit a wall (just slammed into it) and had to start walking. I like to fancy myself as a Dean Karnazes type who can run as much as possible, but my body shouted: "Oh, no, buddy. You're done for this weekend."
Thanks a bunch for waiting for me at the end, bl.
No running for me for the next two days.
I (rslight) got off to a very slow start at Friday night's Run to the Lights 5K at Branson's Silver Dollar City amusement park, which had about 800 participants. Although I was somewhat close to the starting line, I was trapped behind a wall of walkers for the first two minutes (my finish time of 26 minutes reflected that).
It was a very pleasant experience to run through the amusement park. There were lots of characters in silly costumes to delight the eye. I managed to catch up with my friend Brent Barnett halfway through as we tackled a tough hill. We agreed that the Alvin and the Chipmunks music playing in the park was not the most motivational.
Since the Branson race wrapped up after 11 p.m., I got maybe five hours of sleep before Saturday morning's Parkinsons 5K in Springfield. I managed to get a sweet new PR of 23:04 (having 700 fewer runners helped).
I didn't get a trophy, which is no huge deal. I attend races because I love to run, and not because I want an award.
However, it's disheartening to be empty-handed when you outran many people who received trophies. When they gave a trophy to a woman who finished in about 52 minutes, I felt like laughing and saying, "Hey, go ahead and just give an award to everyone who finished behind me."
After Parkinsons, I immediately went to Oklahoma for my third and favorite weekend race: McNellie's Pub Run!
The 3 p.m. Saturday 3.5 mile event in downtown Tulsa had a raucous, frat-party atmosphere that was the opposite of the clean, family-friendly event at Silver Dollar City. I loved it.
The Pub Run gimmick is this: You can don a white bib and run a normal race like I did. Or you can pin on a green bib and take the Guinness challenge. That entails stopping at each mile marker and drinking three pints of beer. Race officials insist that green bibbers get all the beer in them. They watch to make sure people aren't spilling it.
I never drink alcohol, but I thought it looked like great fun. Of course, the beauty of being a sober runner is that you get to outrun hordes of drinkers. My 29:23 finish time placed me at 141 out of 551 runners, even though my knees were very sore during the race.
Forgive a potentially sexist comment here, but the Pub Run easily had the most attractive women of any race I've done. Made me wish I was a young, handsome college dude.
On Sunday, I agreed to go on a 10-mile run with bl on a Springfield greenways trail. I thought I could handle it at a slow pace, and I did okay for the first 9.5 miles. Then I really hit a wall (just slammed into it) and had to start walking. I like to fancy myself as a Dean Karnazes type who can run as much as possible, but my body shouted: "Oh, no, buddy. You're done for this weekend."
Thanks a bunch for waiting for me at the end, bl.
No running for me for the next two days.
posted by rslight at 4:14 pm
2 Comments:
Now that I look back at the race site, it was actually three pints total at McNellie's (one pint at each stop).
Three pints of Guinness? Oh man. That's my race.
Next time you find a race like this, let me know. I'll split the gas money.
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