From: Layne Wallace (lwallace@unf.edu) Subject: Backadapack Reports for October - URLs to 4 reports Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 16:24:38 -0500 (EST) Event Name: Children's Way 5K Date: October 18, 2003 Time: 8:30 a.m. Distance: 5K Location: Jacksonville, Florida, USA Host: 1st Place Sports Benefit: Jacksonville Ronald McDonald House Course Layout: (Tortured) Loop Course Terrain: Asphalt/dirt for streets under construction, nice neighborhoods, flat, lots of corners, new route Weather Conditions: 67F/19.4C, moderate humidity, stiff breeze, sunny Sociological (Fashion, fighting, foolery, and food): Fashion: Varied from singlets and shorts to full sweat suits (or whatever they are called these days), blue jeans with event t-shirts, one guy in overalls. Fighting: None that I saw Foolery: Ronald McDonald in big feet, green dinosaur in big feet (like last year) but they added a person in a pumpkin suit wearing large sunglasses; one guy telling another, "Pick it up. Don't let that fat guy beat you!" as I passed - it was a friend of mine (I came in ahead of both of them). Food: Bananas, oranges, apples, variety of sports drinks, sodas, fruit juices, sports bars, bagels, variety of pastries, large variety of cookies, popcorn, pizza, Larry's Giant Subs sandwiches, varieties of Blue Bell ice cream and popsicles, cotton candy. (See the pics) Personal Time: 27:40 (gun time) - 27:24 (watch time) Personal Pace: 9:46 Personal Place Overall (males): 73 out of 134 Personal Place Age Group (40-49 males): 10 out of 12 # of participants completing the course: 273 Winning Time: 16:43 (Dan Domingo) - 19:02 (Clair Domingo) Last Finisher: 53:59 Results URL: http://www.1stplacesports.com/cw5k03res.htm Pictures: http://curly.cis.unf.edu/pics/sports/children03 Comments: I started the day screwing up. I had some old, acidy coffee. I ate some oatmeal with bizarre flavorings. I didn't drink any water or sports drink before I left for the event. The only excuse I have is that I was planning to run a 32-34 minute 5K with a first-timer so ... Susan wasn't able to run this one so I ran it stag. In fact, many of the usual suspects weren't able to run this one. A cool front had come through during the night which lowered the temps to a comfortable level (upper 60sF). The humidity takes a bit longer to drop so it was still foggy at start time. Several people wearing Coolmax (et al.) t-shirts complained about how chilly it was. As I've said before, runners are happiest when they have a "reason" to complain. I was hanging out behind the group in the start area waiting for my first-timer and talking with people I'd gotten to know at other events. I mentioned that I was planning to run with a first-timer when three guys joined us and said they were first-timers and had some questions. We spent some time talking about the course, who to follow, what to do at the finish, and future events. All three looked like they would finish well before me so when I offered to run with them for a 27-28 finish time, I also told them that they would probably be able to come in a lot sooner than that on their own if they didn't go out too fast. They did - both start too fast and come in a lot sooner than me. While we were talking, the cannon went off. Yep, another screw-up. All of us (the 3 newbies, the 3 people I'd met from other events, and me) jumped straight up and came down running. I suggested that the newbies might want to try the edge of the road instead of the middle to avoid most of the walkers, baby strollers, dogs, and hard working slower people. They did but I got caught in the middle and spent the first mile doing traffic management. Actually, it was interesting since I ended up in several moving boxes and being blocked by groups of chatters. It gave me a chance to work on extracating myself from such situations. Yeah, I know, the idea is to see those situations developing and avoid them but I worked with what I had. I caught up with one of the pre-start guys from other events talking to someone about the house he was building. When I went past, he asked if I wanted to run in with him. This is a 20-21 minute 5K guy. He also has a cruel streak that I hadn't noticed before so I just mentioned that his shoe was untied and watched him pull away - laughing. The second mile seemed to go on forever. My split time was quite a bit slower than for the other miles but I didn't feel like I'd slowed down any. My HR suggests I did slow down some but that would mean that all of those around me slowed down, too. I did a 10 second walk through the water stop (I normally don't walk through the water stations but I needed the water). I don't think that this would have caused that much time difference since I easily caught up with the people who were around me before the water station. At the third mile marker I caught up with a guy wearing headphones and trying to sing. He was hurting so I didn't pay him any mind. However, he was also young and could get away with that crap. The guys beside me kept looking at each other whenever Boy-Who-Howls-Off-Key (BWHOK) would let loose with a "Woo Hoooooo" or a "Baby, baby, baby." BWHOK kept dropping back until we could see the 3 mile marker. Suddenly, I noticed that it had gotten quiet. We turned the corner for the finish line and I noticed a shadow coming up behind me. Yep, it was BWHOK. No way was that guy going to pass me at the end so I kicked it the last 50 yards. He didn't pass me but he did deliver a street pizza after turning in his chip. I'm glad he got his money's worth from the event. It was a fun run but one of the wierder ones I've done in a while. No single circumstance made it wierd. It must have been just been one of those time slices where the cosmos burps. The post run stuff was as much fun as last year. It's amazing how this group keeps topping the year before. Many of the things from last year were back again - police car for the kids to climb on, an ambulance, two air cushioned houses for the kids to jump in, a bat house building exhibit, little toss games for the kids. This year they also had a scarecrow making exhibit so the kids could make scarecrows and bat houses to take home. There was a dirt track car for the kids to climb on and a couple of local dirt track drivers to tell the kids how much fun dirt tracking was. There were health centers where the kids could listen to their hearts and play with a dummy that responded to various "treatments." I ran into two of the first-timers and they had BIG smiles. I think they liked it. They wanted to know about the next event and how to learn about other events. Yep, reel 'em in. Mile Time MHR AHR to start :16 90 65 1 8:27 172 152 2 9:34 177 141 ??? 3 8:30 179 168 .1 :49 176 173 Layne