From: Layne Wallace (lwallace@unf.edu) Subject: Backadapack Report: Mandarin Run 10K Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 13:06:18 -0500 (EST) Event Name: Mandarin Run 10K Date: November 15, 2003 Time: 8:00 a.m. Distance: 10K Location: Jacksonville, Florida, USA Host: Native Sun Natural Foods / 1st Place Sports Course Layout: Loop Course Terrain: Asphalt; a "hill" from mile 4 to finish; neighborhoods; shady Weather Conditions: 53F/11.7C; sunny; no breeze; moderate humidity Sociological (Fashion, fighting, foolery, and food): Fashion: parkas, mufflers, one coordinated outfit that was stolen from some bicycle rider Fighting: none that I saw - unless you count (see next) Foolery: "Why, Hon, you look terrific. Whose husband are you after?" "Thanks, Dearie, I don't think you'd know him - he can read." "Oh, I saw XXX the other day and she has turned into the clothes police." "What a shame since she's so rarely ever in hers." &$60meow, meow, pfft, pfft - CAT FIGHT!!!> Food: bagels, bananas, sports bars, sports drink (In past years this event has ended with a feast. Instead of people appreciating the past years, most seemed to bitch about this year's eats. Yep, runners are happiest when they're complaining.) Personal Time: 58:40 gun (58:17 watch) Personal Pace: 9:27 Personal Place Overall (males): 300 out of 349 Personal Place Age Group (males): 47 out of 54 # of participants completing the course: 549 Winning Time: 30:20 (Zeph Joseph) - 34:41 (Firaya Zhdanov) Last Finisher: 1:22:37 Results URL: http://www.1stplacesports.com/man03res.htm Pictures: http://curly.cis.unf.edu/pics/sports/mandarin03 Comments: This is the only open 10K event in Jacksonville (FL, USA). As I understand it, there were a few pro/elite invitational 10Ks but the funding and attendance became problems so the invitationals were folded into the opens. Even the USA 15K Championship held here is a combo pro/elite and open separated by a seeding rope. This event (Mandarin Run 10K) did have a small amount of money for the top three female and top three male runners. The coldest front of the season came through a couple of days before this event. The temps *plunged* to a bone chilling 40F which had people lighting up fireplaces before the local ice age could retreat back to Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and all those other New York suburbs where it belonged. The whole area smelled like burning dust from long unused chimneys. I guess most of the runners debated how much to wear. I had planned on a Coolmax t-shirt but right before leaving the house changed to my heavy singlet. It was the correct direction but I should have gone with a regular singlet. What a wimp! I love this event! Every time we do it, I wonder why we don't have more non-beach 10Ks around here. The herd was larger this year than last and the streets that make up the course are not wide streets. We lined up and a truly bizzarre thing happened. The crowd shut up to listen to the RD's announcements. I mean, I looked around for empty pods (I've been told I need to explain that this refers to Invasion of the Body Snatchers but if I'm going to have to do subtitles, someone needs to get out more). It was eerie. Rod Serling or Alan Funt had to be nearby. We all politely (!) listened to the announcements and got ready to run. The slower people were (mostly) at the back and the quicker people were (mostly) at the front. The RD announced that the command to start would be "Runners ready" and then a cannon shot but if the cannon didn't fire, we'd start with "Ruuners ready" again. The RD let loose with "Runners ready" and then a beat later the cannon fired. Like I said, eerie - no hitches. The first mile was very congested but very convivial. People with personal stereos had the volume down, fast people with strollers kept pace with the slower runners until the crowd had thinned a bit, and talkers chatted quietly within their groups. I had to really work to eavesdrop on anything. I don't remember a pot cannon spewing fumes on the crowd before the start. Odd. Susan and I ran the entire event together. There was a strong urge to hold hands. I swear I have no idea what had happened, maybe the Shadow knows. Then it got weird. From mile 1 until the finish, we steadily passed people. A few people passed us but not many. We hit a cruise once the crowd started to (politely) string out. We'd pull up behind someone and keep a steady pace to shuffle on past. Several runners (mostly males) would run with us for a while and then fall back. Our splits weren't totally even but the effort was. We felt more in control during this event than any in recent memory. We hit cruise early on and just went. Even when the incline hit at mile 4, we just kept steadily going. One young woman caught up with us at mile 4 and stayed with us until the 6 mile mark and took off. During the time she was running with us, we caught and passed quite a few people. She seemed to enjoy the company as much as we did. The three of us came up on a father "running" with his ~10 year old son. The adorable little ankle biter would run a bit and then whine until Dad walked (urchin sounded like me on a shopping trip to the mall). At this point the tax deduction would start skipping. The Dad was trying very hard to be patient but was starting to kiss that college scholarship in track goodbye. However, even this episode was surreal as the Dad was a little *too* patient and Bill Cosby-ish. Had Stepford gone into franchise? As we neared the finish line, a group of people were coming up behind us so we picked it up just a bit and held them off. It was tempting to do a wild goose, in-yer-face dance at them just to have an unpleasantness and return the cosmos to normal. But, no, I congratulated them on finishing and wandered off to see if I could find a little old lady who needed to cross the street or a ktten that needed to get out of a tree. I'm feeling *much* better now. There were two cute puppies playing at the awards ceremony until the RD got ready to call the winners. Then the puppies curled up and went to sleep. It was a wonderful event. I'd just started some calcium channel blocking meds which are supposed to affect physical activities (and make one barf) so I was a little nervous about the run. In terms of time, we decided that finishing in anything under an hour would be great. Susan ended up with a PB and an AG 2nd (gift certificate to a local running store). This put her in the lead of her AG in the Jax Gran Prix. I finished happy and barfless so we both won. On the way out, drivers stopped and let other cars into the line. <shiver> Splits: Distance Time MHR AHR gun to start :23 86 70 1 9:30 144 134 2 9:14 151 142 3 9:20 149 145 4 9:27 152 148 5 9:30 152 151 6 9:18 157 153 .2 1:53 157 156 Layne