Pre-Race: Spike and I crashed in Grand Rapids with Kevin & Jennie race eve (will link their recaps when they go up); we greatly appreciated their hospitality, the pre-race breakfast, and Bailey's kisses. We set out for the race at the leisurely time of 7 am and arrived downtown avoiding all detours, road closures, and parking issues; strolling up on all the madness with plenty of time to spare. Thank you Kevin! The 10k started at 8 am so I quickly took my leave of the group to check my bag, hit the porta-potties, and line-up.
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| Our wonderful hosts |
Start Corral: The staging area for the 10k start was further up from the official starting line for the 25k so I had to snake my way through a barrage of people; suddenly finding myself in this sparsely populated area between the 7 min pace group signs and the 8 min pace group signs. It was kinda weird. Kevin, Jennie, and a few other friends spotted me there and wished me good luck and just before I was about to start Spike appeared yelling for me to PR the crap out of the race.
The Race: With my leg wigging out on me the week before the race I wasn't entirely sure what to expect for this race. I had a secret goal to hit somewhere in the 45:xx and had looked up the pace required to hit such a goal: 7:24 or less. My plan, so long as my ankle/leg felt up for it, was to hit 7:20's and hold on for dear life. Instead I didn't look at my watch until the first mile beeped and found I had pulled a Spike and blew out the first mile. (6:43) At that point I thought, eh just run. So I did. I got excited running through the zoo in Mile 2, cracked up at the sign that said "No one ever died drowning in sweat!" somewhere before Mile 4, and then cursed every last hill heading in to the finish. There was definitely no negative splitting for this race, though I somehow managed to rally enough energy to sprint in to the finish seeing I might sneak in under 47 minutes.
Official Chip Time: 46:55 / 7:33 P - 3+ min PR!
268/4092 Overall
52/2492 Women Overall
12/483 AG
Post-Race: After catching my breath I made my way through the finish area madness, collected my bag from the gear check, and met up with Bari to cheer in my friend Nichole and await Spike's 25k finish. We passed the time shaking our fists at injury, chatting about returns to running, the incredible weather, and before long spotted that obnoxiously bright orange hat in the distance. He had ran the coveted sub-2 hour finish (and then some) for the 25k and I almost took out a grandma trying to snap a pic of him sprinting in. Whoops.
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| From top left: Bari hydrating for spectating, Nichole and I post-10k, Spike sprinting in to the finish, the 10k finisher pin |
Post-Race Thoughts: We lucked out with perfect overcast skies, cool weather, and only a few sprinkles on race morning for the 35th running of the Fifth Third River Bank Run. RBR puts on a seamless series of events (5k run, 5k walk, 10k & 25k), the volunteers were great, there's a decent amount of spectators throughout the course, and the finish area was awesome. Janet Cherobon-Bawcom broke the American women's 25k record from 1983 by running a 1:24, beating Spike by almost 30 minutes! The 10k course was scenic and fast, until about Mile 4 when the hills come at you steep and one right after another. The humidity was in full affect race morning and the hills were rude, but those are the only complaints you'll get out of me about this race. My ankle/leg has been feeling pretty crotchety since, so I'll be taking a few days off and possibly hitting up the injury clinic just to be safe, but otherwise I'm absolutely stoked about my shiny-new 10k PR and cannot wait to tackle the 25k next year!
