Say No to Drugs 10k
With the weather in Charlotte dipping into the twenties and
maybe even the teens, heading south for a few days of sun and surf sounded like
a great idea. Even better, after a few Google searches, I found a timely 10k in
Clearwater, Florida that fit perfectly into my plans.
From what I can tell the Say No Drugs 10K/5K races are a
pretty big deal in the area. The regular draw for the event is between 2 and 3
thousand runners, and the event appears to have been around for several years
now.
Since the cost to register for the events was the same $29
whether I opted for the 10K or the 5K so I said “let’s go big and do the 10k”.
After founding a hotel room just a few miles away, I was all
set. I perfect little get away.
So Friday, I drove 10 hours down to Clearwater Beach. I settled
in to my hotel room around 10 PM. However, I didn’t sleep much since I was
anticipating racing the next morning.
During my shakeout warm up, the setting for 10 hours was
playing havoc with me legs. They felt weighed down and lethargic.
Waiting for the start, I was mildly amused with seeing so
many runners wearing long sleeve shirts and gloves. Race time temperature was
expected to be 72 degrees. I even had thoughts of not wearing my Hoka/CRC
jersey but opted for it.
Both the 5K and 10k races started at the same time. I didn’t want to get
pulled out by the faster runners when I was going twice the distance so I held
back on the gas pedal.
The lethargic feeling in my legs was slowly dissipating but
it was being replaced by heat and sweat not to mention a more than healthy dose
of lactic acid.
At the mile, my jersey was soaked. At the first water stop, I took two cups of water. One
was for drinking, and the other cup got dumped over my head.
As I was climbing up the bridge, I thought back to what I
heard two runners discussing before the race. This was toughest race in
Clearwater because it included the only two hills in Clearwater. The first hill
was climbing up and over the bridge on the way out to Clearwater Beach, and the
reverse coming back. Yes, this hill was long but it was not bad. Go run the
Charleston Distance run where there is a 2 ½ mile hill, and it twice as steep
as either of these hills.
Anyway, back to my recap, once I was off the bridge, it was
pretty much a straight shot for the next mile. Then, we took a right at the
round-about and went another mile to the U-turn point.
Sweat was flowing pretty well at this point. At every water
stop, I dumped at least one cup over my head. The trouble was – it didn’t seem
to be having any effect.
Coming back to the bridge, we were running into the wind
which helped a bit if it hadn’t been counter acted by force of the wind pushing
me back.
Starting up the bridge, one guy caught me, and then, we
caught another guy who was walking up the bridge. Those two started racing
together when we hit the descending spiral walk way. The 10k runners were on
the left side of the walkway while the 5k runners were on the right. My entire
time descending, I was leaning hard to right. Both guys got a gap on me that I
couldn’t close over the final half mile.
I finished in 39:53 which placed me 10th overall
and 2nd in my age group.
Afterwards, the race supplied all runners with a pancake breakfast.
I walked away with a couple of nice medals for my efforts and pretty cool
experience of running a spiral walkway.
I might just have to make this an annual thing but stay a bit
longer next time. As for the weather, I might not like 72 degrees for racing, but it is quite
nice for a training run.
Cool Down Runner
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