Easter Feaster

3/23/2008

by Scott Wadle

So this weekend was too short, but which ones aren’t ha. I’m looking forward to an exciting week at work, with a huge presentation about the status of the PROS Plan. It will also be a big week because it will allow for some down time between the races.

Racing this weekend was fantastic in many ways. This weekend was the annual 10K and 2 mile Easter Sun Run. The race has some of the biggest purses of any road races in Kansas and attracts lots of talented runners from all over. Past winners have included collegiate runners from Kansas State and Oklahoma. Overall, you’re pretty good if you’re able to place in your age group.

The race conditions were unusually plesant this year. We had cool temperatures and virtually no wind to start (this was a huge relief since there was no ice like last year and no rain like three years prior). The course was also new for both races, generally a huge improvement over the past ones.

The 10K race was scheduled first at 9:00. About two minutes into the race things finally started to settle down, and you could see that two different packs were beginning to form. At the front were the five-minute guys and following was the pack of six-minute folks. I was able to settle in with the second group and I hung with them till about the 5K mark.

From about the 3K to the 5K I wrestled with my self to stay calm and to stick with the group that I was running with. Although it hurt to hang with them, I could tell that I could keep up that pace for quite some time more. Although my body was saying yes lets keep rocking, my mind kept looking for things that might be going wrong or questioning if I was hanging things out too fast and too early in the race.

It was tough going there, and got tougher as my friend Jason passed by. Right before, and after he passed by I could feel that something wasn’t quite right in my stomach. The 9.5 inch pizza I ate the night before wasn’t going down without some revenge thralls. I got a side stitch. The cursed thing was so powerful I considered dropping out of the race. Maybe it was physical manifestation of the tension and self doubt clawing at my mind during the time, but in any case it hurt like hell.

I soldiered on through the 6K and the 7K, eventually running through the stitch. Although by that time I was at least a minute off the pace. It was all I could do to hang on and hope that nobody else passed me. By the last two kilometers I was charging to make up time. At the finish line I saw that my time was 28:40. It was a great time and I’m pleased that I was able to run that fast with the side stitch.

However, I was out of the hardware when it came to the awards. With two of the the top three male finishers taken out of the age 25-29 bracket, there were just enough remaining fast folks to put me in fourth place. Jason got first, someone second, and Mike got third. Overall it stunk to run so fast and not to place, but it’s awesome motivation for the next round of races.

The two mile was a lot of fun. I got up to the line to avoid the little kids at the start (yikes) and ended up starting in third after the gun and finishing in about 7th palce overall and second place in my age bracket (by about two seconds ha). The race was a blast and the 11:50 something time was actually a pretty good workout, extending the race mileage to 8 miles racing.

After returning victorious from racing, the rest of the weekend events have mostly focused around church and family activities. The annual Easter egg hunt with the Goltry’s is always a blast. I’ll try to upload some photos soon.

Gotta run and get some studying in.

Happy Easter 2008!

One Awesome Read

3/16/2008



Just a quick note that I've stumbled across a really good read this week and I encourage other cyclists to check it out. One of the stories had me laughing so much that Elizabeth had to ask what was going on in the living room ha.

Below is a link to the website for the publisher.
http://www.thebikebook.com/index.html

Cycling's Greatest Misadventures
Edited by Erich Schwikher

Happy reading!

Out of the Wind Into the Teeth

3/16/2008

This is the part of the season where you can start to get a measurement of your conditioning. The early spring races help to guage your conditioning and also provide shorter distances to ease you off of the longer base building. This year the first race is the St. Patricks Day race.

Last year the St. Pats Race was one of the best ever. The race started and ended in Downtown Wichita, with the beer tent at one of Wichita’s best irish bars not but 10 steps away. The course took you through one of Wichita’s best parks, over brick streets, and back to the bar. The weather was even great, sunny and warm.

This year the St. Pat’s race was used to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Army Reserve. The reserve folks did a great job of hosting the race at their facility on McConnell Air Force Base, with plenty of food and some interesting scenery along the course. There were only a few things that can be improved for next year. As Jess McNeely jokingly suggested might happen during our warm up, they had a little screw-up that made the race one for the memory books.

It all started out with some pretty dower weather which only helped to make the race more of an adventure. At five minutes to go for the gun, I dropped off my jacket and pants with the ladies working the registration tent. One of them actually stated “oh my God” when I started stripping down. That comment was not in reference to my studly physic, but was a commentary about my clothing selection – a race singlet and racing shorts ha. I responded that it wasn’t snowing yet, so this was nothing ha.

The cannon blasted out the start of the race and the crowed was off and racing around the Air Museum collection of rusting airplanes like a heard of wild deer started by a hunters gun. We cleared the first gate providing entry to the AFB without any problems, the guard clearly freezing with the wind whipping her unprotected position near the gate. Easing into the race, I caught up to McNeely just out from the first mile. At that point, we headed north and then due east toward the runway. As the runway came into view I noticed something was amiss. The gate was closed and folks in military camifogue were excitedly working to get it to open.

Soon the first place runner, second place, and others were quickly stacking up behind the gate. The people working on the fence grabbed a huge set of bolt cutters and quickly set about snapping the galvanized chain. It took three or four healty pulls on the cutters before one of the soldiers was able to break the chain and set the runners on their way. Of course, we had another momentary pause while waiting for the soldiers to discover that the fence slid open, and did not swing open ha.

With approximately 30 runners tied for first and more coming quickly, everyone raced out of the opened black chain link fence (with barbed wire atop). With the wind at our back, we raced down the huge vast open concrete runway. The openness of it all was astounding to me, even as I was struggling to keep my breath and catch up to the runner in front of me.

Soon a truck caught up to us and zoomed past the first place runner. About a half mile down the runway, they stopped the truck and retrieved the cargo, one large orange cone. Fortunately, they got everything setup for the turn around in time for the first place runner to make the turn. All the rest of us followed soon enough. By that point I had caught up to a bunch of folks on the runway and was now running in second place.

Turning the corner at the cone was like hitting the wall. The wind nearly stopped me in my tracks. We had been running for nearly a mile with the wind, now we had an uprotected run against the cold north Kansas wind. Eventually I dropped back to conserve my energy and let Jess and another guy take the lead. To my surprise five other guys tagged along for the ride and were using Jess as the lead to pull everyone else along.

As soon as we hit the gate we turned and got a break from the wind. Some runners split off from the group, others had become so used to running in a line against the wind that they stayed right behind the guys in front of them. The group was tight all the way to the Air Museum. Eventually, we broke up right before the finish line, with a few seconds between folks. I captured sixth place right behind a middle schooler from hell. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about that kid in the future.

Overall it was a wonderful race and it showed that folks are in pretty good shape for this time of year. I’m excited to see what this spring and summer will bring. Now it’s just a matter of building on where we are today and adding a little speed to the mix at the weekly track practices.

The race results are posted on the Run Wichita website
www.runwichita.org/race_results.php

Today was another adventure, and it wasn’t just the wind that had a bite to it today.

We started out about 1:15 (I was running late) from the NW YMCA. It had to be no more than 43 degrees outside, with a strong northeast wind at about 20 mph. Of course, I dressed to lightly for this type of thing (it’s hard to judge when you’re using hot blooded running as gauge for how to dress). Needless to say I was getting frostbite by the time we decided to turn around about 9 miles into the ride. (I’ve got to get some of those black booties).

Before the turn around, I almost got bit in the ass. The largest farm dog I’ve ever seen showed up out or nowhere, those little b$##% always pop up from behind bushes and other scrub leading down the driveway. You never see them until they’re on you. The thing was practically a shaggy horse (it came up to my top tube on the bike).

Fortunately, It went after the guys in front and so I had a chance to time riding by just enough to shake the thing. Of course, the goat roper owners came out to try and call home the hound of death. As always, this occurs about a minute or two too late ha. Needless to say, it was a little bit of an adrenaline rush that helped to warm me up for the ride back to the Y.

Oh, the fun March training rides. Next time I’ll just have to remember to bring a saddle and milk bones!