Latest reviews by Katrina Mather

(2012)
"Nice first official race experience"
Overall
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Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
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Race Management

Two words can basically sum up my entire experience: Fun and cold!!

I got into the city around 5:40 and found an easy, relatively cheap parking garage (I say relatively because at least it wasn’t $30+) and walked over to the gear check. The garage was just far enough away that I could run for a block, walk for a block, etc. as a nice warm up.
Gear check for 5k was super quick (didn’t have to wait at all!) and the girl who took my bag was surprised that I didn’t have anything extra (all I checked was the bag I got from the expo with a few absolutely necessary things in it). And yes… I did end up wearing my race hoodie. I arrived wearing a sweatshirt from work, but once I saw so many other people wearing the race one I quick switched into that one. Newbie racer mistake, but at least now I know!
I started off near the front of the corral but moved back about halfway when I saw the other people around me. All I could think was that everyone else looked like they were in so much better shape, and looked like much more serious runners. What was I doing?! Did I really belong in the B corral? Should I move back to C? I don’t think I can keep up with these guys! I’m going to be the annoying girl who starts walking way too early!
As more people made their way in, everyone was jumping around to keep warm and despite it being 6:30am and 30-some degrees the mood was pretty good all around.
At just after 7am (might have been 7:01?) the National Anthem was sung and the first corral was off! I get chills every time I hear the anthem played, and while I want to say that this morning was no different it very well could have been the cold weather without a jacket that gave me chills haha.
Just 3 minutes and 30 seconds later, my corral was off! I was so expecting everything to be slow to start, but it was right on time and it was great. I started my RunKeeper (juuust in case) and my music as we started to run. The fear of being in the wrong corral and not wanting to look weak helped me keep a nice pace for a bit.
I did start walking right around the end of the first portion of a tunnel, but I had already seen people walking by then and I made sure to stay as far to the side as I possibly could so I didn’t get in anyone’s way. The dreaded side stitch had started to rear it’s ugly head, and I wanted to get it under control before it could get any worse. I continued to alternate between running in time with my music and walking for a quarter mile at a time for most of the race.
By the time we turned onto Jackson, the sides were lined with supporters with funny signs and volunteers thrusting Gatorade and water at us. THANK YOU to both for being there! I was starting to drag during that last mile. The Gatorade and a lady with a sign that said “You’re a honey badger. You don’t give a…” were my motivation to step it up and keep running for as long as I could.
As soon as I turned back onto Columbus and saw the finish line my final burst of determination came around and while I didn’t sprint to the end like I wanted to, I kept on running and was able to cross the finish with a smile.
I looked at my phone and RunKeeper told me that I had just finished with a time of 34 minutes flat… YES!!! New PR!
I was given a bottle of water, more Gatorade, and a piece of chocolate on my walk back to gear check. Once again, it was a quick in and out process. The walk over to the post race party wasn’t bad and gave me a chance to catch my breath again. Getting the finisher’s mug was again… quick in and out process. No one was in line in front of me. The only bad part about it was that my chocolate must have been poured a bit earlier, because the top was hard already and I didn’t get to dip my stuff much. Oh well… everything was delicious (minus the hot chocolate… it was cool and watered down) and I pretty much inhaled it all.
Hairbangers Ball started playing around 8:30, and was sadly not as wonderful as I remember them being in the past. I used to go see them all the time at NIU, but this time seemed…. weird. New people, maybe? First time ever seeing them 100% sober might have had something to do with it.
Lauren met up with me around 9. We wandered around, listened to the band, then finally decided to go be tourists by The Bean and took a bunch of photos of our reflections and the skyline.
So… all in all, even though I was cold I had a lot of fun today. My official time turned out to be 33 minutes and 32 seconds, so an even better PR than I thought!! I was fortunate enough to not experience the difficulties that so many other people seem to have experienced during this race, so it wasn’t soured at all for me.
My average pace was 10:11 min/mile, and average speed of 5.89mph (according to RunKeeper). Awesome!! I’m amazed I kept up that pace!
Thank you RAM Racing for giving me a great experience, and congrats to all of the other runners for finishing!!

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