The reflection on the water prior to the start at Riverwalk Park in Bakersfield
Yesterday was my second race in the recovery tour. We did the Casa Super Hero 10k in Bakersfield on the bike path along the Kern River. We got there about an hour before the start, I'm still not doing the big warm up with the incontinence issues, and not running fast yet. We did the day of race sign up, got our numbers, and went back to the car to change, and wait for Andrea.
After changing and collecting Andrea we headed to the start area. There was music, most of the people were in costumes, and some dogs dressed up as super heroes as well. All in all, the pre-race area was very festive. There was a celebrity race featuring local news personalities, and then it was time for us to go. The 5k was scheduled to start a few minutes after us. Before I go further with race details, I need to say something about my customized depends. Since I have been peeing less, I cut them smaller and wore my short shorts over some new running briefs. I even trimmed the bottom of the depends, hoping to avoid unnecessary chafing.
Finally, we were told GO!!!, and off went the 10k runners. My goal was to run a negative split race, start out at 7:30 pace, and go faster as the race progressed. My first mile was 7:24, a little fast, but I felt good, waving and saying hi to people walking along the bike path, and really enjoying the Kern River full of water. Unlike last week, this course was smooth, so I hit the tangents as good as I could, trying to avoid the spandex Nazis on their bikes who had no respect for a race going on. Mile 2 was a little fast, 7:13, but I was still feeling good, even passing a couple of people in front of me. Soon the lead pack of 3 runners went by us heading the other way. As we got to the mile 3 point, we came to the second aid station, and there was a cone in the middle of the bike path. The guy I was running along with and I started to turn, but the aid station worker told us it wasn't the turn, we had to go farther along the path to reach it. Since my Garmin watch said we were at exactly 3 miles, I figured we should see the turn shortly. We continued on, my mile 3 split was 7:08, but there was no turnaround. We slowed, talking about the issue, turned around, and people were waving us back. Everyone behind us turned around where they were, and I instantly went from 5th to about 10th. Some of the air went out of my sails, and I was a little angry at the miscues of the race management. Runners really only need a few basic things to be happy with a race, and a properly measured and marked course is one of them. there was no reason to be mad at the aid station worker, he was a volunteer, and my wife told me years ago, I cannot be upset with volunteers, no matter how inept at they are at their volunteer job. Needless to say, my 4th mile was slower than I wanted, 7:21, but I dug down a little, determined to have a decent finish in spite of the issues with the race. By mile 5, I had picked the pace back up, and my split was 7:11. I was also zig-zagging through 5k walkers who had their back to me as I ran towards the finish. Them and the spandex Nazis on two wheels made for a most interesting last mile. My split for mile 6 was 7:14, and I'm sure some of the slowing was due to navigating the traffic. I finished the race in 45:48, a pretty decent time for not much training. I also ran 6.3 miles, probably the farthest of anybody in the race. I found out later that the first three runners turned around at the table, running only 6 miles.
I grabbed a bottle of water from a smiling volunteer and went straight to the bathroom to change my race depends before going out to find Robin and Andrea. In the bathroom, I discovered that I had trimmed my depends a little close on the bottom, and those pesky little white balls escaped into my groin area again. I scooped them out, changed race pads(yes, I carried it with me in the race), and set off to find Andrea, then Robin. Andrea finished in 1:10, and Robin was not far behind in 1:13. This provided me with a decent cooldown. We all headed back to the car, got a drink then walked around, waiting for awards. Unfortunately, all of the race day entries had to be entered by hand, so there was a slight delay, but I eventually ended up getting second in my age group again.
After changing and collecting Andrea we headed to the start area. There was music, most of the people were in costumes, and some dogs dressed up as super heroes as well. All in all, the pre-race area was very festive. There was a celebrity race featuring local news personalities, and then it was time for us to go. The 5k was scheduled to start a few minutes after us. Before I go further with race details, I need to say something about my customized depends. Since I have been peeing less, I cut them smaller and wore my short shorts over some new running briefs. I even trimmed the bottom of the depends, hoping to avoid unnecessary chafing.
Finally, we were told GO!!!, and off went the 10k runners. My goal was to run a negative split race, start out at 7:30 pace, and go faster as the race progressed. My first mile was 7:24, a little fast, but I felt good, waving and saying hi to people walking along the bike path, and really enjoying the Kern River full of water. Unlike last week, this course was smooth, so I hit the tangents as good as I could, trying to avoid the spandex Nazis on their bikes who had no respect for a race going on. Mile 2 was a little fast, 7:13, but I was still feeling good, even passing a couple of people in front of me. Soon the lead pack of 3 runners went by us heading the other way. As we got to the mile 3 point, we came to the second aid station, and there was a cone in the middle of the bike path. The guy I was running along with and I started to turn, but the aid station worker told us it wasn't the turn, we had to go farther along the path to reach it. Since my Garmin watch said we were at exactly 3 miles, I figured we should see the turn shortly. We continued on, my mile 3 split was 7:08, but there was no turnaround. We slowed, talking about the issue, turned around, and people were waving us back. Everyone behind us turned around where they were, and I instantly went from 5th to about 10th. Some of the air went out of my sails, and I was a little angry at the miscues of the race management. Runners really only need a few basic things to be happy with a race, and a properly measured and marked course is one of them. there was no reason to be mad at the aid station worker, he was a volunteer, and my wife told me years ago, I cannot be upset with volunteers, no matter how inept at they are at their volunteer job. Needless to say, my 4th mile was slower than I wanted, 7:21, but I dug down a little, determined to have a decent finish in spite of the issues with the race. By mile 5, I had picked the pace back up, and my split was 7:11. I was also zig-zagging through 5k walkers who had their back to me as I ran towards the finish. Them and the spandex Nazis on two wheels made for a most interesting last mile. My split for mile 6 was 7:14, and I'm sure some of the slowing was due to navigating the traffic. I finished the race in 45:48, a pretty decent time for not much training. I also ran 6.3 miles, probably the farthest of anybody in the race. I found out later that the first three runners turned around at the table, running only 6 miles.
I grabbed a bottle of water from a smiling volunteer and went straight to the bathroom to change my race depends before going out to find Robin and Andrea. In the bathroom, I discovered that I had trimmed my depends a little close on the bottom, and those pesky little white balls escaped into my groin area again. I scooped them out, changed race pads(yes, I carried it with me in the race), and set off to find Andrea, then Robin. Andrea finished in 1:10, and Robin was not far behind in 1:13. This provided me with a decent cooldown. We all headed back to the car, got a drink then walked around, waiting for awards. Unfortunately, all of the race day entries had to be entered by hand, so there was a slight delay, but I eventually ended up getting second in my age group again.
Wonder Woman with me and my medal. I didn't know she wore Nike's
The perfect place to go after a run at Riverwalk is Bj's Brewhouse, so off we went after collecting my medal. Being both old, and old school, there is nothing like pizza and beer after a hard run.We got their not long after they opened, and settled into a booth for breakfast and beers.
Breakfast pizza and beer. It doesn't get any better than that after a run. We finished the meal by splitting a pizookie 3 ways. Next race on the recovery tour is the Tejon Trail 10k on April 22nd.
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