Race Recap: Riverside Dash 15k

There are not many 15k races in the area, so it's not a distance I get to race often.  In fact, it had been over two years since I last raced a 15k and it was actually at this very event.  I remember it being a smaller, local event that was well organized and a lot of fun, so I was super excited to run it again this year.  There were a few changes since the last time I ran it, but it was equally awesome, so here is a recap of the event and my experience running it this past Sunday.

Signing Up with Ease
Let's start with registration because it is always a plus when it is an easy and inexpensive process.  I signed up several months ago using a coupon code I had received through my Moms Run This Town chapter.  I had also noticed periodically discount codes on their Facebook page as well as in various other race packets.  I believe I paid around $40 for the event, which in my opinion is very reasonable for a mid distance race with a tech tee and finisher's medal.  Registration was through www.runsignup.com, and if you already have an account through that site, signing up for the even is incredibly simple.  I also signed up my kiddos for the FREE kid's run and they recieved their very own race bag and t-shirt.

Packet Pick Up
They offered packet pick up at Academy Sports in Lake Mary on Friday and Saturday before the race, as well as race morning.  I was able to attend the Saturday one and thanks to the store coupon in my packet, I was also able to do a little shopping ;-)  The shirt, in my opinion, is pretty ugly.  I'm not usually a fan of the white shirts, and the design is a little plain and strange.  Also, it's a women's fitted so of course on my Amazon self, it is way too short.  Probably won't get to wear, nor do I really want to.  But oh well, I have an abundance of race shirts, so I'm bound to have some bad ones here and there.

Driving and Parking
Sanford is about 30 minutes from me, and mostly interstate driving, so getting to the location was fairly simple.  They had sent out several emails leading up to the event indicating road closures as well as where we can park.  Not being too familiar with the area and nervous about enough parking, I got there a little over an hour early.  I had no problem finding a parking spot at the lot the website and emails had suggested, in fact I could have parked even a little closer in some of the side street spots.

Pre-Race
The sun wasn't up when I got there, so it was cold and dark.  They were still getting set up in the expo area but they did have the registration and packet pick up table set up as well as a tent with coffee and donuts, whoohoo.  Since the race expo was being held at Fort Mellon Park, we did have access to the public restrooms there, and I tell you what, it was so nice to get to use an actually bathroom!  It is the little things that make us runners giddy.  There were also several port-a-potties available on the other side of the expo, but most preferred the well-light and clean restrooms.  Though they were still preparing for all the post race festivities, they DJ was in full effect blasting out upbeat dance music over the loud speaking and making race announcements.

I was able to meet up with several of my MRTT mamas before the race for pictures.  Because we were right on the waterfront, it was windy and cold for us Floridians, so we were all bundled up together!

Freezing MRTT mamas!

The Race
The race started right on time just as the sun was coming up.  It hadn't really warmed up much and the first couple of miles we dealt with a solid headwind.  We ran along the water then through downtown Sanford, on brick streets (which I'm not a huge fan of but it was for such a short period of time).  There were two sharp turns shortly after the first mile and we were on a straight away for the next several miles.  These miles were all along the waterfront, which was absolutely beautiful.  The sun was coming up and there wasn't much shade, but on the way out it was perfect since it helped warm us up and make the headwind feel less bad.  The road was on a slant (to the right on the way out, left on the way back) which was a little uncomfortable, but luckily it was straight and there were no hills.  I felt like I was able to keep a good 7:25 pace on the way out.

They had us turn around at the zoo around mile 4.5.  Knowing it was an out and back course, I now knew exactly what to expect on the way back.  The sun had really come up by this point and it was nice and bright in my face.  It was was warm though, so I appreciated that!  After the turn around, I was able to see a lot of my friends out there running too!  I was handing out cheers and high fives left and right, it was a blast!

From miles 6ish-8ish, I had passed most of the runners coming up on my opposite side and there really wasn't much runners in front or behind at this point, so I got a little lonely.  But I had his a good stride from the excitement of seeing all my friends out there and had managed to keep it up.  By this point, I was holding on to a steady 7:21 pace.

Around mile 8, we did our turn to get back into downtown and on the brick.  There was a hydration station there and the folks volunteering were hooting and hollering for us since we were almost there!  After leaving the brick and closing in on the 9th mile, I tried to kick it into high gear.  But as we rounded the corner to return to the water front and finish that last .3 miles, BAM came the headwind again!  I was like The Little Engine That Could at this point.  "I think I can, I think I can" With all my might I thought I could sprint through to the finish line, but that dadgum wind had other plans for me. I gave it my all and still came in pretty strong with a finish time of 1:08:38, average pace 7:21 and second place in my division.  My goal was to get a sub 1:10, which would have required sub 7:30 minute per mile average, so I was ore than pleased with my performance.

Exciting to run into old friends at these events!

The After Party
As far as smaller, local races go, this one had a pretty impressive little after party.  It's very well organized in a large loop in the open park.  They had beer in real plastic cups, not solo cups (pretty classy), pancakes for the runners to enjoy, music bumping and plenty of vendors with freebies.  They stuck to pretty close to their projected schedule of having the kid's run on time and handing out the awards.  The fact that the sun was shining bright, the temps were cool and we were right on the beautiful waterfront certainly helped the ambiance as well.

Results for the race were posted at the event shortly after the race and posted online later that day.  Pictures for the event were made available for purchase through www.chessiephoto.com within two days of the race and we were even offered a discount code for purchases made within the week!

Yey for new runner friends made along the course!

Final Thoughts
Just to recap, here are a few pros and cons...

Pros
Well organized
Easy to get to and park at
Same day registration and packet pick up
Cute medal (for both 15k and 5k)
Good after party
Stuck to the schedule
Flat, fast course that was very scenic

Cons
Ugly shirt
Slight lateral slant to the course
Not much crowd support for those who enjoy that
No finish line photos

All in all I would say it was a great event that I highly recommend. Definitely think this will become a yearly event for me and hopefully I can shoot for a sub 1:08 next year!

Race Recap: Orange Blossom Half Marathon

This Orange Blossom Half Marathon & 5k has been held annually in Lake County for Several years.  I ran this one in 2013 and was actually my first half marathon since having my sons.  I remember it being scenic, but so cold and windy running around several lakes.  It was tough and since I was only about 3 months postpartum I was just so excited to have made it out alive, but swore it off from then on out.  Of course when I saw Sommer Sports was offering a big deal on this event for 2016 and they had changed the location, I figured what the heck I should give it another go.  I am so glad that I did!

Registration for this race was on a scale in which the first X amount of people would get the race for $1, the next group would get it for $5, then so on.  By the time I hit register, I think I paid maybe $10 or $15 bucks, so it was a steal as far as I was concerned.  Not to mention I was excited to try a new course and the medal (above) looked beautiful.  I even looked back at the registration page a few weeks before the event and the cost still didn't reach over $50, making this quite possibly one of the least expensive Half Marathons you can do in Central Florida if not the whole state!

Communication leading up to the event was great.  We received several emails indicating the date, time and location of packet picket.  Since the event was over an hour away from me, I was so relieved to see they had race day pick up.  And based on the information on directions and parking they sent out, it looked like it would be fairly easy to get to and park at.

The weather forecast was another iffy one, which is par for the course this time of year.  Though temps were expected to warm up later that day, they were calling for upper 30's to low 40's at the start of the race.  These temps were very similar to when I ran 26.2 With Donna two weeks prior and I remembered how quickly I warmed up once I got going.  So I opted for shorts and long sleeves for this one.  As I do for each race, I lay my outfit out the night before, snap a "Flat Christina" to share on Instagram and with my Moms Run This Town Facebook group and gt ready to hit the hay.

I was coming down with either a cold or my allergies were really starting to kick into high gear, so I was not feeling at 100%.  In fact, by Friday night, I had full blown laryngitis and I was coughing quite a bit.  I figured if I felt iffy in the morning, I would skip the race since I didn't want to make things worse for myself.  When the alarm clock went off at 4am, I didn't really have much time to think about how I felt, I just hopped out of bed, got dressed grabbed my race bag and hit the road.  It wasn't until I was about 3 or 4 miles down the road when I started coughing terribly.  Oh that's right, I'm kinda sick, not horribly, but I certainly do not feel great.  Oh well, no turning back now, let's just go see how this goes!

MapQuest was not kidding, it was definitely over an hour away and when I pulled into the parking area, it was a little shy of 6am.  It was pretty dark out still and a frigid 38 degrees.  The website said packet pickup started at 6, so I figured I would have to wait in my car for a few minutes, but as I saw people going in and out of the banquet hall, I thought maybe they had started early.  Sure enough, when I got in there, they were already doing packet pick up.  They were READY, I like it!  I remember this race being smaller when I ran it back in 2013 and it by the looks of the set up, the ease of parking and the amount of people there at the time, I could tell it was going to be another quaint event.  Those to me, can be just as awesome if not more than the larger races.  It makes it feel more like a family.  Rhere is a lot of excitement for everyone from the first to the last finisher.

I met up with a couple of my MRTT mamas and we headed over to the start area a little before 7am. There were no pace groups for this event, so I figured I should just head up close to the front.  After some announcements, course descriptions and a playing of the national anthem (that cut in an out, oops), the race began right at 7am.

The sun was really starting to come up by then and the temp had also come up some.  The first part of the course took us through some houses skirting downtown and up a hill.  When we finally got up the hill and out of the downtown area, we took a sharp right after a school and then it was a mile or so on a beautiful country road with farm lands to our left.  I could see the sun really starting to rise on the horizon, the air was cool but crisp and refreshing.  This part of the course we had a tailwind and a slight decline, so I was able to really pick up my pace and hit a great stride.

Only mid race pic snapped by a friend of mine.

Around mile 3ish we took another sharp right turn and soon after a left turn.  Here comes the orange groves and the hills.  For about a mile, we ran uphill until we turned onto some clay roads.  I was a little nervous about the clay, but this was actually where I did the best.  It was very pretty running through the orange groves (despite all my coughing and sneezing) and the clay was hard packed and mostly flat.

Once we left the clay and were back on the road, we were also back to the hills.  Mile 7 was actually one big hill and that is where things stated to fall apart for me.  I was keeping an average pace of about 7:35 but to get up that hill, I found myself running in the low 8's.  By the time I reached the top of the hill, my legs and lungs were burning.  Once things finally flattened out, we were faced with a pretty strong headwind.  The saving grace was the course was actually really pretty, tough but pretty.

They took us through a dirt/gravel path for a mile or so then it back on to the original course to head back to the start/finish line.  Knowing how far I had left and what it would look like, I felt relieved and excited.  A little under 4 miles to go, I figured I could kick it into high gear.  Unfortunately, I was wrong...

Those lovely earlier miles that were downhill with a tailwind were now my last miles and the complete opposite as before.  From mile 10 on I struggled uphill with the wind at my face.  The cold/allergies/fatigue situation I was experiencing was really taking over me and I was struggling.  Knowing if I could just keep a certain pace, I would finish under 1:43, so I worked on that.  Not a PR, but a strong finish nonetheless. 

Around mile 11, I could see a shadow of someone approaching to my right.  I looked over my should and she gave a big smile and seemed like she wanted to chat.  I paused my music to say hello.  She was ironically someone I knew through Instagram but had never actually met!  We ran and chatted for about a quarter of a mile, but she was a little too fast for me and all the running and talking got my lungs going again, so I had to pull back while I coughed up a storm.  She ended up finishing a few minutes ahead of me and we met up after.  It's funny how social media and running can bring people together and forge new friendships!  Here we are pictured below and we have already discussed plans for running again soon!

Back to the race.  We passed back by the same school and I knew we were getting close, but it seemed a little too close.  Yep, my suspicions were confirmed when I came upon someone directing us down a narrow trail, which we ran out and back for a little over mile to give us the extra miles needed.  The trail also had our last water stop.  After chugging my last bit of water I realized a couple of things.  First, the water tasted a little funky, almost like chlorinated pool water.  Also, there had been no Gatorade or Gu along the course.  Most distance races offer those at some point along the course so I felt that to be a little odd.  I was at least grateful for the pool water they served us.

As the trail came to an end, we took a sharp right and up a hill.  There was less than mile to go at this point and fortunately, what goes up comes down.  The last little stretch to the finish line was mostly downhill so I was able to kick it into high gear and finish in my typical sprint.  Luckily that last little push got me in at 1:40:58.  It was about a 45 second PR but a PR nonetheless!

The after party was quaint, but they had plenty of food (including full bbq sandwiches for the runners), places sit and a lot of socializing.  The sun was up, it was warming up and it was shaping up to be a beautiful morning.  I was able to meet up with some of my MRTT mama's as they were coming in and spend some time recapping our adventures out on the course.  The general consensus was that it was a tough, hilly course but very beautiful.

It turns out that my time was enough to get me up on the podium.  I placed second in my age division, receiving a super cute little plastic orange in it's very own wooden crate with the name of the race and my place engraved on it.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Here are my final pros and cons to recap this event.

Pros
Great pre-race communication and instructions
Race day packet pick up available and was simple
Easy to get to and from
Plenty of parking
Clean bathrooms inside as well as port-a-johns outside
Race started on time
Beautiful course
Plenty of instruction along the course
Free finish line photos
Instant results on large screen
Great food for runners
Medal is large and very pretty
Got right to awards ceromony
Results were emailed right away

Cons
No pace groups for those who like to use them
Course was rather challenging (fun but tough)
Clay and dirt roads
Lots of hills
The added out and back narrow trail was a little dauntingWater tasted icky
No Gatorade or Gu
Crowd support was lacking, even at the start and finish line, no real areas for crowd support along the course
No course photography (just finish line)
After party could use more vendors, activities and excitement

All in all, it was a fun event that I plan to do again next year.  In fact, I think this would be a great one for my husband and I to do together if I can just convince him to train for and run a half