My Race for the Cure 10 Year Anniversary

Race for the Cure!! I think I have mentioned before that Race for the Cure was my very first race. That was 10 years ago. I can't believe it's been that long! This year I celebrated the big 1-0 in a pretty great, unplanned, way.

The race was later this year than it ever has been since I started running it. It's always been in October and this year it was the first weekend in November. Which also means, it was colder for this race than any other Race for the Cure I've run. I had a really hard time figuring out what to wear. I knew I wanted to run hard for the competitive start at 7:30, so I would not need as much warmth as I would if I was running a more comfortable pace. But then I planned to run the course again at 8:00 with my friend Andrea, whose goal was to PR with a pace under 9:49. It seems petty, but I REALLY hate being cold, and I really wanted to run hard so what to wear definitely mattered.

We met Andrea at 5:45 on race morning to drive to Little Rock together. We ended up getting to our "regular" parking lot earlier than expected and it was nice to not feel rushed. We took our time gathering what we needed for the race and sorting what we would need later. When we were ready, we made the half mile walk to race central. After a quick "tour" of the area for Andrea, we ran a mile to warm up and by the time we finished there was less than 10 minutes until Scott and I started. I asked Andrea to get a quick picture for Scott and me and then we said goodbye for a bit.

At the start line I did the regular last minute things, making sure my shoes were the right tightness, music was ready, and trying to stay warmed up. The countdown began and the gun went off. With a reminder from Scott to not start too fast, and not much else on my mind, we took off. For the first time that I can remember, the first hill, the pass up the Broadway bridge to cross the river, didn't seem so hard. Even with Scott's reminder, my first mile was still too fast at 8:04, but in the moment I was feeling good. And then the second pass over the river, over the Main Street bridge, came. The hill to the top of this bridge is longer I think. Or maybe I'm delusional. It feels way worse and it takes me out, every time. I used the top of the bridge to recover as best as possible so that I could use the downhill of it to regain momentum.

I didn't have a time goal for this race. I knew the first 250 finishers received a medal, and I knew I placed 56th last year. All I wanted was to get a medal. And maybe finish in a better placement. I tried very hard to stay in the moment and be aware of the fun going on on the sides of the course. There have been times in the past that I've done the competitive run and there had not been many groups out yet. Or maybe I was too focused on time to see them. This time though, I wanted to make sure I saw them. They were a good distraction but even though I wasn't going for time, I had seen my pace climbing little by little as we ran over rolling hill after rolling hill. And there was a small part of me that was bothered by that. At 2.5 miles I noticed my average pace was 8:28. I wasn't positive, but I was thinking that might be a PR pace. I didn't know if I could run any faster, but I hoped to at least maintain that average. I wanted to finish knowing I had done my best. So I tried to dig deeper.

The last couple turns I think Scott was trying to tell me to start picking off people. To pass one person at a time. That didn't happen until the last 1/3 mile or so and it wasn't many, but I did. I crossed the finish line and Scott and I were greeted by a bunch of guys shouting so loud I could hear them over my own very loud music. It was probably the most rowdy finish line, medal receiving, greeting I've ever had. But it was pretty great. :-D

I knew I didn't have very long to get back to the start line where Andrea was waiting. I checked my watch, saw I finished with a pace of 8:24, thanked Scott for pacing me, and passed my extra stuff to him before taking off again. I had approximately a quarter mile and 4 minutes to do it. Which doesn't sound like it would be a problem, but at this point there are thousands of people lined up at least two blocks deep and most are walkers. I ran, then jogged, then weaved through participants and spectators. I saw Andrea JUST before I heard the DJ shout Go! We got a quick start line selfie, because it's tradition, and then prepared to run. Except, we were hardly moving.

It's been a few years since I did the general start as a runner. I had given Andrea a place to meet that I thought would be in the mix of runners, but in front of walkers. Now that it's all over, I'm thinking there really aren't nearly as many runners at the 8:00 start as there used to be. That, or they really crowd them in. Whatever the case, we were behind hundreds of walkers. I'm so glad so many people were there to support the cause, but I was feeling bad that I told Andrea to meet me so far back. Because of how packed it was we had a slow start to working towards Andrea's PR. We tried to jog through the crowd, or along the side on the sidewalk, but we were sitting around a 14 minute mile for about 1/4 mile. As we went up the bridge the crowd thinned more and more. At almost half a mile it had thinned enough that we could easily run and pass people as needed. Our pace had already gone from 14 to somewhere in the 11 minute range. I apologized again to Andrea and told her next year to just start in the very front. Or, even better, run the competitive run so she could get a medal for her hard work. :-D I also asked if she still wanted to shoot for her PR goal, which would mean running harder to make up for the beginning. Andrea's answer was to at least run the PR pace from this point on.

A little before one mile I noticed our pace had dropped significantly and we pulled back a little. It was the same situation as my first time around the course. Only Andrea is better about pacing herself. I gave her a heads up about the hill back across the bridge coming up and we slowed a little more. At the top we recovered again, and when Andrea was ready we used the downhill on the other side of the river to pick the pace back up. I honestly don't remember very much talking. I know I tried to encourage Andrea, but also tried not to assume she wanted to hear what was coming up along the course. I also noticed the groups of spectators were way more vocal this time around.
For me, this second time on the course had it's own set of difficulties. Mostly being that I was running on tired legs from the speedy 5k, but also I was now at almost 7 miles of running for the day. I should have mentioned before that part of why I wanted to run the course a second time with Andrea, besides wanting to run with and support my friend, was because I'm also training for a 15k in a few weeks. So I needed the distance, but I was definitely feeling it. Despite that, I was throughly enjoying myself! I love running with Andrea, and I was really loving the experience of truly seeing and hearing the spectators along the way.

We had been on the little rolling hills for a bit when Andrea asked about our distance. Back at the start line her RunKeeper app couldn't seem to find a signal so her distance and pace were off. I knew we had passed two miles but my watch was showing right at 2 miles, and also giving me a warning that the battery was low. I assumed the distance and pace were off because of the low battery. I was hoping that it wouldn't die before we finished because there have been a couple times when something similar to this has happened when the battery was low and it ended up still tracking but not showing. Anyway, so I estimated we had about 3/4 mile to go but couldn't tell her anything about pace, and asked if she wanted to know what to expect for the last few minutes. She asked about the distance from our last turn to the finish line. I told her my best guess was less than half a mile, but more than a quarter. (According to Google Maps it is .4) I also told her she would be able to see the finish line as soon as we turned. She was asking because she had more to give, but didn't want to go all out too soon. I love how Andrea races so smart!!

Step by step Andrea picked up the pace and finished so so strong! I think we finished at an awkward time because there weren't very many people at the finish line. The guys that had been handing out medals earlier had move to just before the finish line. That was cool and I was glad there was some noise as we finished. There just weren't very many runners or people on the sidelines. It was really odd. So it seems as though while the competitive runners may have less excitement over the course, general start runners may have a less exciting finish line. Or maybe it was a fluke. Who knows! Whatever the case, I was still so proud of Andrea and her smart, strong race! It wasn't until we met up with Scott a minute or two after finishing that I really looked at my watch to see our finish time. My watch had tracked the whole time and it turns out that we had done way better than expected. And Andrea learned she has WAY more in her than she realized. Our finish time was 28:54 with an average pace of 9:17.... 9:17!!! That's a 30 second PR for Andrea! WHAT!? Her first 5k was a 9:49 pace on a mostly flat course. This one was far from flat. Incredible!

We took some time to stretch and then walked back to race central to wait for the Survivor Parade which was scheduled to start at 9:30. We had almost an hour at this point. While waiting for the parade we stood around, stretched, went to the the little tent set up for pink ribbon shopping, stood around, and stretched some more. All while trying to stay warm. While Andrea and I were running, Scott had gone back to the car and grabbed our bags that had an extra layer and snacks, but I think I underestimated how many layers post-run I would need. I did not want to miss the parade, and by the time it started I was so thankful.

Staying for the parade is really important to me. It reminds me of why I run this race in the first place. To remember and celebrate the too many friends and family that are affected by cancer. To support the ones I don't even know. It's a very special time filled with smiles and tears.

I tried not to rush leaving, but almost couldn't help it. I had been shaking from being cold for over an hour. We all decided we were ready and we made our way back to the car, trying to be in the sun as much as possible. :)

After ten years, I almost expected this year to be somewhat mundane. "Just" another 5k that had a special cause, but nothing really different from the past. And yet, it was still different. Every year, all ten of them, has been different for one reason or another. I'm already looking forward to what my 11th year at Race for the Cure will bring!

Competitive Run Final Stats~
Finish time- 26:23
Average pace- 8:24 (I found out while we were waiting for the parade that I did in fact PR!!!)
Overall place- 51/173