Kent City Ridge Run 15k - aka "Jill's Hills" (Read 616 times)

OMFG...that both sucked AND blew. It would have been a difficult race under ideal conditions, but yesterday dumped ~6" of icy snow on the area, so all but maybe a mile total of the course was snow and ice...almost entirely on unplowed, hilly backroads. I hurt...and something tells me I'm REALLY gonna hurt tomorrow. But I placed in my AG for the first time ever...3 out of 7 women in the 35-39 AG (94/120 for the full field). Unfortunately we didn't stick around for awards, since my local friend who rode with me was feeling a little ill and wanted to get home. I'm going to e-mail the race director to see if I earned anything--if so I would happily pay her to mail it to me...who knows when I will actually "place" in a race again. Eryn/backroadrunner and I were pretty much side-by-side for the entire race (heh, but I smoked her on the last quarter mile or so...it pays to have that sprinter's kick at the end ). We both agree that this is the hardest race course either of us has run. The 25k coming up in May is easier...it has just a few smallish hills and (hopefully) no SNOW/ICE! Gah. We do think we will meet up to run this course during marathon training, though...once the snow is long gone. It would definitely be a good strength workout. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful race. I really feel that HTFU glow, though. 9.3 miles of gutting it out and living to tell about it. I had hoped to run at least as fast as my HM PR pace (just under 9:30), but there was no way that was going to happen. Without the snow and ice it probably would have been doable, but definitely not today. And I still PRd. One of the neat things about having a Garmin is seeing that I actually ran 9.36 miles...that extra .06 is almost certainly from all the traversing everyone had to do to find the least slippery areas of the course. MTA: this was pretty much the first race where I felt NO guilt for walking through water stops...

Well done, you did a great job in the crappy conditions. I have never even run in the snow so can't imagine what it would be like to race in it! Way to HTFU!

YAY Kirsten, You did it, Congrats, that's Great.

Nice job. I am in Lansing and was going to run a 5k this morning. We only got about 4 inches of snow but I chickened out. It looks like 18 brave souls ran today and I would have finished in 5th place if I had run (4th place was around 22 minutes and 5th place was 25 minutes) but Im still glad I stayed home as I am a weenie.

Dude...18?! You peeps are soft in the middle of the state!

Congrats on the PR Did you wear you yax trax? Hope a medal is in the mail soon.

GREAT JOB ZOOMY!!! I've been thinking about you all day and sending you good running vibes. Just now able to check to see how you did. What horrible conditions!!! You really HTFU'd!!! And you placed in your AG! I'm so proud of you!!! Congrats girlfriend!!!

I think you may have had the tougher race! Way to HTFU & congrats! Beers too you, too!

Here's something odd: I couldn't see your elevation until I went to reply. Huh? Wonder what that's about? But, as you all can tell from the tattoo thread, I'm a computer idiot.

I think it's slow to load...so maybe it just didn't load until you replied...?