Masters Running

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Kerrymen Pub 5K RR & Beach to Beacon Registration Fiasco (Read 285 times)

    3.02 miles - 23:34 - 7:49 Pre-race warmup - Avg HR 139 Max HR 162 Sunny & 50 degrees Kerrymmen Pub 5K - 20:05 - 6:27 - Avg HR 159 Max HR 170 - Sunny & 50 degrees 6:11 - 6:33 - 6:38 - :43 (Garmin had me at 3.12 miles so I must have run the tangents pretty good!) OA - 48 / 794 AG - 3 / 54 Wow what a spectacular day…weather wise! This was my first run outside in shorts and a short sleeve shirt for the year. I wore my black with red striping Adidas Boston Marathon running shorts, gray Mass State Police short sleeve tech shirt, red sunglasses, Asics DS Trainers and of course my trusty Garmin. My real goal this year was to better my time of 20:39 last year and be close to 20:00. I have been struggling a bit with some lower back pain (a recurring problem every now and then since having a spinal fusion back in 1983) and a little right hamstring issue. The hamstring seems to have healed but the back has been problematic due in part to the amount of snow we’ve had and my shoveling some of it…not very smart on my part as I know better. The governor spoke briefly after having some issues with the loud speaker and we were off. Well I probably went out a bit too fast … DUH…and my back was really screaming at me and I gave serious consideration to dropping out…well really dropping way off pace…and I did slow down a bit but then really felt much better and pushed on to the first mile marker at 6:11. After this point I really began to feel much better and settled into a pretty good 6:30ish pace and began to pick off runner after runner (especially a lot of younger runners…mostly teens it seems). Wow what a great day for a race I thought as I breezed along all alone just hoping to maintain this pace and feel pain free. Just before the mile two marker I came up on a couple of youngsters I had set my sights on for a while and commented on how they appeared to be running so effortlessly and one of them commented that “we just hide the pain better that’s all”…I laughed as I trudged on by and hit mile two at 12:44 for a 6:33 mile … a little slow but that’s ok. Now let’s see if I can maintain this for the final mile, and I continue to set my sights on a few runners ahead of me and continue to pick them off…actually a lot easier than I would have thought at this point. I had been right behind a younger girl and a guy figuring they were together (later learned they weren’t) and finally made it by them as we approached the 3 mile mark and I was at 19:22 for a 6:38 mile and as I rounded the final corner I hear someone yell “Go Bob” I had no idea who it was until I got an e-mail from Karl who ran the better part of the last half of the Maine Marathon with me last year. And then I could hear Joel counting off the seconds at the finish and hear 19:59 ... etc and 20:00 and knew I didn’t quite get under 20 but hey 20:05 for a 00:43 final tenth of a mile. Not too bad all things considered, I’m very please overall and live to run another race! Next was the fiasco to register for the Beach to Beacon 10K road race. I had brought a laptop to the race because I really felt that it was going to fill up fast this year. Last year was the first year of on-line only registration and it filled in about 25 hours. This year they did increase the field by 500 to 6000 but had been really promoting the on-line registration. And for some reason they moved the registration start time from 6:00 on a Saturday morning to 12:00 noon on Sunday afternoon which just happened to coincide with the start time of the Kerrymen Pub 5K which my running bud Joel happens to be race director of. Well anyways I decided to bring a laptop and scoped out a place to park prior to the race to ensure that I had connectivity and found a great spot only a short distance from the finish of the race. Immediately after finishing the race I ran to my car jumped in started the laptop and yup…you guessed it…no freaking signal! So I drive around a bit and find a signal about a mile away and begin to pound away in hopes of getting myself, Joel and a few others registered. Well after about 15 minutes of dealing with a very slow web-site and blank white pages, entering my info several times over I finally got confirmation that I was transaction number 2521 and after a good 5 minutes more I got confirmation that Joel was transaction number 3494…wholly crap it was just about 1:05 I knew this wasn’t good for many of the runners as they figured they could head home after the race to register so I headed back to see if I could let some people know and maybe get a connection again and help some others out. Well I did just that and actually got connected and one more running bud got in using my laptop with transaction number 58xx at just about 1:45 or so. Then while standing and waiting for the awards another friends husband who was trying to register her on his blackberry got the dreaded “We are sorry but we’ve reached our maximum amount of 6,000 runners” and this was at 1:45! I don’t know what they’ll do next year but it has to be different than this. Maybe they could do something like the New York Marathon with a lottery and allow qualifying times to bypass the lottery, they could use the times of the first 50 finishers per age group or something like that…just an idea.
    Tramps


      That's one smokin' race! Very impressive, MR. You've got a speedy AG there for some nice competition, too. Congrats.

      Be safe. Be kind.

      coastwalker


        Hi Bob, Great racing, especially with a bothersome back and a hurtin' hammy! Congrats on beating last year's time, and meeting your goal of getting close to 20:00. I'll bet that if you hadn't had that brief slowdown for your back, you would have cracked 20. I read online that BtoB closed out in just under 2 hours. It's a good thing you worked as hard and as fast as you did to get yourself and some buddies in. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, they make in the registration process next year. But meanwhile, you're in, and have a (big!) good race in August to look forward to! Jay

        Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.

          Great race, Bob....very speedy! You made your goal of "close" to 20:00.
          Quit being so damn serious! When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. "Ya just gotta let it go." OM
          stumpy77


          Trails are hard!

            Welcome back Maine--haven't seen you in a while. And quite a way to come back. Great racing there!! Must feel good to pass all the youngsters. Kevin

            Need a fast half for late fall.  Then I need to actually train for it.

             

              Great racing Bob, As always you are speedy and competitive. And a 3rd place AG. In that field you should be happy. Larry

              Chumbawamba: I get knocked down But I get up again You're never going to keep me down

              Teresadfp


              One day at a time

                We missed you, Bob! That's a fun race - I did it last year in the light snow. Good job!! It took me 58 minutes to sign my son, running partner, and me up for the B2B. I think I actually registered my son twice, because I received two transaction numbers for him by e-mail. I wrote the race people about it, but haven't heard back. Did you hear that Blaine Moore thought he signed his wife and himself up, but his name doesn't appear on the list?? I told him he should write them, because they're looking at each case to see what they can do. I was #811, and I started trying at 11:56 am, when the screen first said that registration was open!


                Marathon Maniac #957

                  Bob - you're warm up was faster than my 5K! Big grin Great racing, speedy guy!

                  Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."

                    We missed you, Bob! That's a fun race - I did it last year in the light snow. Good job!! It took me 58 minutes to sign my son, running partner, and me up for the B2B. I think I actually registered my son twice, because I received two transaction numbers for him by e-mail. I wrote the race people about it, but haven't heard back. Did you hear that Blaine Moore thought he signed his wife and himself up, but his name doesn't appear on the list?? I told him he should write them, because they're looking at each case to see what they can do. I was #811, and I started trying at 11:56 am, when the screen first said that registration was open!
                    Yes Teresa I saw that Blaine didn't get in and I responded to his blog. It is funny because last year they didn't open up until right at 9:00 AM then I hear from some friends at the Kerrymen 5K that they had another friend call them at 11:50 to say he was on the site and registering! My name is only listed on the site twice but I got three confirmation e-mails and it shows them chargin my card three times! It is such a great race it is too bad it has to have these problems associated with it. Hopefully they can come up with a god solution.
                    stumpy77


                    Trails are hard!

                      Yeah--when I first read that, I was thinking, boy Bob must have really had a hard winter. then I looked again, and he hadn't really lost it Wink

                      Need a fast half for late fall.  Then I need to actually train for it.

                       

                        Bob - you're warm up was faster than my 5K! Big grin Great racing, speedy guy!
                        Not really Holly, I only ran 3 miles you did 3.1! Wink And great race by the way, I had to look at your log because I haven't been able to keep up with things for the last couple of weeks so I hadn't seen your race. A first in your AG way to go girl...WOO HOO... you are one smoking gal! Congratulations on a great race.
                          maine, I imagine it is greatly satisfying to pass all those teenagers! Good race after the winter. Geesh, I can't think of how that race is going to fix the 2 hour fill up problem. Maybe they should start another race for cast-offs.

                          "During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."


                          Renee the dog

                            WOW! What a way to pull it back together and complete a great race!!! Hope the weather breaks soon and the shovel can be put away to give you some back relief. Big congrats too on getting registered 2 or 3x for the BtB. Maybe you can sell off your excess registrations? Evil grin

                            GOALS 2012: UNDECIDED

                            GOALS 2011: LIVE!!!

                              Yes Teresa I saw that Blaine didn't get in and I responded to his blog. It is funny because last year they didn't open up until right at 9:00 AM then I hear from some friends at the Kerrymen 5K that they had another friend call them at 11:50 to say he was on the site and registering! My name is only listed on the site twice but I got three confirmation e-mails and it shows them chargin my card three times! It is such a great race it is too bad it has to have these problems associated with it. Hopefully they can come up with a god solution.
                              so what do you think will happen when they realize they probably have many people registered more than once? i am pretty bummed about it -- i totally forgot and tried at 2p when it was obviously closed -- 1 hr 45 minutes for 6000 runners is crazy - oh well but........ AWESOME RACE!! you are amazingly fast!! nice job!!

                              denise

                                Mainerunnah! Congratulations on hitting some speedy miles and a great race time in the midst of hectic work weeks, many miles, an aching back and everything else. Your running devotion is certainly without question as you run one race only to register immediately for another. Race registrations/entries have been pretty high already in 2009. Sorry about the fiasco, but good on ya for getting into the race and here's to more speedy miles---especially on 4/20.
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