Race Review: Buffalo Grove Stampede 10K (or, why races should start at 7am)

I wanted a good filler 10K in the midst of my half marathon training, so I got it in the form of the Buffalo Grove Stampede, part of that town's BG Days, a village festival. Buffalo Grove is very close to where I grew up and not too far from where I live now, and the Stampede is also a CARA Circuit Race, so I signed up so I could get some points with my running club.

I arrived in Buffalo Grove and managed to find a parking spot in one of their designated parking locations. Thankfully, I did not have to park at the movie theater and take the shuttle bus to the starting line. I couldn't imagine the smell on the ride back on one of those school buses!

The registration area was pretty easy to figure out -- I picked up my packet without issue, but then over the loudspeaker came the announcement that they placed the B-Tags on the bibs in the incorrect orientation and we would have to turn the bibs sideways. Not a big deal, but I had just pinned on my bib when I had to take it off and re-pin it!

I found the Oak Park Runners Club participants and joined up with them pre-race to chat. Side note: I am very happy that I have now met several members. It's nice to have some folks to chat with before and after the races!

Now, as to the race itself. I'll start with the positives. The course was lovely. I was a little worried when I read the disclaimer that 60% of the 10K course was a crushed gravel trail, since I had never run trail before, but it ended up being totally fine, and actually better on my joints. Once we got back to asphalt after going through the trail, my knees were like "Nooooo!"

The trail bit was very pretty -- through a forest preserve and down along the banks of a creek (it was so hot I considered jumping in!)

And that brings me to the negatives. This obviously was no fault of the organizers, but it was blazingly hot. By starting time, it was over 80 degrees with over 60% humidity. The sun was just beating down in a cloudless sky and the course was literally shadeless. By the time I finished, it was 90 degrees outside.

One thing that could have been done about this is the race start time. When I checked the weather forecast for Sunday, I was expecting a race start time temperature of about 70 degrees. Wrong-o. First of all, the 5K started at 8:00am. The 10K, however, started at 8:22am. In my opinion, that is just an incredibly late start, particularly for a 10K. Starting a 10K at nearly 8:30am on a weekend that still is usually warm in Chicago seems nuts to me. This may just be a personal opinion, but races should always start at 7:00am or earlier, no matter the season.

I was displaying symptoms of heat exhaustion by Mile 4. My goose bumps were out of control, and my body depleted itself of fluid so rapidly that I literally had stopped sweating. I had hydrated myself a ton the day prior and the morning of the race, but I had no more fluid to even sweat out. As soon as I crossed in a fairly the finish time, in a time that was quite disappointing to me if I'm being honest, I had to run for the shade and sit down. As soon as I did, I thought I would faint. I hope that the 76-year-old man that crossed the finish with me then nearly collapsed is OK.

Obviously I'm fine now, but it was a very tough race for me. I would love to do it again next year, but maybe I'll do the 5K instead. Hopefully things will cool off before my long-awaited and long-anticipated Run For Your Lives race in three weeks! I'd be so mad if I overheated and had a miserable time at that event since I have been looking forward to it for so long.

But on to the next, each race is a learning experience, and I certainly learned from this one!

Completed:
Buffalo Gove Stampede 10K
September 1, 2013
Buffalo Grove, IL
1:01:04.9

Race Review: North Shore Cupid's Love Dash 10K

When I signed up for my first 10K, I was admittedly very nervous. I'd just started running in earnest in August, and suddenly I was running a 10K just a few short months later. However, after making it through the Couch to 5K program and having completed several 5Ks at increasingly impressive paces, I knew I was ready. The date I figured to be done with the 5 to 10K program coincided with the North Shore Cupid's Love Dash (February 10, 2013), and I signed up.

It was a fun, cute concept -- a Valentine's Day weekend race with a sweet theme. Runners could choose to run "solo" or in teams with a significant other or friend. In addition to the usual hydration stations, the course also featured candy stations, which featured volunteers with buckets of candy offering treats to runners as they passed.

I arrived to Highland Park a tad later than I'd intended, only a few minutes before the race start. Parking in Highland Park is not exactly a pleasant experience, and I was scrambling to find a spot before the race started without me. But once I found a spot, I got to the start line with enough time to exchange my race swag bag t-shirt for a better size, hand my car keys off to my boyfriend, who'd come to cheer me on, and get myself situated at the starting line.

At the starting gun, I was overloading on adrenaline as usual, and it was a good thing, because it was at that very second that the freezing rain that had been forecasted for the day began to fall.

Despite the weather, the course was great. It was not too hilly, and provided some great eye candy: the most expensive homes on the North Shore and the Ravinia grounds. The only issue I found was that in some sections, roads were not blocked off and there were no sidewalks, so I got very nervous with cars passing by runners in both directions. It particularly got nerve-wracking near a church, as runners were having to dodge cars turning into the church parking lot, which was experiencing a lot of traffic being that it was a Sunday morning.

There was also one very icy patch of road in Mile 5. Based on a Facebook post from Carpe Diem Racing following the race, they evidently were not permitted by the city to sand or salt the roads, so it was not the fault of the organizers, but it was a concern, especially when a runner right in front of me wiped out rather spectacularly on the ice and everyone had to slow their pace pretty considerably to avoid the same fate on the slick road.

However, once I came through the ice patch, the finish line loomed, and I struggled to put on the best burst of speed I could muster. I finished in 57:43, better than I had even imagined (my official finisher photo shows that I was actually smiling). I was presented with the adorable finisher's medal as I crossed the finish, and I was thankful to have only a few steps to walk to grab a water, banana, and a Muscle Milk.

My boyfriend snagged this photo as I ate my banana and held up my medal.

It was a great race overall. Not only did I get the confidence knowing that I could run a 10K in that kind of time just months after taking up running, but I also appreciated the great organization and small entry size of the race. I'd definitely run the Love Dash again next year -- but hopefully freezing rain won't be in the forecast again!

Completed:
North Shore Cupid's Love Dash 10K
February 10, 2013
Highland Park, IL 
57:43

See my other past race results and upcoming races here.

Your Best Training Run Ever

Ever have a training run after which you have a moment of pure clarity and inspiring confidence in yourself? When you realize at the end: "I can do this," and you would cry if you were a little better hydrated?

Maybe you ran your first mile without stopping, or you broke an eight-minute mile for the first time, or finished your first marathon. Regardless of whatever it is you did, you feel an incredible sense of pride in yourself and have a kind of epiphany.

I had that today. And let me tell you, there is nothing like that moment of pure clarity.

After a very busy, stressful, and frustrating day at work, I came home, had a spectacular screaming match with someone I live with, and stormed out the door to the gym. I'd been planning to simply re-do Week 7 Day 2 (which consists of some tempo runs) of my 5 to 10K Program as I'd been having trouble with fueling the previous two times I attempted it and could barely finish.

However, I arrived at the gym so full of adrenaline that after my 5-minute warmup on the treadmill, I changed gears and suddenly decided to do Week 7 Day 3 -- a 55 minute steady run. Typically, I reserve the long runs for the weekends when I have a little more time to spend at the gym. But I thought, "Hell, I can do this. And I'm going to do it right now."

I did. And in that 55 minute run, I ran 5.7 miles.

It's my longest distance, my longest run duration, and provided me my greatest moment of clarity. In the last four minutes, my ultimate pump-up song, "How You Like Me Now?" by The Heavy serendipitously came up in my playlist. I felt myself filling with another burst of adrenaline, and pumped up the speed a few decimals for those last few minutes.

I was shocked at what I'd done. 26 days (according to my RunKeeper countdown) before my first 10K race, I'd run (stopping briefly only twice to sip some water) just one half-mile short of the race distance. And based on the time in which I did it, it suddenly became abundantly clear to me that not only was running a 10K under an hour somewhat feasible, it was real.  

I could run a 10K in under one hour.
Less than six months ago, I couldn't even run for five straight minutes without stopping.

When I'd set a goal for myself for this race, knowing I'd never run the distance before, I kept my goal at a generous 1:10 or less. But just in this training run, including my 10 total minutes of warm-up and cool down walking, I'd done over (6.3 miles) a 10K -- in 1:05. That's with 10 full minutes of walking.

I could run a 10K in under one hour.

And I will. How you like me now?