The Big Ass Medal Race Series by Coastal Race Productions is something I’ve had my sights set on since finding out about the event at the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon race packet pickup.
The four 3×8″ medals are magnetic and snap together to form one large 12×8″ medal
Packet Pickup
The no-frills race packet pickup was at the Oak Island Park & Recreation Center, and barely worth mentioning. No marketing gimmicks, just really friendly staff handing out the bib with timing chip on the back, and a cotton t-shirt, hot off the press, with the beautiful #runoakisland design.
The Night Before
This time I decided to again stay at an Airbnb location, just 3 miles away, which, as it turned out, was right along the half marathon route. A quick glance at the weather forecast let me know that I should perhaps layer up.
Thus far, I think my ideal running temperature is in the low 40s. As it’ll be below freezing, preparations can be tricky. The cold weather checklist:
Can I find parking close to the start line? In which case I can just stay inside the vehicles until close to race start.
How many layers should I wear? Will I want to discard anything during the race as it warms up? I’ve never done this, but some runners tend to toss layers, or cheap gloves after it warms up.
Whether to wear gloves or to use the HotHands hand warmers.
There’s no bag check with this particular race, so after finishing, will I get cold? Standing around all sweaty in freezing temperatures will drop your body temperature quickly.
I’ll take a solar blanket with me, just in case.
In the end, I settled in my typical cold weather setup; My City of Oaks Marathon long sleeve shirt (to prevent chafing), the long sleeve mostly-cotton Little River Trail Run shirt, and my own Swiftchase technical t-shirt, boxer briefs underwear, layer 8 compression shorts, and running tights. I decided against gloves and for using hand warmers only which, in hind sight, I regret. If it’s below freezing, just wear cheap gloves. Maybe even with the hand warmers.
Race Morning
My morning ritual is to eat a banana exactly one hour before the race, and to drink half a liter of my pre-workout BCAA mix stuff that I have way too much of at home, thanks to the Amazon Subscription that I really need to cancel, or at least skip for a few months. This time I decided to take an Aspirin as blood thinner, which I regretted later as I can’t really stomach them.
I was lucky enough to find parking literally 15 ft from the starting line.
The runners are gathering. 5 minutes until start.
The Run
As soon as we took off, I settled in around 8th place and tried to find my pace. The air was ice cold and crisp, which helped immensely with breathing. The hand warmers were annoying. My thumbs got ice cold. I tried to hide them in my fists, but then my index and middle fingers froze. The hand warmers had a tough time combating the cold. The slightly icy wind that whipped into my face made me teary eyed. The neck warmer, however, did a fantastic job protecting my neck. I wore my hat to help retain some heat and keep my sunglasses in place, which I’d need later running back and facing east. After a few initial turns, we ran west for what felt like 8,000 miles.
I am absolutely terrible at pacing. I had passed a few individuals and kept checking my Garmin. Apparently I was doing around 6:50 min/mi. That isn’t exactly a pace I can normally sustain. I kept my eyes on the guy and girl that seemed to run together at the very front and tried to maintain my distance for as long as possible. I had passed a few people and there were exactly five runners in front of me. The two people in the lead, two guys behind them, and an individual runner right behind them.
The two guys slowly fell behind. By mile 3 I had passed them. My mind was going back and forth between “pace yourself, don’t overdo it” and “just go for it, see what happens.” It’s difficult, really, because I never know how I’m going to feel when I get to the last quarter mile of the race. At the Rock’n’Roll Virginia Beach last year, I had to slow down in order to not pass out, and at the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon, I went into a full sprint along with the guy right next to me. Most of my training runs have been either 5 miles on pavement, 6 miles on trail, or a 15 miler once every other fortnight.
The dip at the at the 1 hour mark is running up two bridges. Similarly, the speed spikes are from running down those bridges. Afterwards, my pacing is off.
The two runners in the lead remained steady. I slowly caught up to the guy in third and slowly passed him. We were getting started on mile 5. Now in 3rd place, I was worried about being able to maintain my pace. At first I thought the girl in second place started falling behind, but it was the guy in first place who started putting more distance between us. The other runner, momentarily in fourth place, was narrowly on my heels.
The half marathon route
Once we hit the bridge after mile 8, he started passing me. I attempted to catch up on my way downhill, but then just died. The few spikes in my pace towards the end is me trying to give myself mental boosts, which went back and forth between “come on, run your ass off!” and me negotiating with myself on how much slack I could give myself. “Let’s do the math on how much I can fall behind before the next guy behind me will pass me.” The moment where the fun was over becomes painfully obvious, looking at the cadence.
Things turn blue pretty much as soon as I saw the bridge up ahead. 🙁
It was the moment of seeing the bridge up ahead. And it really took the wind out of my sails. Seeing the second bridge, and realizing I’d have to cross that, and then run back the same route made it worse. The last three miles were a battle. I tried to get back into the right cadence, but it was all bad. I couldn’t focus, I felt a stitch, my breathing was off. It was all I had, and all I trained for. You know, “around 10 miles.”
My thoughts were all over the map, and it took a conscious effort to keep it together. “Long spine,” “shorter steps,” “shoulders back,” “breathe deeper and faster.” It felt like the cruise control broke, and I had to do everything manually now and tried to avoid any movements not totally essential. After the bridges I was running towards the sun again, but I didn’t bother fiddling with my sun glasses.
Occasionally a vehicle crawled by, but up until now the roads were mostly empty.
The 5K Runners Join Up
The race consisted of a half marathon, a 5K and a 1 Miler (which I’m not sure where or when that took place). The 5K, however, was timed so they would roughly join and finish along with the half marathon runners, which was great. I think it’s a feature that should be advertised, so that friends or couples who want to sign up together but for different categories know they’ll see each other pretty soon at the finish line.
The Finish
With the finish line in sight, I gave it a bit of a small boost. Although I didn’t have much left. I finished with a chip time of 1:33:17. It’s a new PR over the previous 1:34:33 at Myrtle Beach, and another minute closer to my 90 minute goal time.
The finish line
Both 5K and Half Marathon runners finishing around the same time
After The Race
After crossing the finish line, there were volunteers handing out bottles of cold water, which was fantastic. They had a tent where finishers could pick up their medal, and Papa John’s was there with stacks of pizza.
What they didn’t have though, as far as I could tell, were bananas or oranges, or anything else. And the reason why I’m pointing this out is that pizza alone cuts out a lot of people with adverse food reactions or allergies. Anybody who’s lactose intolerant, casein protein intolerant, has an egg allergy, gluten sensitivity or Celiacs can’t enjoy pizza. A hot dog vendor (optionally without bun) would be great for some. Or even a handful of Starburst or small Halloween sized packet of skittles.
So that medal I got is in a shadow box. I’ll have to either take it out and hang it with the rest, or hang it up as is. This was the first race in a series of four races total. I feel like the pressure is on to keep this kind of performance up, if for no other reason than Feng shui.
I realized I haven’t run a 5K in a while, and the Rock’n’Roll remix bling was incentive enough, since I’m already running the half marathon tomorrow. Packet Pickup As always, packet pickup was at the Rock’n’Roll Health & Fitness Expo held at the Raleigh Convention Center. I’ve participated in enough Rock’n’Roll events that I’m familiar with …
A race in the home town. It’s been a while. Roughly 2,000 participants gathered for the St Paddy’s 8K. The New Trend The new trend among races is to hand out incentivizing, partial medals. And the Run Green 8K organized St Paddy’s 8K is no different. The two races in the series consist of the St. …
What a Blast! So two weeks ago on June 19, I did the Warrior Dash in Huntersville, NC along with our obstacle course workout group. This race and the entire weekend was a fantastic experience. Since most of us are from from the Raleigh/Durham, NC area and the race was three hours away in Charlotte, NC, we …
[hana-flv-player video=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/graydoubt/primalmudrunnc2012.mp4″ splashimage=”http://graydoubt.com/primalmudrunnc2012/mudrun.png” autoload=”false” /] Something Different This was my very first obstacle course race, and it was lot of fun. I had bought a Groupon for the Primal Mud Run back in January to see what all the fuss is about. Some of my friends and coworkers had previously done a mud run as …
BAM Race Series Oak Island 2016 Race Report
The Big Ass Medal Race Series by Coastal Race Productions is something I’ve had my sights set on since finding out about the event at the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon race packet pickup.
The four 3×8″ medals are magnetic and snap together to form one large 12×8″ medal
Packet Pickup
The no-frills race packet pickup was at the Oak Island Park & Recreation Center, and barely worth mentioning. No marketing gimmicks, just really friendly staff handing out the bib with timing chip on the back, and a cotton t-shirt, hot off the press, with the beautiful #runoakisland design.
The Night Before
This time I decided to again stay at an Airbnb location, just 3 miles away, which, as it turned out, was right along the half marathon route. A quick glance at the weather forecast let me know that I should perhaps layer up.
Thus far, I think my ideal running temperature is in the low 40s. As it’ll be below freezing, preparations can be tricky. The cold weather checklist:
In the end, I settled in my typical cold weather setup; My City of Oaks Marathon long sleeve shirt (to prevent chafing), the long sleeve mostly-cotton Little River Trail Run shirt, and my own Swiftchase technical t-shirt, boxer briefs underwear, layer 8 compression shorts, and running tights. I decided against gloves and for using hand warmers only which, in hind sight, I regret. If it’s below freezing, just wear cheap gloves. Maybe even with the hand warmers.
Race Morning
My morning ritual is to eat a banana exactly one hour before the race, and to drink half a liter of my pre-workout BCAA mix stuff that I have way too much of at home, thanks to the Amazon Subscription that I really need to cancel, or at least skip for a few months. This time I decided to take an Aspirin as blood thinner, which I regretted later as I can’t really stomach them.
I was lucky enough to find parking literally 15 ft from the starting line.
The runners are gathering. 5 minutes until start.
The Run
As soon as we took off, I settled in around 8th place and tried to find my pace. The air was ice cold and crisp, which helped immensely with breathing. The hand warmers were annoying. My thumbs got ice cold. I tried to hide them in my fists, but then my index and middle fingers froze. The hand warmers had a tough time combating the cold. The slightly icy wind that whipped into my face made me teary eyed. The neck warmer, however, did a fantastic job protecting my neck. I wore my hat to help retain some heat and keep my sunglasses in place, which I’d need later running back and facing east. After a few initial turns, we ran west for what felt like 8,000 miles.
I am absolutely terrible at pacing. I had passed a few individuals and kept checking my Garmin. Apparently I was doing around 6:50 min/mi. That isn’t exactly a pace I can normally sustain. I kept my eyes on the guy and girl that seemed to run together at the very front and tried to maintain my distance for as long as possible. I had passed a few people and there were exactly five runners in front of me. The two people in the lead, two guys behind them, and an individual runner right behind them.
The two guys slowly fell behind. By mile 3 I had passed them. My mind was going back and forth between “pace yourself, don’t overdo it” and “just go for it, see what happens.” It’s difficult, really, because I never know how I’m going to feel when I get to the last quarter mile of the race. At the Rock’n’Roll Virginia Beach last year, I had to slow down in order to not pass out, and at the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon, I went into a full sprint along with the guy right next to me. Most of my training runs have been either 5 miles on pavement, 6 miles on trail, or a 15 miler once every other fortnight.
The dip at the at the 1 hour mark is running up two bridges. Similarly, the speed spikes are from running down those bridges. Afterwards, my pacing is off.
The two runners in the lead remained steady. I slowly caught up to the guy in third and slowly passed him. We were getting started on mile 5. Now in 3rd place, I was worried about being able to maintain my pace. At first I thought the girl in second place started falling behind, but it was the guy in first place who started putting more distance between us. The other runner, momentarily in fourth place, was narrowly on my heels.
The half marathon route
Once we hit the bridge after mile 8, he started passing me. I attempted to catch up on my way downhill, but then just died. The few spikes in my pace towards the end is me trying to give myself mental boosts, which went back and forth between “come on, run your ass off!” and me negotiating with myself on how much slack I could give myself. “Let’s do the math on how much I can fall behind before the next guy behind me will pass me.” The moment where the fun was over becomes painfully obvious, looking at the cadence.
Things turn blue pretty much as soon as I saw the bridge up ahead. 🙁
It was the moment of seeing the bridge up ahead. And it really took the wind out of my sails. Seeing the second bridge, and realizing I’d have to cross that, and then run back the same route made it worse. The last three miles were a battle. I tried to get back into the right cadence, but it was all bad. I couldn’t focus, I felt a stitch, my breathing was off. It was all I had, and all I trained for. You know, “around 10 miles.”
My thoughts were all over the map, and it took a conscious effort to keep it together. “Long spine,” “shorter steps,” “shoulders back,” “breathe deeper and faster.” It felt like the cruise control broke, and I had to do everything manually now and tried to avoid any movements not totally essential. After the bridges I was running towards the sun again, but I didn’t bother fiddling with my sun glasses.
Occasionally a vehicle crawled by, but up until now the roads were mostly empty.
The 5K Runners Join Up
The race consisted of a half marathon, a 5K and a 1 Miler (which I’m not sure where or when that took place). The 5K, however, was timed so they would roughly join and finish along with the half marathon runners, which was great. I think it’s a feature that should be advertised, so that friends or couples who want to sign up together but for different categories know they’ll see each other pretty soon at the finish line.
The Finish
With the finish line in sight, I gave it a bit of a small boost. Although I didn’t have much left. I finished with a chip time of 1:33:17. It’s a new PR over the previous 1:34:33 at Myrtle Beach, and another minute closer to my 90 minute goal time.
The finish line
Both 5K and Half Marathon runners finishing around the same time
After The Race
After crossing the finish line, there were volunteers handing out bottles of cold water, which was fantastic. They had a tent where finishers could pick up their medal, and Papa John’s was there with stacks of pizza.
What they didn’t have though, as far as I could tell, were bananas or oranges, or anything else. And the reason why I’m pointing this out is that pizza alone cuts out a lot of people with adverse food reactions or allergies. Anybody who’s lactose intolerant, casein protein intolerant, has an egg allergy, gluten sensitivity or Celiacs can’t enjoy pizza. A hot dog vendor (optionally without bun) would be great for some. Or even a handful of Starburst or small Halloween sized packet of skittles.
So that medal I got is in a shadow box. I’ll have to either take it out and hang it with the rest, or hang it up as is. This was the first race in a series of four races total. I feel like the pressure is on to keep this kind of performance up, if for no other reason than Feng shui.
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