Run for the Cheetah!

On Saturday, Oct 11, I had an 8K footrace to run.

It was the Run for the Cheetah, the last in a series of 4 races around the country to help raise awareness about the endangered cheetah and to raise funds to support the Cheetah Conservation Fund's programs.



Appropriately, the race started and ended at the Portland Zoo.

A couple things about this race had me apprehensive:
(1) portland was going through a bit of a "cold snap" just in time for the race, and the weather forecast placed that morning run somewhere between 35 and 38 degrees Farenheit. Brrr!

(2) this was more or less the same route as the Reach the Bridge run I ran in late June... only, the Reach the Bridge was 1 way all the way down the hill to the Burnside Bridge. Run for the Cheetah was a loop. We ran approx 2.4 miles downhill, and then turned around and ran 2.4 miles back up that stupid hill. ugh.


Since they had dropped plenty of hints that we should take the MAX instead of planning on parking at the zoo, I went ahead and planned appropriately.

The schedule was as follows:
7:00 a.m. Day of Race Registration
8:00 a.m. Kid's Run / Walk
8:30 a.m. 8K Run / Walk
8:45 a.m. 5K Run / Walk
9:00 a.m. Food, Fun& Festivities
10:00 a.m. Awards/Prize Drawing

I was shooting to get there by 8am... and I think I JUST made it, by catching a 7:30am MAX train from the Lloyd Center station (for $2, I could get a 2 hour 2 zone ticket). I munched on some electrolyte snacks, drank some water, and put myself together on the MAX train (wiring my ipod headphones for running so the wires go along my back instead of my front, etc).

I got off at the Washington Park exit, and took the elevator up to the zoo. The race start/finish line was right next to the elevators. I was picking up my packet right about when they were sending the kids off on the kid dash.

It was cold. It was DERNED cold... but I knew I'd warm up as soon as I started running. I wore my full leg running tights with a pair of thermal tights underneath and a running skort over top. I was also wearing my puma long sleeve running hoodie, with a tanktop tech layer underneath for heat retention. Last minute I went ahead and threw the event Tshirt overtop the hoodie. And, ofcourse, I had my hat and my running gloves... but I also decided to wear earmuffs.

I pinned my number onto my front, and tied my chip onto my shoe... then hurriedly put my gloves back on and zoned out for a bit while the kids were running.

It was a hard decision to check my coat into the clothing check, but a necessary one. Then I found myself bouncing around and running in place in a desperate attempt to warm myself up... or atleast, keep myself from cooling off too much before the race start.

There weren't many people around, which wasn't too surprising given the weather, and the fact that I'd seen virtually no advertising for this event (I heard about it from another person... someone who ended up not even doing it herself). I noticed that the race bibs were color coded tho. I had a yellow number, but most of the people at the start line had a white number. I found out later that the white bib was for the 5K run... and the yellow was the 8K. WAY more people were doing the 5K run than the 8K run.

They lined us 8K'ers up on the start line... but not before I helplessly watched a lady fall over the timing mat machine. She hit the ground, and her leg dangling over the mat and her timing chip strapped to her shoe kept making the thing beep. I was worried about her, but she seemed to just shake it off. The officials got her bib number and zeroed out the timing machine of her entries.

Finally, at roughly 8:35am, they let us 8K runners go.

Here is the course map:



We started exiting the parking lot uphill, and then turned a sharp right turn and then it was 2.4 miles more or less entirely downhill, with some areas steeper than others. I was faced with the dilemma of not wanting to wear myself out TOO much, but also wanting to take as much advantage of the downhill before having to really work on the uphill portion of the run.

I think this photo was taken of me in the first mile or so:


It did take me about a mile and a half to really warm up unfortunately. We passed an aid station at a little over 1 mile. The highschool (or middle school? I really can't tell anymore) girls they had working the aid station were more into talking to eachother than handing out water... and I had to stop and wait for one of them to notice me and hand me a cup. They also said it was water... but it was watered down gatoraide... which I really didn't appreciate. I only wanted plain water. I was only able to get half a gulp down before needing to pour it out and throw it away.

One strategy that I was using, since the route was winding, was I decided to run the tangents to the curves instead of always running on one shoulder or the other. This way I think I actually shaved some distance off the run, and I did noticeably pass other runners specifically when I was refusing to stick to the side of the road. I'd always check behind me for automobile traffic or faster runners before doing it... but I never ended up having a problem with that.

I didn't fall too far behind the front of the pack. I did let people go ahead of me, but I was determined not to bring up the rear. After I FINALLY warmed up, I was able to run faster, and was able to pass a number of people who had passed me in the first mile.

We hit the Lewis and Clark circle at the bottom of the hill, the turn around for the 8K race, and I saw one or two fast looking runners already headed back up the hill, having already gone around the circle. As I ran around the circle, and passed another person, I was stealing myself for a 2.4 mile uphill climb. It wasn't going to be easy... that's for sure.

Exiting the circle to go back uphill, I noticed a handful (maybe 5? maybe more) slower runners just entering the circle... that made me at least feel a little better about my pace.

On the initial uphill I ended up leapfrogging 2 ladies quite a bit, until one gave out and started walking. At about 3.5 miles in we reached the 5K turn around point... and there were a lot of people turning around there right then when I reached it. The good news is, I seemed to be slightly behind my pace for the 5K runners, so I was easily passing a good number of 5Kers once I was among them (passing people really does feel good). And then... on a particularly steep grade I finally gave out and ended up walking for a little bit. But as my heartrate recovered I found myself walking faster and faster and adopting the Portland to Coast walking techniques I had worked on all summer, till I was walking a 12 minute miles uphill. It was just something I thought I'd give a try.

I learned tho, that you really don't give yourself a break by walking fast uphill in place of running uphill, and the transition from walking fast back to running wasn't very painless. I did get back to running before long tho.

I think this photo was taken with close to 1 mile to go:


Back to head-down running up the steep hill (the best way I've learned to not feel overwhelmed by the amount of hill you still have to conquer... you focus on where your feet are, and on your next steps only), I knew the end was near cause I could hear the music in the parking lot somewhere to the left of me... I just needed to reach the top of this hill and then it was a drop back down into the parking lot.

At the top of the hill, I allowed myself a second or two to breathe, and then I pushed like hell to the finish line... using that hill as best I could. I passed 3 or so people on that last stretch who had been able to stay in front of me up most of the hill... so that was neat. I just zipped by them like they were going slow. Man, I love downhills!

Over the finish line, the announcer said my name, and I twirled my forefingers in the air in celebration as I slowed down in the finisher chute. I noticed some of the people who finished infront of me were not having a chip clipped off their shoe, and I remembered that the timing chip was only for those people who cared to be timed. They had a no-timing option. Why wouldn't you want to know your time if you're running? I mean, I could see walkers possibly not really caring, but if you do decently well and you ran, wouldn't you atleast be curious? Ah well. I went and had my chip clipped off my shoe by a volunteer.

Back in the parking lot, I saw that a booth was giving free chiropractic adjustments... I decided why not? So I filled out the form and asked for a pelvic adjustment and help stretching my hamstrings. The chiropractor had me lay down and checked out my back and stuff, then had me lay on my side, curl kinda into a ball, then he braced himself on my femur with one hand on my knee and the other feeling the back of my pelvis... then a big twitch and I felt my pelvis pop in a delightful way. He had me lay on my other side and did the same thing with my other leg. Ahhh.

Then he had me put my leg on his shoulder and did some intervals where I push down on his shoulder for 30 seconds at 20% intensity... then I pull my leg up as far as I could, and he would move to where that was... and then 15 seconds at 40% intensity... then I pulled my leg again and he moved with it... and then 10 seconds at 60% intensity... and we were done... and by gum, if that didn't take away all the weird stretched achy feelings in my hamstrings!! weird. I thanked the chiropractor... but then realized my core body temp was falling pretty quick. Sure, I was warm right then... but it was still under 40 degrees outside, and I was soaked in sweat now.

I found my checked clothes, and quickly put on my coat. I then wandered over to the results booth and found my stats. I got 4th place in my age group (out of 6). There pretty much was no way I could have beat 3rd place. She ran an 8:57 minute mile pace... a pace I have YET to achieve on any race. I'm nowhere close to running that right now.

I finished my 8K in 47:23, or a 9:32 minute mile pace. My Reach the Bridge 8K time was better, but that was also entirely downhill, where this really was a more challenging course. I decided I was happy with that time given the uphills I was running on. Overall, of the 8K runners I was 32nd out of 66.
For women, I was actually 12th place out of 44! Almost in the top 10! Neat.

This is what my garmin recorded for the course and the elevation gain.



I decided to hurry and head back to my car instead of hang out. It was just too cold to watch the award ceremony when I wasn't getting one. I suppose there was a chance I could have won something in the prize drawing, but really, when it was that cold out? I didn't much care anymore.

I checked my MAX ticket for the expiration time... and realized it was pretty much 5 minutes past when the ticket expired. I was ready to claim ignorance for the expiration time on the ticket and hope, if I got caught, it was close enough that they'd be nice. I wasn't caught though. I made it back to my car without incident.

I blasted the heat in my car and drove home. Another good morning!

Champoeg Half

On Saturday Sept 20th, I ran my first half-marathon that I didn't train for.

The idea behind this run was that on my training schedule for the "Run Like Hell" half in Oct, I was slated to run 12 miles that weekend already. 12 miles? 13.1 miles? close enough. I intended to approach this run as a training run (i.e. don't push too hard, just enjoy the run and relax).

I should know better than that tho. You put me in a race situation, OF COURSE I'm going to put out the best effort I can manage...



The run was in Champoeg Park, kinda near Newberg, OR... so a good 45 minute drive from my place. I found the park easily enough. Entering the park, I was behind 2 other cars who stopped at the little booth at the gate. There was a day-use fee of like $3 or something. I had the dollar bills set aside and was ready to pay the lady. When I pulled up she asked if I was part of the race (pretty obvious from the way I was dressed), I said yes. She then told me the entrance fee to the park was already paid by my registration! I was like, oh? Cool! I drove on through, and followed the other cars to a big open field that was the start/finish line for the race.

Champoeg Park is quite pretty. I'm glad since I was promised a pretty run in the pamphlet I read telling me about the race. It said it was mostly flat with one big hill (similar to the Portland Marathon), and thus it was a great training run for the Marathon. I figured, I can do one hill. sure. The pamphlet said the walker start was going to be 8am, the runner start at 9am.

A couple days prior to the race, I got an email from the event coordinators:
"We have an unusual situation concerning the electronic timing for our event, which will be done by Russ Zornick. He has an unavoidable time constraint in getting to another location on Saturday and I have a plan to help him and to allow part of our runners to finish at an earlier time than they might otherwise. Here's the plan:

The Early Half Marathon Walkers will start as usual at 8:00AM

Any Half Marathon runners who anticipate a 9 minute or more per mile pace should plan to start at 8:30AM. This will allow a projected finish time of 2 to 2 1/2 hours.and most would be included in the electronic timing. Any later people would be added to those preliminary timing results and be included in the awards. As we do with the Early Half Marathon Walkers we will check off your race bib number so we can accutately time you from your start time."

Hm. Ok. So, I'm not a 9 minute miler, I know that much. I had to choose the 8:30am start time. I arrived in the park something like 7:50am, and picked up my packet before the walkers stepped off the line. I was conflicted about my clothing options, since the weather report was all over the place. Was it going to rain? Was it not? I was hanging out by my car and trying a number of different clothing options, feeling a little lost... then I finally decided to just run in what I intended to run in the night before: capri running tights, running skort, portland marathon finisher shirt, light running gloves, and a hat. While I was changing my clothes back to what they were, I noticed a handful of far away hot air balloons rising above the tree line into the air.







I had noticed a sign to the restrooms through the woods, so went that way. When I found the restrooms, I found them dark, empty... I had the facility all to myself! That's unusual for a race! Once I was done, I wandered back to the big open field and saw that everyone else was lining up single file for the porta potties on the far end of the field. HA! dorks.

The walkers left. Shortly after that I saw someone I recognized: Diane! She did Pints 2 Pasta and won 3rd in her age group. I was happy to see her. She didn't remember my name, but was still very friendly, and totally remembered where she knew me from. She introduced me to her husband. We chatted about the race, and she admitted she didn't know about the 8:30am start time. I laughed saying she probably didn't need to worry, and that she'd be catching me either way. She was waiting for a friend to show up, and so was going to do the 9am start time either way, even though I assured her she was fast enough to start later.

Here is a pic of me before the run. My hat is a little dirty, eh? I took it camping the weekend before.



I finally stripped off my thermal layer and moved to the start line to get ready to run. I have gotten in the habbit of doing those warm-ups we were taught at the Lacamas Lake half before running now. Who knows if it helps, but I guess it's one way to expend my nervous energy prior to a race. We had to line up and get our bib numbers recorded for the 8:30am start... and then the count down and we were off.

Here is the course:



I figured, since it was a slower-than-9 minute mile pace for this group, I should be able to stay relatively in the front without any problem. What I hadn't counted on was the fact that faster people had opted to start at 8:30am just so they could finish sooner. Huh. I tried sticking with the lead runners at first, but had to back off by 2 miles or so. We started out following the course... and made a right turn onto the bike path, and then ran headlong into the walkers... who were all mad at us and pointing to the road to our left. I guess we were supposed to follow the road and not the path before the turn around. Oops.

The group of us in front ended up cutting across this grassy field over to the road. I felt kinda bad we weren't on the correct route, but I didn't worry about it too much. I was more concerned with not twisting my ankles in that field. Approaching the turn around I got to see a big field in the park which was full of more hotair balloons. This was where they were taking off from! They looked so tiny in the air, it was weird that I was able to run to their launching point in only 9 minutes or so. There were apparently many more that were about to join the ones already in the air. We ran through the parking lot, and onto the head of the bike path to head back the way we came. This was about when I started needing to back off on my pace a bit, and people really started passing me. I also found myself overheating slightly. I took off my gloves, but had no where to stow them... so I just settled for holding them in my hand for the rest of the run. I found the gloves useful for patting sweat off of my face though, so it worked out fine.

Over the next 3 miles we followed the paved bike path through the trees, mostly flat, but a couple little rolling hills (nothing terribly challenging as far as terrain). The runners around me had thinned out a good deal, and I was finally in my pace group more or less, as by mile 5 I wasn't being passed anymore by other people. I was getting a little grumpy though, cause the pamphlet had promised water every 2.5 miles along the route... and there was definitely NO water station at 2.5 miles. I was starting to get thirsty!! We ran over some high wooden footbridges, along the side of the Willamette River, past some really pretty large estates. Coming to the end of the bike path was a couple bigger hills... up and then down... then another up (and I remember cursing the pamphlet right about then) and we came to merge onto a road and did another major downhill. Then a BIG uphill along the road shoulder. This was the first part of the run that was sharing the route with cars. The traffic wasn't bad though, I don't remember seeing very many cars at all. At the top of that last big hill was the first water station, right around 5.5 miles or so. I was thirsty and winded from the uphill run, so I opted to walk for a touch while getting the water and drinking. This older guy in a red tank top behind me laughed that he wasn't going any faster than me, so he might as well walk then too!

After the 2 cups of water I snagged, I felt much better. The route also flattened out a good deal at this point. I continued along. The scenery went from forest-like to more rural. We saw barns and fields and more modest houses than what we saw along the riverside. It wasn't long before we caught up to the bulk of the walkers at this point. It was weird to think that they were technically 30 minutes behind us... and yet here we were at the same place. Right about when I was feeling good passing some confident looking healthy walkers... out of nowhere this guy in bright shoes and very little else in the way of clothing (think: split-side short shorts, and no shirt) came flying past me. I was technically 30 minutes behind him! He was a 9am start time runner! It was really impressive to see those guys running.

It was a trickle tho... it wasn't like a MASS of fast runners passing us. At 7 miles along we turned a sharp left turn onto a side road to get to the next turn around. That's about when nearly-naked-bright-shoes darted past me headed back. It was also about when Diane's husband passed me. He was a nice guy and cheered on my effort though.

There was another water station at the turn around at 7.7 miles or so. That was nice atleast. I was past all but the fastest walkers at this point. Those fastest walkers were doing a good job sticking with my pace too, but eventually I broke free of them all. At some point close to the 7.7 mile turn around, the older guy in the red tanktop had passed me and had pulled maybe 50 yards ahead of me. The remainder of my time spent getting back to that aid station at the top of the hill (at 5.5 miles on the out, but approx 10.5 miles on the back) was spent focussing on that guy and trying to stick with him and possibly close that gap. I hung with it.

I walked again at that aid station at the top of the hill to gulp down water... and then happily flew down that big hill that I hated running up. Then I knew I had 2 more hills to conquer before I was done. On the next uphill, I passed redtanktop guy. Woo hoo! Flew down the second hill, and then on the last uphill I could hear someone running up the hill with me, but a little behind me. I convinced myself it was redtanktop guy, so I was going to stay ahead of him no matter what it took.... and I continued to push myself on that hill. At the top I eased off my intensity to catch my breath and let my heartrate recover.

I was wrong. The person on my butt behind me wasn't redtanktop guy. It was one of the 9am runners. As soon as I hit the top of the hill, that guy passed me... taking the time to congratulate me on my hill tenacity tho, which was nice of him. We were back on the pretty forested bike trail at this time. More 9am runners were passing me here, including Diane who cheered me on as she passed. I was starting to kinda flag in my energy a bit... and knew this last mile or two was really going to challenge me.

We wound our way back to the field slowly... I caught sight of red not too far behind me after a turn in the trail too... so that was good motivation to put in a late push. I came rolling back into the parking lot and down the finisher chute to get my time recorded. The volunteers handed me a finisher medal too, which was neat. I'm really starting a nice collection of participant medals at this point.

I grabbed a banana, a capri sun, and a water... and attempted to cool down and stretch a little. Diane and her husband were already done. I had to go to my car and get my pullover, it was still kind of a cold morning. I ran into redtanktop guy at the food table a little later, and I congratulated him on a good run, admitting that a good deal of the second half of the run I was just trying to catch him. He admitted this was his first half marathon in like, 12 years, and he was glad he was just able to finish.

My finish stats were: 2:09:51 (a new PR!) or a 9:54 minute mile pace. I couldn't believe I beat my Lacamas Lake Half pace actually, since I wasn't really going for a time goal. That was nice. Overall I ended up 121st place out of 158 people. In my age group I was 18th out of 26. Hee hee... not that great. I have noticed that competition in small half marathons is just stiffer than other races though.

Redtanktop guy turned out to be 62 years old, and got 3rd place in his age group. HA! So much for me staying infront of him!

Diane ended up finishing in 1:37:16, or a 7:25 minute mile pace. She got second in her age group. Her husband finished in 1:24:03, or a 6:24 minute mile pace. He was 4th place overall, and 3rd in his age group. I didn't hang out to see them get their awards... I was getting cold and stiff and realized with a 45 minute drive back to get to a hot shower, I should really get going. Diane and I took some pics infront of the finish line, and I went on my way.







It was a good morning. I have to admit tho: I got home, showered, and crashed till like 5pm.