Running Skirts and Swag: November 2012

The BF and I had heard buzz several months ago about the Tyranena Races. Intrigued, we signed up way back in early August. In spite of my continuing achilles issues, I ran the "sixth of a barrel" route today, as planned.

Because it is ever-so-important, I'll start with the swag...

The swag bag was extremely minimal. It was a plastic shopping-type bag from the Tyranena Brewing Company. Makes sense. Inside, there were a few flyers for other races, my t-shirt, and the tickets for the meal and beer.
I was happy there wasn't a ton of miscellaneous junk in there that I would throw out anyway. While there wasn't any of the other little fun things, the lunch and beer tickets were way cool.

The BF got himself the beer deal, but I'm not a beer lover. I dig the girly running beer bottle on the shirt. The shirt was way soft, too, which I LOVE. So, all in all, I'm gonna give a thumbs up for the swag bag.

Having only been running very minimally the last several weeks to baby my achilles, I was a little nervous for this race. I had no idea what to expect of myself. I'd read the course was hilly, and I have not trained for hills much. I hadn't run more than three miles in quite some time, and when I did run, it was slow and easy.

I started out a little rushed, feeling the adrenaline of the crowd. I was thrilled to only have to navigate around one group of walkers and NO dogs or strollers. While I felt rough for the first half mile or so, I found my groove before the first mile marker. I felt great! The achilles was apparent, but nothing I couldn't trudge through. My new inhaler had the lungs in a happy place (in spite of the 40 degrees), and I was thrilled to find a happy pace. I felt like I could go for ten miles like that. I slowly passed a number of people, and kept doing so the remainder of the race.

But, I mentioned the hills, right?

They weren't terrible, actually. I shortened my stride and took them easy. I loved the downhill time, too. They didn't kill me or anything, but as the race wore on, they definitely took some energy out of me. Nonetheless, I was able to enjoy the beautiful neighborhood and scenery.

In the end, I finished my 4.37 miles in about an 11 minute pace. Not too bad, all things considered. The BF said the hills on the "half barrel" were pretty significant. He did great, too, but I'm not sure he would say that. :(

I was so excited to see so many ladies in skirts today. Many, like me, chose to wear running tights underneath them due to the cold. I saw some fun patterns, and many black ones. I love my fun patterned one, but I'm looking forward to a new black one. It's so much easier to match things to black. Anyway, that's just rambling.

Since the half starts an hour before the sixth, I was alone for a while. I put my feet up and fiddled on my iphone. Not ten minutes after I finished, the BF crossed the finish line as well. It was fun to see him start and finish, but strange to have run my whole race while he was gone. I joked that he wouldn't have known if I had just skipped it and drank beer instead.

The lasagna lunch was super yummy, and the post-race snacks were really great, too. The lines, however, were a little long. It's not cool to have to stand completely still in a chute for quite a while immediately after finishing a race.

Here's my take on the race overall:

Pros:
-fun, soft t-shirt
-yummy lasagna and post-race snacks (cookies, peanuts, bananas, etc.)
-drink tickets. I particularly enjoyed that I could get other drinks instead of beer.
-beautiful route. If you've never been to Lake Mills, you should check it out.
-lots of other ladies there in skirts! :)
-great deal on their beer for runners.
-no hassle of navigating around walkers, strollers, and dogs

Cons:
-Fun medals were only for half finishers. (I'm always whining about not getting a medal, though.)
-If you're a person who needs the crowd to keep you pumped, this is not your race. There was hardly anyone along the route.
-Long lines. The chute was way too backed up, and while we got in the meal line at a great time, a lot of people were stuck for a very long time.
-No live person singing the anthem. There was a recording. For reals! This is a biggie for me, because I'm a singer. How hard is it to find some local person or high school kid to sing the anthem for you? Heck, I'd do it. There's always someone willing. I refused to applaud a silly recording of the anthem.

Other things I'd change:
-Make the starting horn louder or longer.
-Have more than one guy passing out the medals (although he was really sweet and congratulated everyone).
-Get recycle bins. All those water bottles in the trash is just sad.

Here are our drinks and the BF's medal: