Ran the Seasons of Hope 15K Race This Morning

I was ambivalent about running the Seasons of Hope 15K on this December the 8th, but as the date grew nearer I decided that since I had already skipped three good local races last month I'd just go ahead and enter it...with the intent of covering the 9.3 mile distance be it by running or walking.  As it turned out, I only slowed to a walk two or three times, each walk only lasting a few seconds before I was again trotting ahead with my slow pace.  The entire race course took place on the Hawthorne Trail, which was formerly a railroad track converted to a biking/hiking trail, on the southeast side of Gainesville.  The starting/finishing line was directly behind Boulware Springs Park off SE 15th Street.  I was already familiar with the course, which the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon also uses and which I've run twice before (it's one of the races I skipped last month).  I had forgotten some things, though: in the early goings there were several hills and long stretches of upward slopes...on the return back, of course, these were reversed.  Also, I had been under the impression that the park had bathroom facilities, but all I saw were four portable bathrooms set up there, along with two more near the halfway (turnaround) part of the race.  And I thought there was abundant parking, but I arrived there more than an hour before the race began and had to part near the 15th Street entrance: it was already packed!.  The fact is that although only 128 runners entered the 15K race with 118 officially finishing it, there were many more hundreds of participants in the Seasons of Hope 5K...including many children.  The result was a long line of cars parked for a great distance up and down SE 15th Street and ridiculously long bathroom lines before the race.  While acknowledging that it was all being held for a good cause...to raise money to fight the debilitating condition known as dystonia...the event's organizers would be well advised to try to better accommodate the participants for next year.  Usually when I finish a race, there is Gatorade and some recovery food like bagels and bananas available, but since the hundreds of 5K finishers had first pick, there was nothing left for me after I crossed the finish line...I just walked to my car and drove home...

But let's dispense now with the complaints and look at the actual race.  It began at 9 am...well, make that 9:05 since the volunteers kept having to tell clueless 5K runners that their race would be starting ten minutes after the 15K.  The temperature was in the mid-to-upper 50s and the humidity was an uncomfortable 75-85%.  For runners it's better if it is considerably cooler and drier than this, but you have to take the conditions as they are dealt: at least it wasn't raining.  I decided to start slow and hung around a pack of runners going at a pace between 11 and 12 minutes per mile.  After getting through most of the hilly terrain I found myself unconsciously upping my speed until it was around 10 minutes per mile.  I might have been able to go faster but my prime objective was to finish the race, so I got into a comfortable pace and it sustained me for the remainder of the race.  I was prepared to walk for long stretches, but that turned out unnecessary.  My final time was slow, at 1 hour 37 minutes 33 seconds, but I'm happy with it since I "gutted it out" at the end like they used to say on my old high school track team: here's a link to all the finishing times for both the 5K and 15K races: [results].  I finished in fourth place in my 60-64 age group, which had...four runners. Although overall I came in 95th place out of the 118 finishers, I did happen to be the 12th oldest finisher...that's one statistic that I think I'll be able to improve upon over the next few years. The above photo I took shows the stage of the race when I just passed that group of slower runners and had a long, rather empty stretch of the Hawthorne Trail in front of me.  It really is a good running course, although I was a little annoyed at some bicyclists who I believed intruded on the race. Well, that's done...now to get back to my neighborhood runs and possibly some races in January and February...