This is a brand new race put on by the Able Club of Lugoff-Elgin High school, their athletic booster club, to honor two of their longtime supporters (Rob Evans and Joey Dorton) who recently passed away. Proceeds went to a scholarship fund in their memory.

I originally had See Spot Run on my calendar this weekend, but the Diesels were helping promote this race, so I had to support the Sunday morning marathon training wolfpack. Although I love me some See Spot, this race met key trophy hunting criteria as well – first time event, relatively rural, and of course competing with a more competitive, established race. I admit, I had some grandiose beliefs that it could be a holy grail (i.e. first overall) opportunity. At the very least, I knew it would be a chance to redeem myself against Trophy, who so unceremoniously dropped my ass at the Palmetto Half. It was on like Donkey Kong.

Pale Beast had already declared he was See Spotting it, thus avoiding another episode of the Pale and the Clydesdale-ish. I showed up way early because I always overestimate how much time it takes to get to the Kershaw County area. It was even faster than downtown Columbia from the casa de Blue Shoes in the northeast.

Jordan and Jen Lybrand were already on site when I got there. Luckily Jordan was working the SR timing, because the dude can smoke a sub 18 5k these days in his sleep. A few minutes later I see Bedenbaugh show up, so holy grail hunt was officially over. Coach B may come and go with his training and injuries but since he is a Columbia racing legend, he can pretty much crush me whenever the mood strikes him. Whitney Keen and his wife Caroline showed up a little later, thus ensuring at least a three way battle for second place. Chad and Betsy Long, Jennifer Reeves and of course all the Diesels were on hand. Diesel was on Brady pacing duty while Jen was wussing out and spectating. I punished her with picture duty so I could have plenty of facebook-worthy shots of my giant melon and ridiculous photo hogging.

Did a lap of the Lugoff Elgin high school grounds with J-Lybrand and the Trophy. I confessed I had done an unthinkable and not even looked up the course. Hope it was going to be well-marked. Diesel said it was fairly flat, but maybe he was colluding with Trophy to take my giant ego down a notch. The finish at least looked cool, since it ended on the LE track inside the stadium.

With the start, I figured it was probably going to be Coach B and the rest of the field chasing him, unless one of the many LE kids was some cross country stud. By the time we left the high school grounds though, some girl is torching the field already. Then I heard someone say it was Heather Costello, who basically can hold her own with any of the top females in Columbia. Guess it would be a fight for third. Or not..because there is still quite a bit of traffic in front of me a half mile in. I dont know any of these guys, though most are teenagers and one random guy in a singlet. On top of that, Trophy and Whitney are jockeying back and forth right beside me and I’m starting to feel like death before mile 1. This is not a good sign.  And we are going downhill forever, which I know we’ll have to make up in this loop course. Costello is destroying us and Bedenbaugh is way up ahead as we near the mile marker. Since we’re way behind, and there are still a few randoms ahead of me, I figure I must be going really slow and this is just going to be a bad day-which sucks because the weather is so nice and my training is going well and…BEEP..MILE 1 6:03.  And expletive number one for the day is dropped. OK, so some of this is because of the long downhill, but in any case this is pretty speedy for my post-Kauai self.

I think everybody just blew up after the mile marker because all of a sudden I surge ahead of the entire pack. The downhill has ended and some inclines start popping up. I have a sense that Whitney and Trophy were nearby initially but then it gets very quiet. Mile 2 seems to take forever and there are a couple of long straight stretches that kill my motivation. Thankfully the course is very well marked so at least I dont have to think too much about navigation. Plus, I can still see Bedenbaugh and even Costello at times. I’m able to keep up close to the same effort from the first mile, but the hills drag me down to 6:15. Mile 3 is just brutal. No major hills, just my sasquatch body is having trouble paying back the oxygen debt from that frisky first mile. I zone out for a while as I jump on the pain train and go for a ride. Just when I think I’m toast I get a jolt of adrenaline when I see Coach B start to get reeled back in a little bit. Maybe I can catch him!  He must be deathly ill or injured, but believe me, I’ll take first male- especially over a beast like Mark. No shame in getting chicked by Costello either. Bedenbaugh decides he’s had enough fooling around though, and he’s not going to let some melon headed sasquatch take him down. He ramps up a kick and I’m no longer making ground on him. At some point I realize I have no idea where we are or where the finish is, and I take a look down and see 2.77 miles. Holy crap, time to throw down! Finally we make a turn and I see the start area. In my oxygen deprived fog, I totally forget about the track finish and start looking for the clock. I’m in a world of hurt when I see Bedenbaugh turn into the stadium. Oh jeez, I dont know if i can make another 300 meters. But as soon as I hit the track its like Team Utopia monday nights , so it seems oh so familiar to be gasping for dear life on an orange oval. As I hit the last straight I’m really bummed by the time already in the 19:30’s. WTH? Did I really slow down that much in the last mile? I make one last headless chicken blast and finish in 19:48. I hit the Garmin and it shoots back 3.2 miles. Well, that explains it. The course is certified, so I know its legit – probably just one of those longish ones. I was all over the place on the course since I didnt know where I was going , but two other people had 3.2 also. Oh well. I had a 6:11 pace per Garmin, so around 19:18ish for 3.11. 3rd overall, 2nd male, 1st in AG. I’ll take it!

Heather Costello took the overall and female win in 19:08, with Coach B taking the men’s win in 19:35. In the (very weird) age groups, Brady ran a 24:31 at age 9 to take 2nd in the 2-14. Garrick Douglas took 1st in the 25-34 just a few steps ahead of Jennifer Lybrand, who won the female 25-34 and 2nd female overall. Monica Frazier took 3rd. Whitney and Trophy took 2nd and 3rd in the 35-44, while Race to Read director Betsy Long won the women’s division. Sharon Cole took the 45-54 in a very competitive group – third was 26 minutes. Sorry J-Reeves.

Bummer I have to miss Jailbreak next week because of a wedding (don’t these people consult my race schedule first??), but I’m signed up for Run Red Bank on May 31. See ya then.

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/RESULTS/14PRESSBOX.TXT

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/501073299

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=SC14025DW

So every once in a great while I stop my relentless trophy hunt and sign up for a race for reasons other than the maniacal obsession with metal trinkets. I hadnt done a 10k since March, so I figured I’d give it a shot at the Get in the Pink 10k.

This was the absolute worst race this weekend for stroking my ridiculously oversized ego. The GITP 10k is in its 5th year and has typically had a pretty competitive field. Usually Ashton comes out and dusts the field, but there is usually a decent sub 40 crowd as well. The 5k has mostly been soccer moms and kids. The Cones for the Cure 5k and Rotary Run 5k had trophy hunt written all over them. What was I thinking??

But with my recent return to sub 20 land in the 5k, I wanted to see where I was in the ten. I should know the answer already: I suck.

I love the 5k of course, and  I’ve run some pretty good 8ks, 12ks, and halfs. Even my marathon PR is ok. I have never run a good 10k. Like, ever. My PR in the distance is 40:38 at last years Cooper River, when I was coming off a bunch of sub 19 5ks, which should translate to at least a minute faster. My 12k PR is actually at a faster pace.

But I keep trying. So I bit the bullet after a beer on Friday night and signed up.

Felt pretty good the next morning and got there my customary hour early.  Trophy was already there because he’s a freak too. We knew the Pale Beast was trying his luck once again at the Cold Winters Day course at Cones. Coach Justin ” A Standard” Bishop had made a plea for all TUS members to wear the black and gold, so once again I had to blind everyone with the black singlet against my Edward Scissorhands complexion. Lots of fast peeps are already there – we latched on to a pack of 621 ninjas (i.e. Pete O’ Boyle, Shufy Rowe, Jeff Godby, Leyden Hane, Steven Johnson) and the whole SR ladies team (Erin Miller, Kenzie riddle, Shannon Iriel, Linn Hall, MC Cox..well minus the trophy hunting Jennifer Lybrand) for a couple of miles of  a little sub 8 minute pace  “warmup”.  Usually my warmup consists of jogging like an 80 year old, so it was a little brisk. We get back and all 4 Diesels have decided to show up, along with the Robertsons. Blue Shoes rivals Billy Tisdale,  Joel Pierstorff and Randy Hrechko have made an appearance. Micah decided to come back after Rosewood and I finally got a chance to meet yet another blazing fast age grouper. Speaking of age groupers, Jim Lichty showed up with Jason “Toonce” Lockhart and it was a mini USC class of 1997 reunion.  CRC age groupers Coleen Strasburger, Alex Ponamarev, the Lowdens, Sharon Sherbourne, Lisa King, Lynn Grimes, Lois Leaburn, Jim Fadel and Teresa Harrington were on hand.  Team Utopia teammates Ashley Horton, Andrew Touzel and new member Michael Jensen were present and accounted for.  Elites Eric Ashton, OJ Striggles, and Kathryn Cavanaugh were out to give Bishop and the SR ladies some trouble.

Oh, and my age group was going to be ridunkulous. Ken Cobb and Phil Midden were going to kick my tail, and I would have had no chance at all if OJ hadnt switched to the 5k at the last second. Now that is a masters level trophy hunt maneuver, OJ. I thought Flicker would take me down too, but then I remembered that he had just aged up to 40. Yes!

They had couple of bagpipers lead us up to the start line, which was odd but kind of cool. The start was typical for a big, competitive race like this – super fast. The first 3 miles are pretty much all flat to downhill. I was getting dropped like a bad habit despite feeling like I was blasting out 5k pace from the get go. I had thought I’d keep Shannon and Billy in range for pacers, but they had other plans and just destroyed me from step one.  Oh well. About 3/4 of a mile in the crowd had thinned out and I saw Micah and Hrechko just ahead, so I decided to make them my substitute pacers since Billy and Shannon were so rude to me. Mile one in 6:30ish as we neared Beltline, then a mostly downhill mile 2 in 6:36. Ruh roh. Pre cliff 10k pace. This was going to either be great or headed for an epic bonktastrophe. My bet was with the latter, since the warmth and humidity were starting to make things suck in a hurry. At just over 2.5 miles is the very long Shady lane, which is pretty flat but goes on forever. Plus, I know the almost all uphill finish starts just past the 5k mark. Randy is gapping me a bit but im keeping Simonsen in range. There’s like nobody else around. Feels like I’m out for a training run. A really hard, wind sucking training run with no music except for the sound of me panting like a rabid elephant. Just before the turn off Shady I look down and see just under 21 minutes for the 5k split. Oh man, this hill climb is going to hurt. I finally catch Micah just past the turn after he was almost assaulted by a pair of geese. He was hurting about as bad as me and he was delighted for me to tell him about the upcoming hill fest. I attacked the first mountain up to Nandina drive because I knew there was some flatness to recover there and on Brennan. I guess there was, but I had already taken a few steps in the pain cave and I was too winded to use the water stop at the top. I was somehow making some ground on Randy at this point, despite my 7:05 mile 4 split on the mountainside. From Brennan you turn on Kilbourne and face a long slight incline all the way in. Randy stopped to walk at the water stop, and I thought I had him but he took off as soon as he gulped down the cup. Still made up some time though. The whole section on Kilbourne was tough because you merge in with a bunch of walking 5kers, creating a minefield of potential collisions and losing your sense of where you stand in the 10k. Luckily Randy is like 6’5″, so pretty easy to keep track of him.  I didnt look at the mile 5 split since I figured it sucked and I wanted to die anyway. The happy and smiling 5k walkers seemed to beg me to join them. But there was roadkill ahead. Must. take. down. Hrechko. I finally pushed in all the chips once we hit Devine st, but turns out thats a pretty long freaking way from the finish. And a nice little incline before the millwood intersection. Wonderful. Head flopping and trex arms have started. Finally the course levels out and I can make out the finish. If I can see those red clock numbers, there is no limit to how far I’ll spelunk the pain cave.  I finally catch Randy about a quarter mile before the finish and it feels like forever. I’m dying a thousand deaths when I finally hit the finish area and hear Trophy sea biscuiting me from the sidelines. I  ramp it up one more notch when I see the clock, just to make sure I get sub 43. Finished in 42:54.

Its a 10k, and a warm and hilly one, so I’ll take it. Almost identical time to my last one at Get to the Green in March, which was much flatter and a whole lot colder. Crushed in my age group though – I got 4th . Seems Mark Tibshrany turned 35 and even took down Cobb, who finished 3rd. Phil Midden killed us all in just a shade over 40 minutes.

In the overall, Eric Ashton cruised to another win despite still nursing an injury. A Cory Tretsky took 2nd, who’ve I’ve never seen race before. Bishop took 3rd. In the women’s race, Kenzie rocked out a sub 40 to take the win, followed by MC Cox and Shannon Iriel around 41 minutes. Total SR sweep. Billy finished a few seconds behind Shannon and took the male masters win. Flicker got second.  In the 10k age groups, Randy got first in the 45-49, with Jim Fadel second. Phil Tognieri placed 2nd int he 50-54, Total CRC sweep in the 50-54 women, with Coleen Strasburger, Lisa King and Teresa Harrington taking the category. Lois Leaburn and Carol Wallace went 2-3 in the 55-59. Lynn Grimes won the 60-64.

In the 5k, OJ had a successful trophy hunt to take the 5k, though women’s winner Kathryn Cavanaugh wasn’t too far behind in 18:23. Erin Miller also crushed an 18:45 to take second female, third overall. Steven Johnson and Jeff Godby won 2nd and 3rd male with Linn Hall winning 3rd female. Joel Pierstorff and Pete O’Boyle placed in male masters.

In the age groups, William Zemp placed 2nd in the 15-19, while Ashley Horton made TUS proud by placing 2nd in the 25-29. Touzel had the best performance of the day with a 21:45 huge PR and 2nd in age group (30-34). He also blue shoed 3rd place in the last 20 meters, so I was so proud. Trophy worked the McGaha magic and took 1st in the 35-39 in 20:15. 621 ninja Leyden Hane won the women’s 35-39.  Travis Cowan pushed a stroller but was still good enough for 1st in the 50-54. Shify Rowe blasted the 55-59 competition by almost 8 minutes to take the win. Alex Ponamarev and Shaoron Sherbourne dominated the 60-64, while Ken and Patti Lowden did the same in the 65-69.

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/results/14pink.txt

So its been a couple years since I’ve done the Crawdaddy – I was sick last year and I think it conflicted with Get in the Pink in 2012. I figured I’d go back this year, since I was all jacked to see Everclear at the Crawfish fest (with which the race is associated)  and you get free admission with registration. It depresses me to see all my college era bands relegated to nostalgia tours these days, but when you get old, what are you going to do?

I felt a little guilt about not defending my epic 2013 double down victory at the Rose Fest in Orangeburg, but when some chump like me takes a win, you can bet the race will be loaded with elites the next year. Sure enough, Justin was going down there with Spence and Syd, so that left me third if no body else showed up. Turns out Michael Banks came out, ran a 4:59 pace 12k and set a new state record. Kenzie Riddle also won the women’s race and would have smoked me too. Good call. Sorry Erin, I’ll be back at Run Red Bank.

Still, Crawdaddy was definitely not the trophy hunt pick of the week. I had that pegged for either the Empower 5k or the Firebreak 10k, but I knew the Empower was a holy terror of hills and Firebreak is at Harbison, for which I still have nightmares about my shirtless delirium at the 2012 Xterra half.

So Rosewood it was. I had no idea about the competition at this one, but historically its been a pretty big race and fairly competitive. They usually have some elite types doing sub 17ish, and over 500 people total. I figured I’d be good with 3rd in AG. I had no idea what my archnemeses were doing. Trophy was being his usual mute self when it came to declaring his weekend race, and Vowles was being all cryptic in his texts. Code was staying off the grid.

Wusses.

I get there an hour ahead and there’s a decent crowd there, though not a whole lot I recognize. Looks like a large bunch of newbies and a bunch of crossfit types doing the Crawdaddy challenge (race + weight lifting/crossfit stuff) . One day I’ll look into crossfit, since it looks like something good for speedy sasquatches. Charley turns up for a rare race appearance with canine pacer Winston. Julie “Flashbang” Bitzel  is high on the crack of  2 overall placements in her first two races, and was back for another fix.  My age group looked pretty good, but with all the randoms, who knew. No trace of a surprise Trophy or Pale Beast sighting.

I did a mile-ish warmup with Charley and Julie, because the Bitz is deathly afraid that she’ll get tired out by our brutal 10 minute pace jog on a flat road. Speaking of flatness, most of Crawdaddy is pretty level. The start/finish has been changed since I last ran it, but its the same loop. Starts and ends at City Roots near Owens Field. Unfortunately the one nasty incline has been moved to the beginning, and for whatever reason, an early hill has always sucked for me. I get back from the warmup and decide I gotta hit the portapotty, but the line is like 50 people long. Apparently 6 isnt enough for like 800 people. I decided the bushes at City Roots looked a little dry and proceeded to water them.

By the time everyone lines up, this race is looking huge. I cant even see the back of the pack. Lisa Smarr, Sheila Subbarao, Alex Wilcox, Mickie Ishizue, Teresa Harrington are a few of the CRCers on hand. Linn Hall showed up for Strictly, which I told Julie would probably prevent her from playing DJ Khaled today. Eric Ashton and Jud Brooker were on hand, presumably to face off for the win.   Even Merritt decided to show up a week after going suspiciously MIA at the quarry. Mike Wainscott showed up to spectate and Ashley Horton graciously agreed to man my iphone to take pics. She said that she, Sheila, Laurie and the Trophy had just done a longish run. So weak, Trophy.

The start went off OK despite my worries about a huge bottleneck – the start area was super narrow. Luckily no one was being a hero about their running ability except for possibly the large headed beast on the first row. Of course, the oh so useful power save function on my Garmin has decided to silently shut down my watch. It takes a good quarter mile for the thing to sync up to a satelite, so I’m basically running on feel from then on. Linn is crushing it but I try to keep her in range, since she’s consistently around 20 minutes. I fight the urge to slack on the opening hill and charge up the long incline followed by a short steep turn to the left. Im so hating those early hills because its like a punch to the stomach right off the bat. I slow a little at the top to catch my breath and Wilcox, i.e. the fitter/younger/blonder Alex, blows by me. Once I catch my breath I notice the field is actually pretty sparse on the top end. I see a shorter, kind of muscley dude not too far ahead, and somewhere my evil age group mind recognizes this as the enigmatic Micah Simonsen. I’ve never met this guy, but he has a way of weasling into my trophy hunts and stealing my precious trinkets. He must go down. But damned if he and Linn aren’t kicking my ass. We turn onto Rosewood and they are both several meters ahead. I swear I still havent recovered from the early hill action because I’m pretty winded for mile one. At least now the course has pretty much flattened out. Once we pass Rosewood Elementary and turn on Ott there’s a very long flat to downhill stretch that goes on forever. It’s nice and shady, and I figure this is the best time to pick up some speed, because I know the last stretch at Owens Field is out on the open and slightly uphill. It may be slightly downhill, but it still sucks since I’ve decided to suck wind a half mile into this race. Just before the two mile mark I pass Simonsen and I realize I’ve just pushed my chips into the table. Oh Dear God this is going to hurt. I’m scared of Simonsen passing me back, and some paranoid part of my oversized melon starts wondering if Vowles hasnt stealthed this race and is right on my heels. Its bad enough running against your actual competition , not to mention being haunted by the ghost of the Pale Beast. Linn has started to fade just a bit and I finally catch her just before the owens field stretch. I think she offered some words of encouragement, but all I could utter were the breathless sounds of my will to live leaving my body. The turn on to Jim Hamilton blvd is just torture. Slightly uphill and three quarters of a mile long, it just never seems to end.The sun has come out, its way hotter, and I feel like death. Does that mean slow down? Hell no – if I do Linn will chick me and then that Micah character might get away with another trophy theft. My form is going to complete crap – I’ve got T-rex arms, all tight and drawn in, my giant melon is tipped back and gasping for breath, listing over to one side.  This is going to be one ugly finish face. I’m trying to chase down Wilcox but he’s just out of reach. I finally, mercifully, hit the last turn and make out about 19:30 on the clock. I take a few more steps into the pain cave and cross the line in 19:43. I stagger a few more steps and then make sweet, sweet love to the asphalt. Takes me about 30 seconds to stand up again and I see Linn and Simonsen finish. I swear I thought they were right behind me. And Pale Beast’s ghost is just that – he’s not there. I’m pretty jacked about the time – good to see the 19’s on a regular basis again. Though I’m still a long way from pre-cliff, the Team Utopia South Monday nights at the track are paying their dividends.

Linn took overall female in 20:07, and Julie flashbanged to the finish with an awesome kick to break 21 and take second (20:58). The men’s race was super fast, with Jud Brooker breaking 16 minutes and taking down Ashton, who looked to be limping a bit afterward but still clocked a 16:15.

Not a whole lot of familiar names in the age groups – Wilcox took 1st in the 25-29. Thankfully there were no superfit soccer dads in front of myself and Simonsen, who went 1-2 in the 35-39. Charley finished 2nd in the 40-44, while Shenequa Coles placed second among the women in the same group. Katherine Harris took second in the 45-49. Lisa Smarr won 2nd in the 50-54.Barroll Leeds, who is turning into a blue shoes style racer, placed 2nd in the 60-64. Peter Mugglestone placed third in a brutal 65-69.

Oh, and apparently the Pale Beast pulled a stealth trophy hunt in Irmo at the Empower (previously Going the Extra Mile) 5k. His reward – another second place finish…to a 64 year old guy. Norm Ferris, you are my hero.

http://racesonline.com/events/crawdaddydash5k/results/2014

http://racesonline.com/events/crawdaddydash5k/results/2014/awards