Running of The Green 2023: Take You On

And with that, we have officially kicked off the 2023 racing season!  Woot!  Last weekend was "Running of the Green" 5 miler, formerly known as "Johnny's", not formerly known as Prince. This race is pretty much accepted as the start of the Rochester race season - we have a few winter races aptly named "Freezaroo" for the idiots brave people (that's not me), but St. Patrick's day (ish) has always been our season opener where the running community all gathers to celebrate running, beer, and and partying! (maybe not in that order)

I have done this race several times dating back to 2005 - I hit a huge PR back in 2019 when I decided to actually be an athlete (I know, jury is still out) of 35:24 - and have been itching to break it since.  2020 and 2021 we don't talk about (though we did do a pretty sweet "Dirty Leprachaun" race in 2020 - and ahem, that was about as fun as the name implies). In 2022 I was ready to drop the hammer - and had a complete dumpster fire of a race that ironically, led me to one of my new running besties, aptly named "Dumpster Fire"! (Why do you people read about my life??)

So, here we were, 2023!  This year was again off a build week in a prep for Ironman, where last year taught me - you can't race speed if you don't train it.  Turns out, I don't listen very well (are you surprised) so I set my goal  the same as 2022 - to break that 7 minute mile, which was a sub 35 (depending on course length.)  My 7:01 pace from 2019 irked me in stupid ways - I never thought I had any business running that fast, but here we were, and of course, I wanted more. By at least 2 seconds a mile.  Sights set for this year - a 6:59 pace, whatever that was by race distance.

According to Mean Dude, it was a 34:59.  Deal.  Mean Dude runs a lot faster than me, so we made what he considered a fair bet for the race - I got a 6 minute "head start" so if my time was less than six minutes off his, I won.  More, and he won.  The stakes were high here - a dollar and a beer.  Woah.  We are big players! (With serious race faces).

Leading up to the race, I had a big build week, much like 2022 - Thursday I did a 100 mile ride and an hour run off the bike, and was working with increased volume as Ironman is the real goal here.  Friday was light (way to stack the deck, Mean Dude) and Saturday I had some pretty legit instructions that poor Mean Dude tried to give me both pre race and day of.  I was completely listening the week of and not at all the morning of.  He'll learn. 

If you know me at all, the concept of "super serious" is usually not my MO race day, especially with local races - at least until I toe the line and pretend to be an athlete. I've pretty much made friends with dozens of runners through the craziness of our sport - and continue to meet new ones every time we get together to party race!  I repped the Roadkill team this time around, but hung out with the RATs, Grim Reapers, Wolfpack, RWB, and my fellow dumpster runners.  It was a total social hour and poor Mean Dude finally gave up on me being a serious athlete (does he not follow me on social media??)  about a half hour in, but he at least talked me into a warm up...but not out of my fuzzy green mustache that I donned pre race. (Win some, lose some).  

After prancing around like an idiot and meeting a bunch of new people (Blake Landry where have you been my whole life (he wore the stache better)) I finally got down to business and headed out to line up. The weather was so so - slushy, cold and slight wind that would make the trip back tougher, but nothing crazy.  The course was new for the year - a little more elevation, more turns, but fair.  I had explicit instructions from a few friends that my only goal was to beat Mean Dude, but I forgot my rocket shoes so the race was on!

Mile 1: 6:23

What in the ever loving shit was that??  My instructions were to not go out too hard, and according to my inner perceived effort, this did not feel hard (note that I would find out WHY in about 20 minutes LOL) but the fact that the second fastest mile of my life - ever- was at mile 1 was a little concerning.  I felt great, though - and what do we do when we make bad decisions?  Well, we own them with pride and move the hell on!

Miles 2 and 3 were pretty uneventful, at 6:50 and 7:04 - I passed the Fleet Feet cheering section just before mile 2 and was informed I was 2 minutes back from Mean Dude (apparently this was now a thing!- I also got my update at 4 miles in (4 minutes)) and saw the dude himself before I hit the turnaround.  He looked awesome.  I was totally faking it.  As I turned, a headwind hit me in the face and now I understand the speedy "out" portion of the course - whoops.

I hit the 5k in 20:42 which was another PR - I'll take it but slightly concerning in the fact that I had almost two miles to go....have I made a grave mistake?? (possibly) (yes). 

The back portion was fun only in the fact that I got to see all my favorites as they killed this course - I had four athletes racing and they all netted some pretty sweet times, two of them PRing and the other two surpassing their goals!  Me?  I was hurting.  I was running low 7s and the only thing that kept me going was this random Roadkill girl I kept leapfrogging with - I want to throw some kind words her way but there were none.  Hit mile 4 in 27 and change and knew that if the course was 5 miles (it wasn't) and I dug deep, I would hit that sub 35.  

So I did what I do best right now - I amped it up and figured if I went down, it would be swinging.  My concept of pain has been really redefined this year (I'm not sure its a good thing, but in this case it was!) so I've gotten much better at battling it.  Roadkill girl passed me with a half a mile to go, and I stayed on her heels, almost biting it at the last left turn on some slush (graceful, I'll never be).

The last little bit weas all uphill, and I could see the finish line ticking at 34:15, 20....and my coach was absolutely losing his shit on me to move my ass (in the sweetest was possible!)  Of course, I gunned it in - and crossed the finish line in 34:42 - for 5.07 miles and a 6:51 pace.

I'd like to say I threw a party at this huge PR, but instead I tried to throw up as Mean Dude and the Dumpster fire team congratulated me - I took a few minutes to become human again and found Roadkill girl, who's name is Alexi and now we are running buddies (funny how that works).  She is training for the mile.  I'm training for Ironman.  This is perfect.

Caught up with Mean Dude who posted a 29:30 which means - he is a badass - and also - I WON THE BET.  HELL YEAH!  I was doing my little dance (and Mean Dude was probably seriously questioning my energy post race) when one of my favorites called my name - IT WAS BARRY!  Barry, a fellow Grim Reaper (I told you, I join every team) and I have an excellent history with beer and this race, and the awesome dude that he is, cracked a cold one for me right at the finish line.  Awww.  (Poor Mean Dude was a little sad in the background he lost - but super happy as a coach!)

I hung around the finish to cheer on the husband and my athletes, who all did great.  A quick results check - and holy crap - I placed!  3rd in my AG out of 78 and the top 5% of women - and I'm blown away.  Last year was such a crap show that I couldn't believe I had found my zooms for this race, and I'm super happy with the result - there were some speedy women as this was a USATF prize purse race!

We hung around and ate donuts he size of our faceand socialized with new friends - the husband wasn't feeling great and disappeared for a bit (poor guy - don't worry, I played chauffer and got him into bed when we got home) but was good enough to hang so I could get my super fun pint glass and socks as an AG award.

Team Dumpster Fire took it home with AG awards, and Mean Dude won his AG - it was such a good day - good racing, good party, good friends.  

And you can't ask for more of a season opener!  The day after the race Dave (Team Dumpster - left) took Laura (Team Dumpster - right) and I on a 16 mile long run that included Loud Rd - with almost  1000 feet elevation gain total. So glad we took it easy. Ooof.  Because....what's next?

Oh just some little race in Texas :)  5 weeks, baby!