Race Recap: The Perfect 10-Miler

It all began with my innocent question on Facebook:

Are deep fried mac and cheese bites the proper fuel before the Perfect 10 Miler? Hypothetically.

The answers ranged from the funny--a movie clip of a woman on the toilet (which I will not post here), the philosophical (Shouldn’t the real question be “Is there ever a time deep fried Mac and cheese bites are a bad idea?”), the empathetic (Pretty sure Hamburger Festival was not ideal.), and the mildly condemnatory (I would say the whole enterprise is flawed, but...). Do you want to know the answer? Just wait; I’m getting there.

This morning I woke up at 4:30 am to prepare for the Perfect 10 Miler at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst, Ohio. I carefully laid out my gear the night before.

I met the other members of The Ohio Runners Network for a warm up and a picture.

So, I have been feeling angsty about this race for several reasons: 1) I had to transfer my bib last year because of the horrible NUT incident, 2) the course changed this year, and I didn’t know the area, and 3) I have been trying to figure out what my race pace is for any race longer than five miles (prep for the Akron Half Marathon), and I’m not really good at figuring out my pace by the way I feel. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but as usual, my follow-through is kind of lousy. Let’s get to the race review, shall we?

The Good:

The course began and ended at Legacy Village, which meant that there was plenty of parking. This is a smaller race than some, but previous years’ staging at Brush High School meant that many of us scrambled for parking.

The bathrooms were REAL bathrooms in the mall. There was plenty of soap and paper towels!

The food at the end was plentiful. I’d like to emphasize this because in the past, there was no more food or water for the runners at the tail end of the race. There were bananas, bagel pieces, protein bars, and cookies from Eat n Park. Usually the cookies are the first thing to run out, so I was happy that the race coordinators had supplied many more this year. In fact, I’m grateful to them because they allowed me to take two cookies on the way out. My kids love the smiley-face cookies!

The crowd support was minimal, but the people who were out there were fantastic. My favorite sign said, “Run faster--there’s a zombie behind you!!!” A few people had hoses going, which I really appreciate since it was really hot, even at 7:30 in the morning.

The water stops were at almost every mile along the route, and there were some great volunteers manning those stations. Many of them were teens, and they served up water and Gatorade with smiles and cheers.

This was the first 10 miler for the Towpath Turtles, who are training for the Akron Half Marathon, and they all finished strong, and they looked outstanding!

Want to know the Bad and the Ugly? Want to see some great pics of the The Ohio Runners Network? Want to know the answer to the mac and cheese bites question? Click here to see the whole post.

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