Race Update

The first annual Galveston Sand Crab did not go down in my book as a great overall success in terms of event planning. It was, however, a new personal record and a field of firsts.

Note the "first" in the previous paragraph. That should have been my first hint to a bumpy road ahead. Somehow, even with all of my technical writing prowess (hrmph, hrrmph), I missed this minor detail. Unfortunately it turned out to be a major detail with much impact.

Not for me, well, not relatively speaking, but for hundreds of others. All I wasted was time. Many others wasted not only time, but also their starting advantage in a field of almost 1500 runners. Bottom line is the race organizers were not prepared for the huge showing of interested runners and failed to line up enough volunteers to work the race-day packet pick-up. Luckily, I got there about an hour before the packet pickup was scheduled to start. I did, even with that advantage, miss being the first in line because I was lounging at the water's edge taking in the calm of the sand pipers scooting across the wet, late afternoon beach. I ended up standing in line with about 50 people ahead of me for 1.5 hours. Not bad considering many of the people behind, most of the rest of the running field (remember that 1500 number?), probably didn't get to start the race until about half an hour after the official start time.

As it was, the official race didn't actually start until 9:15pm. Close to race time, with hundreds of people still waiting, the race volunteers started running chips and t-shirts out to the runners instead of making the runners wait to come to the front.

So, here are hundreds of people packing in tighter and tighter on a floodlit beach. 8:55pm, 9:00pm (official race start time), 9:05pm. Someone gets up on the podium and starts talking but no one can hear him. Something is wrong with the speakers. He tries the bullhorn. Nothing. Again, let me focus you on hundreds of runners ~ some experienced racers used to flawless organization and pinpoint start time accuracy, watching their watches and starting to get antsy; some novice racers who I fear will leave this race thinking this is the way it always is.

Finally, at 9:10pm, a little cheer goes up as another "official" makes his way up to the start line. The flag goes down and we are off! I was lucky enough up to this point to have made my way to the front of the field, something I usually don't do because I am not that fast of a runner and these positions are usually reserved, in more organized races, for the elite runners who can push out an 8 minute mile.

The race is on the beach. No, not the seawall, but the sand. And, it's at night. Last time I ran on sand was over five years ago: Wassenaar Strand, the Netherlands. I never did it again because shortly after that I developed problems with my hip, which I think resulted from the cambered surface. As for running at night: NEVER.

With these two impediments, I estimated my normal 9:27 mile would go up to at least 9:45, if not closer to 10, taking into account visibility and rough terrain. Once I got going, I had to factor in the increased humidity. If I thought running in the morning where I live was humid, it is nothing compared to the pudding quality of the air right at the edge of the Gulf. Raise that 9:45-10 to 10:15.

I pushed on, making special effort to safeguard my footing and to pace myself. I only ended up hitting the edge of a sand castle moat once, but got out without falling or injuring my ankle (amazing what a flashlight can illuminate, not to mention dozens of them coming from behind!). Better yet, I didn't find myself speeding up to beat anyone, even when one or two of them overtook me. I actually ended up passing TWO separate people toward the end of the race who had overtaken me halfway through.

In the end, with all the barriers to personal success, I finished 53rd out of the entire field, 19th out of all females, and 3rd out of females 45-49. That could have been the result of the delays from the packet pickup fiasco. The biggest milestone, personal record if you will, is my time of 26:06 and pace of 8:24 per mile...

....not bad for getting out of my comfort zone and trying something new.