Spring Classic - 4/9/11

I ran the Spring Classic on Saturday.  It was a 10 mile race located at Bonnie Park in Strongsville, Ohio.  It was put on by the Cleveland West Road Runners Club.  I ran their fall race (Fall Classic) last November and had a great time, so I had been looking forward to this race all year.  New for 2011 was the 10 mile distance.  In years past, it was a half marathon and 5K.

Overall, I thought this was a great event.  The distance was true and the volunteers where great as well.  My only complaint was the 5K route was not clearly marked.  A friend of a friend was running her first 5K and hung a right when she was supposed to hang a left.  I never saw the sign myself and actually ran the 5K route during warm ups without even realizing it.  It is unfortunate that someones first race had to be this experience.  Other than that, the route was fairly flat and the finishers medal was a nice surprise.

I went into the race with no real expectations.  I had never ran a 10 mile race and did not really know what to expect.  Currently, I have only ran 3 half marathons and 3 5Ks.  So, I probably still should be considered a newbie.  I won't get into too many of the details about the run as a whole....saving that for the weekly training blog, as I ran a total of 22 miles.   I got to Bonnie Park 90 minutes before the start and proceeded to go for a nice 4 mile run.  I looped around and grabbed a bagel from the car and a Power ade and realized my brand new shorts did not have a pocket large enough for chomps.  This put me in a pleasant mood as I just dropped 45 bucks on these the night before and had planned on making them my marathon shorts.  I was so excited about finding a pair with a zip pocket for keys, that I forgot to check for anything else.  I then made my way to the start and ran into @mojamala2 and another running friend.  I nom nom'd on my bagel and slammed the power ade as the start time arrived.  The pace started fairly quickly and I found my self running about a minute faster than I had wanted.  I had only intended to run about 80% in hopes of just surviving the 22 mile day, but I felt good and went with it.  I still struggled through the water stops, but they had some fruit punch gatorade, which is a savior for me.  The yellow upsets my stomach.  I felt strong throughout the race and kept a decent pace for the clydesdale that I am.  I finished with a time of 1:24:37.  My average pace was 8:28, which was good enough for 4th in my age group and 76th overall.  A big congrats goes to @clecraftbeerrun as he finished with a PR and 10th overall and @mojamala2, who finished just shy of a PR and smoked the daylights out of my time.  Overall, I am pretty satisfied with my race.  I am a little disgruntled about the walkers.  Most were walking 4+ wide and it was hard to get around them at times and I almost got hit by a biker near the finish.  I am not sure what he was thinking as he looked right at me and continued to almost run me over.  I do apologize for the GD bomb I dropped on you, but I was rounding 3rd and heading home.  Lol.