Monster Mash 5K Race Report

Saturday was the Monster Mash 5K/10K and 5K9 here in Eugene. In my opinion, it officially kicks off the Halloween season, which I love. Last year, there were a handful of pretty decent costumes, but this year I felt like a lot more people put some effort into it. I didn't get any pictures (my camera is having issues and I didn't have my phone with me) but there was a guy dressed like a lady "hot" cop, complete with the short skirt, long blond wig, small tied up top and handcuffs dangling at his waist. Also there was a family of grapes (including their dog), a girl dressed as Braveheart and also a  Marie Antoinette (which gets my vote for most difficult to run in... although I never did actually see her run... hmmm).

Anyway, as much as I love Halloween, I usually struggle to get a good costume, last year I went with a pumpkin tee and orange and black stripy socks (and of course a running skirt).  This year I went with a more retro 60's look after finding this awesome dress at Value Village.

The tights are vintage Target and the shoes vintage Nike.

Headband/scarf - vintage Me (probably Target), glasses Party City and the bitchin' earrings from my good friend Marci's  "Naked Lady Party" (sorry about the dark picture... my camera is really struggling)

I guess the getup and the pre-race jitters gave me license to act like my 6 year old and do goofy poses...

I'm sure the modeling agencies will be calling me now... ha ha

As I mentioned in my last post, my mom came up to run in the race too (her first running race!)  Here we are about to head out.

Leona always wanting to get in any picture she can... sporting her new, favorite "I Love my Mummy"  tee.

I don't have any pictures from the race, except at the finish, but I'll give you the report first.  As mentioned, earlier, it's a 5K/10K run, a 5K walk and a 5K9 (so you can have your dog too).  It's presented by and benefits the Slocum Research & Education Foundation and starts at their facility.  The best thing about that is that they open up the office, and more importantly, the restrooms to the racers so no port-a-potties!!  After visiting the loo, me mum and I (since I used "loo" thought I better go with "mum" to keep it consistent) headed to the starting area.  It was still pretty early, so I ran around the park a bit to get warmed up and see how the costume was going to function.  As I feared, the earrings were a bit more bouncing than I would prefer to race in, but beauty is pain and hey, no pain, no gain so I opted to keep them in.  I always get so nervous before races, but luckily having my mom there and also a couple other friends that were running it to talk to helped calm me a bit.

The start was pretty chaotic.  We couldn't line up on the road until after they closed it down, which wasn't until right before the gun went off, so everyone was lined up in the park facing the wrong direction then had to herd out onto the road and turn around.  5K runners were supposed to be on the left with 10kers on the right and the walkers and K9 groups in the back.  That was a huge, crowded fail, everyone was pretty much just lumped together.  It wasn't a super big race, so I lined up towards the front but could tell there was going to be a lot of bobbing and weaving to find space to really get going.  Only two steps into the race I had to come to a complete stop because the way was blocked by a lady, her 3 kids and their dog who were walking the race but had apparently lined up at the very front!!  Arghh...

After the crowded start,  it thinned out pretty quickly and I was able to find a pretty good pace with a small group of runners including the "hot cop".  I was hoping to average around 7min pace and come in below 22 minutes.  I didn't even see the 1 mile marker so I couldn't really tell you what my 1st split was, my guess though, would be about 6:52 because it felt pretty fast, but not so fast that I thought I was going to die.  There was a small out and back portion where the 10K runners turned around slightly before the 5Kers did, but it was pretty well marked with several volunteers so it wasn't too confusing (although I suppose it did give some 5K cheaters an option to shave off a bit of their distance, I can't imagine anyone did though).  On the turn around I got to see a few of my friends, including a couple that I didn't even know were racing until I heard them yell "Go Laurie!" which totally made me feel great.  I looked for my mom but didn't see her in the crowd.

I also missed the 2 mile marker (actually I didn't miss it, it just said 2-5 which I took to mean 2 1/2 until I came upon 2-10 and realized they were separate markers for the different distances) so I have no idea what my second mile split was either.  Before I knew it, we were making a corner to the bridge that housed the 3 mile mark (which I did see, but didn't bother to check my watch) and the gateway to the finish line.  I knew I had stayed pretty consistent with my pacing and thought I had a decent chance to come in below 22:00 so I was excited to give all I had left (not a whole lot) and sprint it in to the finish line.  I was super excited to see the clock which said 21:31 when I crossed!  Hooray a new PR!!

Shortly after finishing, I headed back out on the course to catch up with my mom and run her into the finish.  We had talked before the race about running together but she really wanted me to run my race while she did hers.  When I finished I thought it would be fun to head back out for a recovery run to find her and run with her to the finish.  As I was backtracking, I got to see a lot of cool costumes as well as some of my friends and it was great to offer encouragement to the runners & walkers in spots where there weren't any spectators.  It didn't take too long to find my mom, she was doing awesome and had been running the whole way.  As soon as I caught up with her, she picked up her pace a bit and we headed towards the finish.  She told me her knee was kind of hurting so I told her to just do what she could but as we crossed the bridge into the park and saw the finish line she took off.  I hopped off the course so I could cut across to the the finish line to watch her finish.  She did so great, I was so proud of her.  Her finish time was 35:01, which was 4 minutes under what she had expected to do and a whole minute faster than what her ultimate goal was!!

After cooling down for a bit, we checked the results to get our official times and see where we ranked against everyone else and I was super excited to see this:

22nd place overall, 4th for the women and 1st in my age group!!  I was super stoked to score this cool medal, although not as excited as my kids were when they saw it.  "You won a gold medal Mommy! That is sooooo awesome!!"

So, I had a great race, with a PR and really enjoyed sharing it with my mom.  The best part is, I think she's hooked too as she is already talking about doing another one!