Race Report--Drumstick Dash, Nov 25 2005

ORN: 4.5 miles, 42:51, 9:27/mile

What a fun little race! Entirely unlike what I expected…which made it fun.

I normally wouldn’t drive to Indianapolis (75 minutes, one way) for a 4.5 mile race, but I had to be in Indy early today, as I took my youngest son Matt to the airport to let him fly to Colorado Springs to spend Thanksgiving with our two other sons. So, hey, I’m in Indy anyway, I found this Drumstick Dash race a few weeks back, so entered.

I expected a small gathering of running enthusiasts on a Thanksgiving morning. HA! 1267 finishers in the 4.5 mile race…which surprised me tremendously but added to the fun.

I got Matt to the Security gate for United and then left the Indy airport at 8:07am, drove halfway across Indy for a 9am race. So, finding parking in a fairly dense neighborhood was no small task. Parked, ran to get the packet and, to their credit, I got in and out of the gym for registration in less than 90 seconds…seriously. Tuxedo Brothers does a nice job organizing these events. So got the packet, ran back to my car, got the right shirts on for the heavy wind, ran back to the start, found the restroom, stretched and was in the pack a good five minutes before the 9am start. WHEW!

I was concerned about my right calf, after tweaking it a bit during yesterday’s 10 miler, so decided to take it easy and set the Garmin to pace me at a 9:45 pace. I’ve never entered a race with such a relaxed attitude…an odd view for the competitive me. But my current objective is doing 21 miles at The HUFF 50K Trail Run (2 laps of the 3 offered). So, I don’t need to damage anything in this race…just a training run.

And it went well. My splits were 9:28, 9:21, 9:28, 9:40 and 4:50 (at a 9:24 pace) for a total time of 42:51 on my watch, 42:39 chip time. Quicker than I wanted…but I explain.

This was a truly fun, social event. I just had fun talking to folks. Met a guy in the start pack who was a fellow Purdue engineer learnig Lean Manufacturing!! How many people know what Lean is? And that’s the subject of my professional blog. His girlfriend couldn’t quite believe that. Then, in the first mile, I got a great rundown of the Marine Corps Marathon from a recent participant. That race is on my wish list…we’ll see.

The best, and most extended conversation, came with Chris, who I met around mile 1.5 and we did the rest of the race together. She’s a talented school administrator and we had a lot in common. Much conversation and insight and the miles really clicked by. So much so, I really have little recollection of the course itself or much more that was going on. Just a comfortable pace with fascinating conversation. She and I both chuckled at that, as we both spend most of our training time all alone…thus the social element was part of the enjoyment and contrast.

All in all, a surprisingly pleasant little race.

Happy Thanksgiving to all…we have much to be thankful for.

Persevere.