Outpacing Melanoma 5K

Background part 1: When my husband and I started dating in 2002, he was training for and ran a marathon (the San Diego Rock & Roll marathon). Although he finished the race, I know he was disappointed with how he did. He ran into trouble because he didn’t account for how much drier San Diego is than Kansas City, and struggled with dehydration—I’ve never seen such salty sweat stains. After that race, he pretty much hung up his shoes and never looked back.

Background, part 2: I’ve always been a runner, although I never ran many races. Nearly a year ago, my younger son and my daughter-in-law gave me a much-needed push to give racing and consistent training a go. So I have, and this has been a great year for me with a couple of age group places and the satisfaction of seeing my times and endurance improve.

Then last August, I was diagnosed with melanoma and had surgery to remove it in September. I immediately started looking for a race centered on melanoma and found this one.

I also asked my husband to consider running this 5k with me. I told him I didn’t want an answer right then because he’d be answering out of emotion, but to think about it. After all, the race wasn’t until May so there was no rush. In January, he told me to sign us both up.

In the meantime, I got wild and crazy and signed up for the Heartland 39.3 Challenge—three half marathons in about five weeks’ time. After I’d signed us up for the Outpacing Melanoma 5K, I realized it was scheduled the Sunday before my third half marathon. Oops!

Pre-race: I suspected I might get a little emotional at the race. There were teams running in memory of folks who’ve died from melanoma, and a warrior wall where you could say who you were running or walking in support of, stuff like that. Mostly I held it together, so that was good. My husband isn’t as fast a runner as I am, so we’d decided to run together and talked about what pace he was aiming for. Side note, those of you who are real pacers in races? I have much respect for what you do! Running the pace he wanted and helping him stay steady with it took more focus that I would have thought.

Race: We were aiming for a 12:45 pace, but of course race excitement meant we started a little fast, so I slowed down more so he’d stay with me. He told me later that was perfect. This course is pretty flat with the exception of two hills: the first hill is in the first mile, and the second hill came right around mile two. We slowed a bit on those, but my husband was able to recoup and keep going. With about 2/10s to go, he picked up the pace and right before the finish line, we held hands and crossed together, as I’d hoped, grinning maniacally. I immediately burst into tears—I was just so happy he was with me and I was able to say a big F U to cancer. He got a PR in the 5K , with a chip time of 38:49 and 12:23 per mile pace. I am so proud of him!

Final thoughts: If you have ever had a sunburn—ever—or you have moles, please get checked. The only reason I got checked is because a dear mentor of mine died from melanoma. I never ever in my life thought I would get it. I don’t really burn, and I never was a big sun worshipper. Yet here I am. If I hadn’t been getting yearly checks, my story would have a very different, much shorter, ending. As it stands, I have a higher risk of recurrence and I’m now on the six-month check for the next four and a half years.

What’s next: On Saturday, I’m running the Run with the Cows Half Marathon and my husband today signed up to run the 5K race too. I’m stoked, and we’ll both be wearing lots of sunscreen.

Rock the Parkway Half Marathon--my first half marathon

Training
This is my first half marathon, and in a way, I feel like I’d been training for this one forever. Originally, I planned to run the Hangover Half Marathon on January 1, but it was postponed a week and then ultimately canceled because of extreme cold. The race organizers offered a couple of other races I could switch to instead, so I ran the Sweetheart 10K race in February, which was also postponed a week due to a snow emergency.
I used Hal Higdon’s advanced half marathon plan, not because I’m such an advanced runner but because the distances were about what I run each week anyway. To be honest, while I’ve run most of my life, I haven’t trained or competed until this last year. There’s a lot I don’t know how to do yet (running well downhill for example) and I’m pretty inexperienced with the mental side of racing.

Pre-race
I gotta be honest—it was FREEZING out. I don’t have much insulation any more and have zero shame in wearing layers to run. Those runners who wore shorts and singlets? Insane! I did the tiniest of warm up runs but honestly was shivering so much, I didn’t run more. See that yellow headband I'm wearing? I almost didn't bring it and I'm so glad I did. The wind was just awful and that headband kept my ears from freezing off.

Because I’m inexperienced, I decided to find the 2-hour pacers and stick with them. I didn’t want to go out too fast and I thought it might be good to run with a group (I always run alone). They explained their strategy: slower to start, walk through every aid station, speed up downhill. Stick with us, they said, and we’ll get you there. OK, sounds good to me except I don’t drink or eat during a 2-hour run, so I figured I’d see how I felt at the first aid station and take it from there.

Race
Our first two miles were pretty slow, which was good since I was running with a lot of people and dodging elbows left and right. But when we got to the first aid station, I though hmm I don’t really want to stop and walk, I’ll get even colder so I kept going. I figured they would probably catch up with me later and I’d run with them then. I never did see them again as it turned out.

Around mile 9, a friend was out cheering and that just warmed my heart—she braved some nasty weather to do that and I felt so encouraged.

Then somewhere around mile 11 and right after it started sleeting, a man on my right side who was slightly behind me said “Hey don’t slow down, you’ve been my pacer this whole race—I’ve been following your yellow head band and I want to break the 2 hour mark.” Say what? Someone is using me as a pacer?? So we ran together. Wow did that help—every time I even thought about being tired or cold, I reminded myself that I too wanted that sub-2 hour time and that I’d worked hard for this for months. At the 12 mile mark, Richard (that was his name, we were best buds by now) asked if I had anything left in the tank for the downhill stretch. I don’t know, I said, but I’m sure going to try. And I ran my little legs off until the end.

Post-race
I found my husband, who is the best crew a woman could ask for, grabbed a banana and a beer (really odd pairing to be honest) and went to get the print out of my results. I was pretty confident I’d broken the 2-hour mark according to my watch, but I wanted to see the official results. When I got the print out and saw 1:57:04, I started to cry. Now you have to understand that I’ve been (accurately) called a velvet covered brick, and tears are not normal for me. But I just stood there in the freezing wind blubbering while my sweet husband told me what a great job I did.

Next weekend I run the second of three half marathons for the Heartland 39.3 challenge. It’s supposed to be upper 40s and rain, of course, because apparently I bring crappy weather to races.

Rescheduled again

I'm beginning to think I'm the frozen kiss of death for winter races. Click the photo to read the email.