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2019 North Canton July 4th 5 Miler Race Recap – North Canton, Ohio

2019 North Canton July 4th 5 Miler Race Recap – North Canton, Ohio

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After the whirlwind that was January-May and finally racing at the Mountains to Beach marathon, school dismissed for the summer, and my family and I headed east to the Midwest, as we always do in June and July. With MTB behind me and the Biofreeze San Francisco Marathon ahead of me, on the last Sunday in July, my training for SF didn’t really begin in earnest until I was in the midwest in mid-summer. 

Unfortunately, this year I’d only be able to race once before the BSFM, but I was happy to return to one of my favorite local northeast Ohio races: the North Canton YMCA July 4th 5 miler. I’ve run the race twice before and always enjoy it because it’s well-organized, has easy logistics, and usually offers a great opportunity to race against high schoolers and kids half my age, haha. 

The trying thing, of course, is that early July in northeast Ohio nearly always promises challenging weather conditions — hello, excessive heat and humidity and a killer dewpoint — making the race less about going for a specific clock time and more about racing against other people and racing against the elements.

For as long as I had been in the midwest this summer, prior to the race, my running felt extremely sluggish and forced. My paces were much slower, and getting out the door was significantly more challenging than usual. At any rate, perhaps because my training up until 7/4 had been so lackluster, I went into the race with zero expectations or time goals and just hoped I wouldn’t feel completely awful from start to finish. Nothing hurt or anything like that, but I honestly think that the heat and humidity in the midwest this summer has been soul-sucking and energy-draining. (world’s smallest violin, I know)

The five-miler course was exactly the same as it was the past two years, and the community members whose streets we overtook on race morning brought their A game as they usually do, with many families setting up their own aid stations in their front lawns and/or setting out sprinklers or hoses for runners to run through. Over five miles, I’m pretty sure I hit every official water stop to dump water over me and hit another 4 or 5 sprinklers or hoses. It was awesome. By the time I finished the race, I was soaked in both sweat *and* water. 

the beginning stages of a jazz hands pic. also, there’s a lot of great rollers on the course, especially between miles 3-5. This is the beginning of a large hill around mile 4, if memory serves. (thanks for the free pics!)

Given the heat and humidity on race day, I don’t think I looked at my watch at all during the race and instead based my air-quotes “racing” off my perceived exertion. Each time I saw a woman in my immediate or almost-immediate vicinity, I slowly tried to reel her in and advance up the leaderboard. For the past two years, I’ve won my age group, so trying to place high in my new AG (hopefully while running fairly decently) was enough of a goal for the race this time around. Again: less time-based goal, more placement-based.

For the past two years, I usually go out hella hard and die and claw my way to the finish, but this time, I finally didn’t fly off the line idiotically and instead treated the race more like a  tempo or steady-state effort. Somewhat miraculously, given how my running felt while I was in the midwest, I felt strong from start to finish during the race and methodically reeled in as many women as I could. From beginning to end, I chased down four or five women, and I only got passed back once. Success! 

wings into the finish

The 5 miler was also my first race where I wore my rabbit Wolfpack crop, and let me tell you, when it’s hot and humid as hell outside, going with a crop is fantastic.  Don’t worry about how you’ll look in your race pics relative to the flatness of your stomach. No one cares but you. Promise. Body misgivings can go to hell. Life’s too short. 

Race day ultimately gave me 10 miles for the day, between the race and my warm-up and cool-down, and I was delighted to learn that I posted 2nd/50 in my new AG (missing first by only ~40 seconds, damn!), 14th female out of 200+, and 102/600+ overall. I usually don’t care about race statistics — I’m more satisfied in knowing that I ran hard/accomplished what I sought out to do than stacking myself against other competitors — but given the day and my training, I’m especially proud of my effort. 

I won a tumbler! truth be told, this was probably the fastest that I’ve run while being in the midwest for six weeks.)

While I wouldn’t be particularly enthusiastic to sign up to race hard in early July in the midwest, I think I’ll always come back to this race (if I’m in town). It’s inexpensive (maybe $25 when I registered in April), the race shirt premium is attractive and something I routinely wear, the AG awards are nice (previous years were mugs and bookbags), and I love the small-town vibes of racing in North Canton, as well as the fun post-race environment afterward. They even have puppies you can adopt from the post-race party! Kids can run in the (free) kids’ race before the 5 miler, and if you don’t want to do 5, there’s a 2 mile option as well. Everyone wins.

There’s something about beginning a holiday with a race; even if I race poorly or more slowly than I want, it puts me in a great mood for the rest of the day and leaves me hyped all day long. If you’re local to northeast Ohio or are in town for July 4th and want a racing opportunity, I’d definitely recommend the North Canton YMCA 5 miler. If I’m in town, I’ll be there.

July 4th-ing

July 2017 training recap

July 2017 training recap

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And like that, there went July.

July was full of a lot of action: being in Ohio for the first almost two weeks, visiting family, and then returning to SJ, getting ready to race at SF, and then finally racing the thing. Like I said in my June recap, it was awesome to be able to see my family for nearly three weeks in June-July and to be able to train in some of the more beautiful parts of Akron, hills and humidity and all.

girl pile on my mom

 

post-LR in downtown Akron, my last LR in Ohio. I ran into a bunch of runners in their final leg of an inaugural 100 miler that morning. Props to those folks for a) not only running a hundo but b) running one in Ohio in the humid summer. Cannot fathom it.

While I was in Ohio, I jumped in a local 4th of July 5 mile race in North Canton and basically got slaughtered by young XC whippersnappers — I was the token 30 something in the top ten women — which was actually a lot of fun, even on the heels of a 20 mile workout about 48 hours prior. It made for a pretty good boost of confidence, a hefty 5 mi PR (easy to do since I had only raced this distance once before), and a great way to start the day.

July also marked the one-year anniversary of my cousin’s death, and while I have struggled to find a way to write about it and still have some degree of order and cohesion to my very scattered and likely conflicting and contradictory thoughts, I finally gave up and just verbally vomited it all out in this post here. Thank you to everyone who has read it and publicly or privately reached out to me since then; I am so quickly learning that the depth and reach of addiction overshadows anything I had ever conceptualized about the disease before. Its span is huge and without discrimination. Since I wrote that post, my sis informed me that carfentanil has returned to Akron but masked as OxyContin pills, so now folks who abuse OxyContin run the risk of ODing on a large animal sedative disguised as an opioid. What a fucking tragedy.

By the end of the month, I had the joy of racing the San Francisco Marathon for the third time and doing all the fun race weekend activities entailed with TSFM. In just 24 hours’ time, I saw tons of friends, both at the expo and on race day, and even got to run with some buddies mid-race, which was a treat. While I am, admittedly, slightly annoyed that I didn’t race faster, I am nonetheless thoroughly happy with my experience and how strong I felt from start to finish. This may be the only time in my life that I run mirror-perfect splits in a marathon, from the front half to the back half, so I’m reveling in the fact that I did that on such a hard course (and in some unforgiving weather for the first 11 miles). The marathon is a great teacher, and I’ve walked away from my 29th marathon still learning something new about how to approach this beast. For that, I am grateful (and can’t wait to race it again).

PC: Dynamo

 

what a fun weekend.

And finally, just six days later, I got to chase my own racing experience with going up to spectate at Ironman Santa Rosa in, you guessed it, Santa Rosa. My predominant Sunday morning LR partners, Saurabh and Chaitanya, were both racing there, in their 4th go at the IM distance, and I was absolutely thrilled that I could make the 2.5 hour/100 mile drive north and be able to catch them, plus a friend from Boston in town to race, Ann, about 6 times on the three-loop marathon run course. I have zero interest in ever doing a tri, much less an IM, but as a long distance runner, I know how awesome it is to see a friendly face on the course, particularly if things go south. Standing around cheering, cowbelling, and spectating was super inspiring. Just like with running, I saw so many different people, and so many different body shapes and sizes and speeds, but the common denominator amongst everyone was their passion. That shit’s palpable, man. I had a blast cheering for my friends and basically laughing at the president of BASE salt, whose company was handing out salt very near where I was standing, for about 4 ½ hours. (Seriously, his dance moves to what had to have been the best Pandora station ever for an aid station were so impressive. He was full throttle for just about the entire time I was there. Homeboy was dripping in sweat comparable to the triathletes). Hefty PRs for Saurabh and Chai, too, in addition to many of their teammates, which just sweetened the already very awesome day even more.

so proud! with Chaitanya and Saurabh post-IM.

So here we are, 203+ miles later and August-bound. Wild. I’ll be taking a little bit of downtime before starting CIM training, and I may jump into some XC PA action this fall, too. We’ll see. I’ve been feeling well post-TSFM, albeit probably a little more tired than usual, but my complaints are minimal. I’m planning to pace the 3:33 group at Santa Rosa at the end of the month, so I imagine that I’ll be focusing most of my August running on being able to lock in that pace in my sleep. We only have a little bit of time left before my eldest starts school — back to the bike-stroller commutes! — and then, I imagine things will really start to fly around here. That’s how things seem to roll, anyway.

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Reading: I finished Homesick for Another World when I was in Ohio, and it might have been my one and only fiction book this year. It was great — I love short stories — and weird as hell in parts. Some of the characters were oddly endearing. I’d recommend it. I started Ariel Levy’s memoir but had to return it (boo; waiting for it to come back to me), and I had to re-start The Gene after also having to return it before I was finished with it. The same thing goes with David Sedaris’ Theft by Finding. I’m not really keen on this Sedaris book, but what keeps me going is that so much of it takes place right where we used to live in Chicago, in Uptown. It’s interesting to read what has changed and what has remained the same. Make Your Bed, something that G literally took off a library shelf and gave to me to bring home, was about what I expected, though still pretty inspiring and interesting. Ronda Rousey’s bio, My Fight/Your Fight, was also weird as hell in parts but fairly inspiring, too.

Listening: to not much, in the way of podcasts. Still not feeling it much. I enjoyed Tina Muir’s talk with Magda Boulet, but I think it’s because I just really like Magda. She’s cool as hell and super humble. We met at my first race postpartum after G, and she ran alongside A, as well as her son, so we’re all basically best friends now.

throwback to the Let’s Go 510k in October ’15; also known as the 10k I ran about 8-10 weeks postpartum and about 24-48 hours post-runaway IUD retrieval surgery and bonus emergency appendectomy. Magda was seriously cool as hell though! Owen, too.

Watching: again, not much. Aside from maybe a few more episodes of Master of None, honestly I can’t recall the last time I went out of my way to sit down and watch tv. I think I spent most of whatever free time I could string together in July reading, writing, or sleeping. In advance of a marathon, that sounds about right, anyway.