Last weekend (3/14/09) was a mini vacation. I didn’t get back to work until Wednesday of last week and I have been busy… this past weekend we had a lot going on. So, I need to catch up and start with the Gate River Run 15K weekend. My FAVORITE run of the year. This run is the USATF Championship 15K. 15,000 signed up for the 15K this year and approximately 5,000 for the 5K.
On Friday 3/13/09 we (Me, Chuck, Jenny, G, Dennis, Kristy, Bug, and Tim) all left a cloudy cool Byron, heading down I 75 to Jacksonville, FL. The trip down was uneventful (that’s a good thing right?) We ate at Fazoli’s in Valdosta, trying to carb up! We got to the Wyndham Riverwalk in Jax at about 4 PM and we all got to our rooms, put our stuff up and changed clothes.
The Wyndham was the host hotel for the Gate River Run. So they provided transportation to the race Expo and the race. We caught the bus to the expo, got our race packets and T-shirts then walked around for about 2 hours looking at all the neat running and fitness merchandise, services, etc. We got our 2009 GRR glass and all kinds of freebees.
Bug has a friend named Josh (used to work at RunFit) that is a manager at a new running store in Jax… called Jacksonville Running Company. We all went to his store and a few people bought new shoes, we all stocked up on sports beans and such. They even gave us all a Mizuno running shirts with the JRC logo on it to wear during the race.
We went to Seven Bridges for dinner. I had to constantly fuss at Chuck and Tim to not order beer… I kept telling them to wait until Saturday. They both drank some, but not as much as they wanted I’m sure. Dinner was great! We were all riding together and a few people needed some last minute items from WalMart, so we had to stop by there. We didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11PM. It was probably 12 by the time we got to sleep.
5:30AM the alarm goes off. I am so excited at this point. I took a quick shower (yes, I always shower and shave before a race… can’t stand to have fuzzy legs.. wind resistance??? Hahaha) Got dressed and got all my race gear ready. We met up in the lobby with the rest of the crew at 6:30AM to catch the bus over to the race… the race was across the river from the hotel. We were all sleepy but happy.
Jenny and I ran the GRR last year, it was just the two of us. This year all the folks listed above (Kristy and Tim ran the 5K) ran with us. It was Chuck’s first 15K. I was so proud of him, all of the training he had put in to get up to the distance he was about to run. Jenny and I kept telling everyone how cool this was going to be, but it’s hard to describe until your really there.
On Friday 3/13/09 we (Me, Chuck, Jenny, G, Dennis, Kristy, Bug, and Tim) all left a cloudy cool Byron, heading down I 75 to Jacksonville, FL. The trip down was uneventful (that’s a good thing right?) We ate at Fazoli’s in Valdosta, trying to carb up! We got to the Wyndham Riverwalk in Jax at about 4 PM and we all got to our rooms, put our stuff up and changed clothes.
The Wyndham was the host hotel for the Gate River Run. So they provided transportation to the race Expo and the race. We caught the bus to the expo, got our race packets and T-shirts then walked around for about 2 hours looking at all the neat running and fitness merchandise, services, etc. We got our 2009 GRR glass and all kinds of freebees.
Bug has a friend named Josh (used to work at RunFit) that is a manager at a new running store in Jax… called Jacksonville Running Company. We all went to his store and a few people bought new shoes, we all stocked up on sports beans and such. They even gave us all a Mizuno running shirts with the JRC logo on it to wear during the race.
We went to Seven Bridges for dinner. I had to constantly fuss at Chuck and Tim to not order beer… I kept telling them to wait until Saturday. They both drank some, but not as much as they wanted I’m sure. Dinner was great! We were all riding together and a few people needed some last minute items from WalMart, so we had to stop by there. We didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11PM. It was probably 12 by the time we got to sleep.
5:30AM the alarm goes off. I am so excited at this point. I took a quick shower (yes, I always shower and shave before a race… can’t stand to have fuzzy legs.. wind resistance??? Hahaha) Got dressed and got all my race gear ready. We met up in the lobby with the rest of the crew at 6:30AM to catch the bus over to the race… the race was across the river from the hotel. We were all sleepy but happy.
Jenny and I ran the GRR last year, it was just the two of us. This year all the folks listed above (Kristy and Tim ran the 5K) ran with us. It was Chuck’s first 15K. I was so proud of him, all of the training he had put in to get up to the distance he was about to run. Jenny and I kept telling everyone how cool this was going to be, but it’s hard to describe until your really there. The 5K started at 7:45, so we wished Kristy and Tim a good race. The rest of us bounced around… it was cooler than we expected, a little windy, and we were basically standing in thick clouds. But at least it wasn’t raining and at least there wasn’t the 30 – 40 MPH winds that we dealt with in 2008.
After standing in line for porta-potties a few times… race time rolled around. The Star Spangled Banner was sang beautifully. The elite women start the race at 8:25AM. The gun sounding gives me chill bumps. There are SOOOOO many people there. When the gun sounds for the rest of the top seeded men, and us mere mortals, there are so many people that we just stand there for about 2 minutes, waiting to start walking, and finally run across the start line.
As we begin the run (and for the remainder of the race) the streets were front to back, side to side, packed with people. We almost immediately lost sight of G, Dennis, and Jenny who are faster… Bug was somewhere about 3 minutes ahead of us. Chuck and I stayed together. I wanted to cross the finish line with him. We stayed at about a 9:45 mi/mile for the whole race. It’s also a pain to try to duck and dodge people and try to go any faster.
There are tons of spectators and bands. Never really a dull moment. Rock groups, high school bands, signs, banners, families in their yards, cocktail stands, you name it.
The “Highlight” of the race is at approx. 7.75 miles. The bottom of the Hart Bridge… better known as the Green Monster. It is a half mile incline at a six percent grade. It’s really not THAT bad, but it is a hill that never seems to end. You think your at the top and it still insists on going up and up. But, once you reach the top you have less than a mile to run and it’s mostly downhill around to the JAX stadium where the Jaguars play. We finished in 1:28:38 (chip time)… 1:30:38 (gun time). Our goal was for under 1:30 so we were very happy with that time.
After the race it was to the FREE BEER tent to drink MGD 64.
After standing in line for porta-potties a few times… race time rolled around. The Star Spangled Banner was sang beautifully. The elite women start the race at 8:25AM. The gun sounding gives me chill bumps. There are SOOOOO many people there. When the gun sounds for the rest of the top seeded men, and us mere mortals, there are so many people that we just stand there for about 2 minutes, waiting to start walking, and finally run across the start line.
As we begin the run (and for the remainder of the race) the streets were front to back, side to side, packed with people. We almost immediately lost sight of G, Dennis, and Jenny who are faster… Bug was somewhere about 3 minutes ahead of us. Chuck and I stayed together. I wanted to cross the finish line with him. We stayed at about a 9:45 mi/mile for the whole race. It’s also a pain to try to duck and dodge people and try to go any faster.
There are tons of spectators and bands. Never really a dull moment. Rock groups, high school bands, signs, banners, families in their yards, cocktail stands, you name it.
The “Highlight” of the race is at approx. 7.75 miles. The bottom of the Hart Bridge… better known as the Green Monster. It is a half mile incline at a six percent grade. It’s really not THAT bad, but it is a hill that never seems to end. You think your at the top and it still insists on going up and up. But, once you reach the top you have less than a mile to run and it’s mostly downhill around to the JAX stadium where the Jaguars play. We finished in 1:28:38 (chip time)… 1:30:38 (gun time). Our goal was for under 1:30 so we were very happy with that time.
After the race it was to the FREE BEER tent to drink MGD 64.
We walked around the post-race festivities for about an hour and a half until we all got tired and were getting cold so we headed back to the bus to go to the hotel. After showering and changing again we went out shopping and then to a post-race party put on by the JRC. It was a good time.Sunday was a gorgeous day. The sun was bright and the temps were great. Most everyone had a bit of a hangover. Chuck and I didn’t drink much at all, so we were fine. We met with Jenny in the lobby at about 9 (Jenny did in fact have a hangover) and we went out for a “recovery” run. Ha ha. We ran down the riverwalk, crossed the Acosta bridge, ran down the north bank of the river then back across the Main Street bridge to the south bank where our hotel was. We just did 3 miles easy. Chuck didn’t agree that you can run easy runs over bridges. Oh well… it was so pretty and the scenery was great, we didn’t care. After the run everyone went down to the pool and we soaked up the sun and put our tired feet in the cold water.
The crew (with the exception of Chuck and I) headed back to Byron on Sunday afternoon. Chuck and I planned to extend the vacation a little bit so we rode up to Tybee Island to stay one more night out of town. We checked in our room then drove to Savannah to check out the Riverstreet St. Patty’s Day celebrations. We ate and had a few beers. Really enjoyed watching all of the people acting crazy!
We woke up Monday morning and ran 4 miles down the beach in Tybee Island. It was wonderful out there. It was the second time I’ve ever had the pleasure of running on the beach. I could really live like that!
At about lunch time we checked out and headed to Byron. By the time we got to Dublin it was raining and getting cold. Sorry Middle GA, but you guys had a crappy weather weekend… We didn’t want to come back!
We took Tuesday off to have time to clean up, wash clothes, do grocery shopping, all that REAL WORK type stuff. Blah.
So, Wednesday was back to work but I had the BEST weekend. I couldn’t have asked for more : )
We woke up Monday morning and ran 4 miles down the beach in Tybee Island. It was wonderful out there. It was the second time I’ve ever had the pleasure of running on the beach. I could really live like that!
At about lunch time we checked out and headed to Byron. By the time we got to Dublin it was raining and getting cold. Sorry Middle GA, but you guys had a crappy weather weekend… We didn’t want to come back!
We took Tuesday off to have time to clean up, wash clothes, do grocery shopping, all that REAL WORK type stuff. Blah.
So, Wednesday was back to work but I had the BEST weekend. I couldn’t have asked for more : )
hello: I enjoyed reading the account of your running and the trip to Jacksonville.
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