The MacQueen’s Run for your Life races are held at the MacQueen’s apple orchard. Back when this race started it was only 50 people, but this year the event grew big enough to break the 10K and 5K into separate races! The 10K had 392 runners and the 5K had 657. This also allows people to enter the Ichabod Challenge, which is running the 10K at 8:00am and running the 5K at 9:45am. This year I ran the 10K, which was the 4th time I’ve run it. I love this race because the weather has always been perfect, and it’s only 5 miles from my house 🙂
Once again this year I volunteered at early packet pickup, which meant arriving at the race at 6:45am. Luckily I have learned from previous races and I showed up with a headlamp. It was super handy to have! We also had some issues with the race’s laptop computers being able to connect to the internet via the hotspots they had, so I stepped up and let them use the hotspot on my phone! We got everyone checked in for the 10K and it was time for me to head out for my race.
I didn’t get around to warming up, but I did get to ditch my layers of clothes and change my shoes (I’m prepared!). I started chomping on some RunGum quickly and lined up near the front of the corral. The race does encourage Halloween costumes, but since this is a RunToledo managed race, I just kept it simple and wore my race singlet. It was 43 degrees at the start and I was feeling chilly! The sun was just rising and it made the start area look pretty awesome.
I really had no expectations for this race. I had set a 10K PR on this course last year (overall pace 8:19), but I felt like I was nowhere near that pace today. I’d just take it pretty easy because I have Columbus half marathon in a week. No need to overdo it now!
Very shortly after we started my friend Melissa came up to me. She asked what pace I was hoping to run and I just said “I’m not sure!”. I’ve never raced with Melissa before, but we have been biking together. She also just completed a half Ironman a few months ago, so she’s a beast IMO. We started chatting and the first mile clicked off. 8:27 She asked if we could slow down a little. I agreed, but started wondering what I would do if she couldn’t keep pace. Would I go, would I stick with her?
No worries – we kept pace together for the first loop of the course. Very solid paces = 8:24, 8:23 I had to laugh because she wasn’t even wearing gloves! Look at everyone else. By the second loop of the course we started going faster. I think this has always happened for me at this race, and what a huge motivator it is to be getting negative splits!
By now we were just both panting and not chatting. The miles clicked off at 8:20 & 8:09. Melissa is apparently much better at Race Math than I am, because we discussed what my PR last year had been. She said her watch showed 8:19 average now, and I could PR again if I ran all out my last mile. I laughed because I was in disbelief. It was going to be a big PR for her.
We got down to the last mile, and sure enough, Melissa dug deep and started crusing ahead. She looked back asking me to join her, but I didn’t have it left in me. In fact, my last mile went to 8:26 as her last mile dipped to 7:52! You go girl!!!! (me, all alone now. haha!)
I crossed the finish with a time of 51:43. Looking back, yep, I WOULD have got a PR if I could have stayed with Melissa! Oh well. My past races have been 51:28 (2016), 52:14 (2017), 51:21 (2018) so I’m thrilled to be maintaining my pace.
My time was very close to my previous years, which is pretty dang awesome, and I got 3rd in my age group. Pumpkin award for me!
Notice the headless horseman photobombing us?? haha!
The medals were really cool and I like the race shirt too. I ended up getting a mens shirt because I didn’t like the v-neck for the women, but the women’s color was nice (purple).
And did I mention that cider and donuts were awaiting us at the end? Yummmmm
Another fun race, and a fun opportunity to run with my friend. Win, and Win.
Q: Have you ever run a “challenge” race?
Maybe next year I will! The upgraded shirts for the Ichabod Challenge were really nice!!
What a lovely race report and great work on maintaining those times. Congrats on the AG win, too!
I’ve done the Liverpool RocknRoll marathon which had challenges if you did the 5k etc but I didn’t think I could manage that. It’s a fun offer though.
Earlier this year I did run the Glass City 5K the day before the Glass City marathon. I’m not sure how I’d do on the same day, but it was just an easy run at my 5K so it felt OK. It’s the cooling down part between races and controlling your pace that would be my challenge on the same day!
Awesome race, love the medals. I’m with Liz, I like the idea of challenges but one race per weekend is enough for me.
Good luck in CBUS this weekend!!!
I can’t even imagine doing one of those Disney challenge races! That’s a ton of miles.
Congrats on a great race! 10ks are always tough–it’s great that you did better than you thought you would! Those medals are awesome.
Thanks! I really surprised myself at this race! Glad I had company to keep me going. It gives me a good gauge on what pace to expect for the half this week.