Twilight Run (Race Recap)

The Fort Whyte Twilight Run on Thursday was my first 10k race.  No, this did not include sparkly vampires or werewolves.  It's a night time race where everyone wears headlamps and other accessories that light up the night.  I wasn't too confident for this race from the get go.  I had not really been focused on training recently and had not gone for a run since a 9k run out at the cabin last Saturday.  Tuesday I picked up my race kit and met Kyle there.  The kit included my bib, timing chip, head lamp, a map of the course and vouchers for a smokie and s'mores.

Wednesday morning, I woke up with a sore neck.  I attempted to stretch it out and used my inversion table, but I still felt discomfort in my neck and back.  I also strayed from my pre race ritual of carb loading 1 or 2 days prior, so I didn't even eat any pasta this week.  This was also an evening race.  I normally eat light prior to a morning race.  This being in the evening, I bbq'd a couple of chicken burgers and ate that about 3 hours before the start time.  Not the greatest of ideas.

It looked to be a hot one for the race.  The high that day was 26 C and it had rained earlier that morning, so it was very humid.  At 8PM it was 25 C, but felt like 30 C and at 10PM it was 22 C, felt like 27C.  I made sure to drink lots of water throughout the day because of this. 

I picked up Ed, Jay and Steph and we went to Fort Whyte Alive.  On the way, we passed Sky Zone.  It had just opened up a couple weekends ago and is basically a trampoline center with basketball hoops and dodge ball.  Looks like fun and hope to check it out soon.  We arrived and parked, then found Bryan immediately.  We got ready, attached our bibs, applied bug spray, put on my race belt to safe guard my keys and iphone and put on some glow sticks.  I had a green necklace and stuck 4 sticks through the laces of my shoes.  I chose to wear my volt colored Air Pegasus due to it's brightness.  While walking to the race area, I bumped into Cheryl and her daughter, who were running the 5k race.  Met up with Kyle near the starting line who just came from hockey.  I finished my water and decided to return to my car to put away my bottle.  On the way back, I ran into Sandra and Steve, who left their second baseball game early to attend the race.

Prior to the race.  Our group is standing at the top left, next to the group in yellow

For my costume, I took the Iron Man mask I used for Color Me Rad and painted it with glow in the dark green acrylic paint and the outer part, just regular red.  I searched everywhere for glow in the dark spray paint, but one lady at Walmart told me that they don't carry it until closer to Halloween.  I also got a red tee shirt, cut out a stencil out of duct tape, stuck it on the chest and painted an arc reactor, again in glow in the dark green.  To finish it off, I got some glow sticks.  Unfortunately we didn't snap any pics prior to the race and it was fairly dark afterwards, so no race real race pics.  Bryan sported a shirt with a light up arc reactor that shown through his chest.

My costume post race

The runners were then asked to line up at the starting line.  I activated my Soleus watch to find a satellite signal, got MapMyRun ready on my iPhone, put on my Iron Man mask and my head lamp, setting it to the second setting.  The first setting lit up half the LED lights, second lit them all up and the third strobed them.  Despite charging my mask and shirt on a very bright light, when it got dark, it failed to shine bright as I hoped.  Oh well.  The race started at 8:45.  I started both my Soleus and MMR as I crossed the starting line and tucked my iPhone away in my racing belt's pocket.

You can see my right foot at the bottom right with a glow stick tucked in my shoe laces

It was a congested, narrow path to start, so I could only run at a fairly easy pace as we headed north.  Further up, the path widened and the faster runners were able to break away from the pack.  The Iron Man mask was a bad idea and I had a feeling it would be.  I found it very hot and it was difficult to breath.  At this point, I was able to make adjustments on the left side of the path, while allowing others to pass on the right.  I removed my head lamp, mask and buff.  I adjusted my buff, placed my head lamp on and then my mask on backwards.  I vow not to dress up that elaborately in future races longer than 6k.

It got dark very quickly by the 1km mark.  I could feel my neck was impeding my running and I couldn't look over my right shoulder without feeling pain.  I know my posture wasn't great due to this and made my back sore.  Definitely wasn't a fun run for me.  I found myself constantly looking downwards to watch for possible hazards.  This too didn't help.  Seeing as the rules said no earphones, I didn't carry mine, but saw quite a few people who disregarded this and wore theirs anyways.  So I turned on my tunes and listened to music via the speaker.  My stomach wasn't feeling all that great either.  I probably shouldn't have eaten so heavy before the race.  Live and learn I suppose.  I'll know better for the next race.  If I recall correctly, it was about the 3.3km mark that we reached a hill.  We ran around to the back and climbed the gradual slope to the top.  From the top, I could see a stream of lights of people running the stretch I had just completed.  It was a cool sight to see.  I didn't stop to admire it, because I was busy running a race.

Marshalls instructed us to circle the pylons and descend to the left.  We ran back along most of the same trail, but veered left near a pond (marsh).  It didn't smell very pleasant here.  Now we entered a more wooded area, making it very dark.  This is where we relied heavily on our head lamps to navigate through the course.  Many paths were blocked by ribbons or pylons and some even had Marshalls directing traffic.

Somewhere around the 5km mark, Marshalls instructed that water was available about half a click away.  It was much closer to 1km, as I recall looking at my watch and noticed I had ran 0.5km, and again 0.8km without seeing the water station.  I finally reached it and grabbed a cup gatorade.  I felt that 1 water station wasn't nearly enough for this particular distance.  If I remember correctly, I believe both halfs I ran previously included at least 4, maybe 5 or 6 drink stations, and that's just a little over twice the distance.

We arrived back to the right of the Start/Finish line and was now running south maybe 7.5km into the race.  A little ways up, there was two way traffic and I noticed a photographer was set up and was taking photos. I then recognized Jay's COD running towards me, so I greeted him as he ran by.  Further down, a Marshall directed us off the gravel path into an even more wooded area.  I couldn't hear her clearly due to my music, but I heard her say something about keeping left.  I ran into the woods and had to stop due a trio standing at a fork, looking confused.  On girl questioned "she said to stay left, right?"  "I think so", I said.  They took the left path and I followed.  As did some behind me.  The trail got very narrow, had rocks and roots sticking out and low hanging branches.  We slowed down to a hike to prevent injuring ourselves on hazards.  It also ran very close to the water, close enough that one false step, you could fall in.  The girl ahead of me was calling out rocks and roots for me and I did the same for the girl behind me.  She did happen to trip and stumble, bracing herself on my back with her hands to keep from falling.  My shirt was drenched at this time, so it was probably pretty gross for her.  I asked her if she was alright and she said yes.  The lead guy said he could see lights up ahead, so we carried on this improvised route.  We finally got to a clearing and saw that the path was ribboned off to our right.  We ran past the ribbon and rejoined the race.  This was silly that through the race there were ribbons, pylons and marshalls directing the runners, but in the area most needed, there was nothing.  This little detour added about another 0.5km to our race at a hiking pace.

I carried on and a lady joined me by my side because I had music.  We chatted a bit, about what, I don't remember.  What I do know is she didn't run off course.  After a short bit, she ran ahead to catch up to her friends.  Now closer to the end, the trees got thick and it was pitch black.  I was now running with another girl.  I told her we should be nearly done, maybe 200m.  But given that I ran that extra 500m, the finish line didn't come soon enough.  The path was now winding a lot and I wondered if we were running in circles.  We then questioned if we went the right way, as we past what looked like a path.  We kind of stopped and went back to look, but it led to water.  So we continued on.  I recognized the area where the photographer was set up earlier, so I knew the end was near.  I picked up the pace and crossed the finished line to cheers from some of my friends.  According to MMR, I finished in 1:20:20.  Not great, but not bad considering.  I was hoping to finish under 1:15.

We discussed the race a bit, especially the fact that most of us strayed off course and got lost.  Steph fell in line for the freebies, as she had her vouchers with her.  I got several cups of water, which was warm.  Jay, Ed and I decided to return to the car to change our shirts.  I brought the car closer and we returned to the bbq.  I got my s'mores package and smokie, but they didn't provide a bun.  I wasn't feeling so hot, so I decided to take them home.  They were now deflating the finish line.  Ed told me to run through again and he'd take pics.  I removed my chip to prevent the possible miscalculation of my time and gave my food to Ed to hold.  He also lent me his head lamp as I left mine at the car.  He took a few pics as some people laughed at my reenactment.

Reenactment of me crossing the finish line 40 min later.

We decided to call it a night and I drove those who came with me, home.  At home, I realized that I didn't find out whether or not the smokie was pork or beef.  I cannot eat beef due to medical reasons, so unfortunately I had to toss it.  Some of my friends are already talking about doing this race again next year.  It's too early for me to say, but I've done it once, and I didn't find it too enjoyable.  That and the fact that no medal was provided.  I have nearly a year to decide.  Next race I'm thinking of doing is the Winnipeg 10&10 on September 8th.   Most of my friends are planning on doing the 10 miler, but I don't think I'm ready for that this soon.  I have now registered for the 10k race and will prepare for the WFPS half in October.