Trolley Run

Jill's bridal shower was this weekend, so the kids were here for a couple of days. This meant a 9 hour drive to pick them up from Kourteney's track meet on Friday afternoon/evening and also a 9 hour dropoff on Sunday. This was after a business trip earlier in the week, so I was already running on only partial power, and finally, sandwiched between the two drive-a-thons was the 22nd Annual Trolley Run. Yeah, it was always going to be a pretty long weekend.

The Trolley Run has a kind of special significance to me, though I had never actually run it before this past weekend. It holds the distinction of being the first organized race I watched, as I think I might have mentioned in an earlier post. Jill ran it two years ago, and I found myself fascinated with the spectacle of it, and thus my running "career" was reborn. Last year, I was still injured from Arizona at this time, so was once again a spectator but this year I was healthy and ready to try to set another PR. Jill meanwhile was set to run her third straight, though first without her running partner Kim.

The course is a point-to-point starting in the Waldo neighborhood of KC and ending on the famed Country Club Plaza. Plotting an old trolley bus route, it's flat to downhill and probably the fastest 4 mile course in the country. It is home to the national 4 mile record and attracts top tier talent and 10,000+ other runners and walkers each year.

We dropped the kids off at the Plaza near the finish line, then took a race bus to the start area. It was a nice day for running, but not particularly pleasant for standing around. There was a healthy breeze in the air and a few spots of rain. I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt under my short sleeved shirt, a last-minute decision, but we found ourselves wandering from place to place in an effort to keep warm.

The race is so big, they segmented everyone into corrals based on projected finish time. I was in the red corral (sub-30 minutes), blue was next, then green (Jill's corral), yellow, orange and white. One of the biggest problems with larger races - the KC Marathon is a good example - is that the fun runners and walkers tend to have no idea on race etiquette and are perfectly content to line up way too close to the front, then block the entire street while they chat with their six friends or call someone on their cell phone, with no regard paid to runners trying to get around them. For the most part, corralling stops this from happening, so it works out well.

A lone wheelchair racer went first, then a couple of minutes later, the red runners were told to get ready. Jill lined up on the other side of the fence until the start then I told her I'd see her at the finish and the gun went off.

It was kind of new to be running with a bunch of other runners at approximately the same speed as me right at the start. Usually there's such a mixture of paces that it's several miles before you end up with people of the same pace. I started fast, picking as my target a woman with broad shoulders that I remembered passing in the last mile of the Rock the Parkway.

The first mile went by quickly - in retrospect too quickly. I was surprised to see the first mile marker and a check of my watch showed I'd powered through in 6:10. I felt good, but had a feeling I was going to pay for it later. The only two inclines I can remember were next, in quick succession and I knew from having run part of the route before that after I'd crested the second, I wouldn't see another for the rest of the run, a comforting thought as I was already breathing pretty heavily. I also felt rather warm. The long-sleeved shirt had been a godsend at the start, but I could easily have done without it on the run.

We ran through the trendy Brookside neighborhood across 63rd street with it's red and blue striped awnings and down a residential portion of Brookside Blvd that I'm pretty familiar with. I passed the two mile marker and checked my watch. 12:33. Second mile in 6:23, but with the two small hills, I felt I was probably keeping a reasonably even pace over the flat parts. However, my fast start was certainly catching up with me already and another 2 miles felt like a pretty long way to go.

I finally passed broad-shouldered-girl near this section and didn't see her again, so maybe she too started a little too briskly. An older guy was holding his hamstring on the side of the road at this point also, probably not the last casualty of the day.

It seemed to take forever for the 3 mile marker to arrive. My breathing was becoming very labored and my legs heavy. My fast start was biting back hard and I was afraid of a big slowdown over the final mile. I checked my watch. 19:00. Somehow I had run the last mile in 6:27, only 4 seconds slower than the previous one, but it continued the trend of running slower with each successive mile.

People that had paced themselves better started passing me at this point. Possibly they'd sped up, and/or I'd slowed down. I didn't know and I didn't care. I just wanted to see the finish line. I heard the sound of cheering and figured I wasn't far away, but then I realized it was just a small group of cheerleaders and I found myself slightly annoyed at them for fooling me into thinking I was closer to being done than I was.

It had been pretty breezy the whole race, but the trees had for the most part sheltered us from the worst of it. This all stopped when we headed out onto a bridge crossing that would take us to the final turn into the finish line chute. Completely exposed, the wind pounded us full on here and for a couple of minutes it felt like running into an invisible wall.

At last, we were across and I turned into the final hundred meters or so to the finish line. I had very little left for a big finish but when I saw the clock at 25:40, 41, 42, I did manage a final mini-burst to get across in under 26:00. After adjusting to chip times, the final time was 25:49 (avg 6:27/mi pace). My last mile was by far my slowest. 6:49. Still, better than I could ever have imagined even a few weeks ago, but probably a combination of the windy conditions and going out too fast took away the potential for something even faster.

Overall then, a good race, a new PR on an albeit lightning fast course, and I even had my kids cheering me on at the finish line (though I only saw one of them and only one of them saw me). I finished 148th out of 7,500+ timed participants, and 23rd out of 515 in my age group, so a respectable spot. It was a good time, though I have to admit that despite being glad I'd finally run the race that "started it all", it wasn't really my favorite. Nothing bad about it, per se, but maybe I'm just starting to get snobbish about enjoying the smaller, more intimate events. This one was so huge, it was some 30 minutes later before Jill crossed, her corral having started a good 10 minutes or so after mine. Her time was 41 minutes and change, 10:30/mile, not quite as fast as last year, but her best effort of 2010.

I would like to have had a bit longer to relax after the run, but the 9 hour drive beckoned and now, just a day later, it already seems like it happened a long time ago.

After two shorter distance races, I'm looking forward to a few weeks off from racing and getting back to running slower for longer. The next event I'm eyeing is the Psycho Wyco Summer Run Toto Run in July. If training goes well, I'm going to try for the 50k. (WHAT? -Ed.) In the mean time, I have the small business of a house to paint and a wedding to plan for so if you'll excuse me.....