Run For The Polar Bears

For the third time, on September 18, Jill and I lined up, with Jill's pal Kim and her husband Adam, for the Kansas City Zoo Run, this year in aid of the Polar Bears, the poster children for environmental activists and cute but deadly food chain toppers in the Arctic.

Conditions at the zoo were anything but arctic of course. The brutal summer may have lost some of its sting, but it was humid and still warm as we lined up on Swope Parkway and readied ourselves for the off. Hoping for a better performance than my previous two runs here, we lined up closer to the front of the pack. The race gets bigger every year but some of the running lanes are very narrow in this twisty turny event. I didn't want to get held up in traffic.

My goal was a relatively modest one. 30:00. (4 mile race, this would be a 7:30 pace). Some 4+ minutes slower than I ran the Trolley Run in April, but my fitness level isn't as high as then due to a busy summer (got married, went to Europe, put on weight) and the sometimes dangerously hot conditions keeping me from running as much as I was in the winter.

After one of the better National Anthem renditions I'd heard at one of these things - an a capella group - the gun went off and we shot down past the entrance and into the zoo. I was out of breath almost immediately and wondered what in the hell was going on. I think in the past, I'd started so far back, the runners around me were much slower than I was, but this time, lining up near the front, they were all as fast or faster and I found myself surprised by that to a certain extent. There seemed like a lot of people in front of me, which made me wonder if I was really running that fast, or if I just wasn't as quick as I was back in the Spring.

After a quick out and back, we reached the first mile marker and a glance at the watch showed a 6:44 first mile. Much quicker than I'd gone in several months, so I felt better mentally, if not physically. Adam was just a little behind me at that point, which surprised me a little as he'd not really done any training, but I decided not to worry about it and moved on into "Africa".

Much of this section was on gravelly trails and wooden bridges, comprising a loop around the outdoor African exhibits. Usually I don't really notice the animals, but I did see one fairly curious looking hippo wondering what was going on just outside his enclosure. I felt pretty comfortable at this point, but knew that on the way out of the loop, I'd be running uphill over a bridge, something that kicked my ass last year, so some of what I was doing was preparing mentally for it.

It worked, apparently. For whatever reason, it wasn't nearly as daunting or challenging as it had been last year when it sort of snuck up on me. However, my recollection that this was the last real challenge was less accurate as the mile and a half remaining through "Australia" seemed to be a constant maze of uphills, downhills, sharp turns and narrow pathways. Fun course, no doubt, but hard work in the warm wet air.

I turned one final corner and into the home straight I went. I had enough left for a kick and passed a couple of people, feeling pretty good about myself until a 12 or 13 year old boy shot past me like I was standing still. Apparently he had mailed in the first 3.9 miles because he certainly had a lot more left than I did. Still, I crossed the line in 29:03, after adjustments, ahead of my goal, at 7:16 pace, not too bad for the course, conditions and my level of fitness.

Adam was a few minutes behind and finished in 32 minutes and change, not bad for someone who probably hasn't run in months. If he trained, he'd leave me in the dust.

Jill and Kim finished in just over 49 minutes, and after a donut and a drink, we all headed over to the brand new Polar Bear exhibit, which featured the brand new MVP of the KC Zoo, Nikita, the 500 pound Polar Bear "baby". Rarely do animals do what you want them to at a zoo. Most of them prefer to just laze around occasionally looking at you. This guy was the exception. Belly flopping and backstroking his way around the pool, he was an absolute star. Hopefully he doesn't pork out and get lazy as he grows older, but right now, the millions of dollars it took to bring him there appear to have been well spent.

Later, I checked the results, and I finished 66th out of about 1,500 or so. 6th in my age group. Not too bad, though I think if I was in Spring form, I could have been close to the top 20, and maybe the top 3 in my age group. Oh well, I'll take it. It's still one of my favorite runs and marks the third year in a row I've gone faster. Moving on...