Run4Life with Angi: Winter Park Road Race 10k Recap

On Saturday March 23, 2013 I ran the Winter Park Road Race 10k with some of my fellow Mom's RUN This Town members. This was the first official run with my fellow MRTT teammates and it was so nice to get out there and put our feet to the pavement as a group.

This was the final in the Track Shack running series, it starts and finishes on Park Ave in Winter Park. The 10k course is a dream with a shaded route and beautiful homes. This was also the first race I have repeated. I ran this race last year for the first time, and was very excited to be running it again.

Race morning started off like any other morning. Woke up, had a cup of coffee, went to get my toast and peanut butter and discovered that my children ate all the bread. AHHH, now what do I do? hmm..Quick text Roybn. I was meeting my friend Robyn at her house so that we could carpool from there. Parking at this race is not the easiest, so you want to get there early to get the prime parking in the lot next to the train station. So, I text Robyn to see if she has any toast and woohoo, Robyn to the recue. I pull up and she is outside waiting for me with my toast and peanut butter all ready for me to eat. LOVE this girl.

We arrived at the parking area just in time to get one of the last available parking spots. Once parked we headed over to the starting area. It was still dark, and most of the booths were just finishing their set up, so we walked around a bit before heading over the designated meet up area for our fellow MRTT friends.


Brandyn, Okely, myself & Robyn

After taking a quick photo, Okely and Brandyn headed off for the Start of the 2 miler. This race also has a 2 mile run and Distance Dare. These two ladies were running the distance dare. We set a meeting spot for when they got back, and off they went. While we waited for the start of the 10K, I made my way over to the famous Port-a-potty village. I have to say that they do provide a good amount of potty's at this race. Lines were long as they always are, but manageable. I wasn't having to do the pee-pee dance like at the bigger races.

Then came the rain. Yup not even 5 minutes after the start of the 2 mile run it starts raining, then the rain turns to a down pour. Robyn and I ran for cover under the tent of a company called Barre. Thank you so much for that too. I felt so bad though for our friends running the 2 mile they were in the worst of the rain, then had to run the 10k right after.Soak n wet feet and all.

Start time arrives and the rain was still coming down. This is where you discover if you are really a runner or not. You have 2 choices. A) Run to your car and head home or B) head to the start line and run the race in the rain. Yup, you guessed it running in the rain was the choice. So there we stood, getting completely soaked waiting for the gun to go off.

After about mile 1 the rain stopped. WOOHOO!!!

Now mind you I am a very slow runner, and my friend Robyn is faster than I am, but she stayed with me for the first 2 miles. I thank her for that, cause with being wet and cold, I probably would have walked a lot slower than we did. She kept me going at somewhere around a 15:30 minute pace. At mile 2 I gave her my blessing to head out on her own and finish strong.


This is one of the homes on the course

A little about the course. This course runs through an area of Winter Park where the homes are huge and absolutely gorgeous. Around 2 beautiful lakes, and through a mostly shaded area. It would be a perfect course if not for the old style brick roadway. I felt like I was Dorothy following the yellow brick road. I think I actually skipped through part of it signing in my head "follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow, follow.." you get the idea. It's really hard on the shins and lower legs to walk on this, and with it being wet from the rain it was a little slippery as well. It's not like this the entire way, but a good majority of it, it alternated between the brick streets and the regular asphalt road.


The brick roads

At around mile 4 I met up with this really nice lady, her name was Royce. She was super sweet and kept me going at the 15:30 minute pace till around mile 4 where me knee started hurting really bad. If you read my princess review you will recall that I hurt my knee pretty badly around mile 8. Well, this is the most miles I had done since then, and with the way the road was, it was hurting quite a bit at this point. Just before mile 5 I met up with another lady named Meghan. We discovered that we both had run the Princess Half, and of course that gave us something to talk about.

Meghan and I were both at about the same point in this race. I was cold, wet, tired and having knee pain, and I had it in my mind that I was out here just to finish and not PR. So we slowed down a bit, and just enjoyed the time talking and laughing.

Let me add a little something here about the water stops at this race. I am very upset about this. The first water stop at about mile 1.5 was fine. Plenty of water, people cheering you on, it was great. When we got to the next stop just after mile 4 it was a little disappointing. They had already started tearing down, and the table they had up only had about 10 cups of water on it. There were still a good 20-30 people behind me. The final water stop before the finish was just before mile 5. It was actually the same stop as the first one at mile 1.5, you passed it coming back as well so that was good for them as they only had to really man 2 physical stops. This one however is the one I was completely disappointed in. When we got there, they had already completely taken it down. The tables were gone, and they had run out of cups so there was only one volunteer standing there with a jug of water offering to fill a bottle IF you even had one, or let you drink from the jug, Ahhh... NO thank you, I have no idea who else may have drank from that jug before me. I just feel that water stops should be open till the last person passes. They probably need the water even more than the faster runners before them. They are out there longer and probably are less seasoned runners/ Walkers who really need that hydration. So that meant the 20+ people behind me also had to finish the next 1.5 miles with no water. (2.5 since last water stop)

Just before mile 6, we turned around to look behind us. I was very shocked to see that there was only one lady and the police car behind us. I really didn't think we had slowed down that much. There were still a bunch of people not that far ahead of us, and I remember looking back at mile 4 and there being a good 20 or more people back there. Come to find out about 20+ people dropped out behind us. Maybe from dehydration from having no water available since before mile 4.

At this point we decided to slow a little more and wait for the lady behind us to catch up. We figured why not all finish together. She was walking alone, and no one should have to run a race alone. So we waited for our other new friend also named Megan. In talking to her we found out that this was her first 10k. She had already done I think it was 6 other 5k's, since January, but this was her longest distance.

As we came up on the finish line there was my good friend Robyn front and center cheering me on. I love this girl. Just after her Brandyn and Okely, cheering ,me in as well. I must say these 3 ladies have been a big part of my life since meeting them. I met Robyn back in August 2011 when we started training with TNT for our first 1/2 Marathon at Disney in 2012. and Brandyn and Okely since August 2012 when we met training for the Wine & Dine 1/2 with Angel Snugs. They have definitely blessed my life with their support and friendship.

My new friends Meghan x 2

So there it was the finish line. Meghan, Megan & I ran in the final .1 to cross the finish line a three way victory for each of us. It was exciting because there were a ton of runners that finished before us that were still there cheering us in. The photographers at the end were still there and took our pictures. The only thing was there again were no track shack volunteers there handing out water at the end. There was for the earlier finishers, but not us. After finding my way to the area where the water was sitting unattended I was able to get a bottle of water.

Last year it was the 35th Anniversary of this race so you received a really cool medal and a wine glass. This year you received just the wine Glass. It's a very nice wine glass though and I think it's nice to get something different every now and then for your race bling. Oh, and the shirts this year where nice too. They were white instead of black like last year so it will be nice to wear during those hot summer runs while I'm training for the Space Coast 1/2 Marathon.

Shelley and I after the Soggy Race

At the finish area, I was finally able to meet up with another fellow MRTT and PbRc member Shelley. As well as Cathy and her Daughter who are members of my Chapter of MRTT as well. It was nice to get to see them. I wish we would have thought to get pictures with them at the finish, but I think at this point the only thing on my mind was getting some food, so over to Panera Bread we headed for a much needed after race snack.

Over all, this was a good race, putting aside the water stop issues and the brick road and the rain, it's still a beautiful course and I would do it again.

Till next time my friends, Run for Fun, Run for YOU, Run4Life