This fall, I kicked off my ‘racing season’ with the Run Wild 5k at the Detroit Zoo. I refreshed my memory about arrival times by reading my previous posts from this race. I planned to the same thing – leave the house at 6:40 am to arrive around 7 am, an hour before the race is supposed to start.

I had a pretty full weekend. On Friday, I went to a hot yoga class during my lunch break. This class feels a lot easier at 11:30 am instead of at 4:30 pm after a full work day when I’m mentally and physical tired – and hungry! It was a good class. A quick 2-minute shower and I logged back on the work computer to finish the day.

Then my husband and I went to the park for a speedwork session. If you promise me takeout or ice cream after, I will commit 100%. Though, joking aside, I enjoy these workouts! This time the plan was Olive Garden! Our workout was a mini-ladder, our second speedwork session this fall. We aimed for 8:00-minute/mile as the target pace for 400, 600, & 800 m intervals with equal distance recovery run and repeated twice. It was the last 600 m that felt the hardest!! We picked up Olive Garden car-side to go. Listen, I know their sauces very well could be microwaved from their factory but I cannot help but admit it hits the spot!! My go-to is the chicken tortellini alfredo. This time, I picked the mushroom ravioli (it said limited time, ok?!). Sometimes I have a weak spot for anything mushroom. The banquet service college summer job I had would sometimes serve a delicious mushroom ravioli. It might’ve been from Gordon Food Services but I was obsessed when there were leftovers for the staff!

On Saturday morning, I didn’t sleep well. I got up early enough to make a grocery delivery order and made cinna-run rolls from Rise and Run cookbook by the Run Fast. Eat Slow. series. While they aren’t your favorite ooey-gooey rolls, they’re pretty tasty for a no-rise wheat cinnamon roll. I brought these to the charity garden that morning for the other volunteers. Last Saturday, I brought them RFES zucchini superhero muffins. They were a hit! Everyone wanted the recipe. I worked for three hours there and when I got home, I got going on my own flower beds. I wanted to tear out the two rose plants that become utterly decimated by beetles each summer. I wanted to trim down the lilac tree branches to keep it tame and while I was doing it, I turned over the soil/clay adding in compost. My genius idea on Thursday night was to make a Lowe’s order for delivery. I determined pretty quickly that it was amazing – and there was no delivery fee!!! I saved time by avoiding walking around the store for floodlight bulbs, bird seed, miscellaneous things, AND I didn’t have to lift the heavy compost bags. From the front porch delivery, I only had to drag the bags 2-10 ft to the garden bed.

Finally, after ~ 6 hours of cardio yardwork and the Michigan football game ended, we headed to Brighton Recreation area for a hike. We met my friend Amanda. I was dragging on the uphill segments. We hiked the weekend before at another park, going a similar distance and elevation gain. This was a wider path which was nicer for walking with a friend. I thought I felt my foot hurt a little bit, which worried me. The plan was to stop for cider donuts afterwards while we were sort of in the area. Unfortunately, I learned that the apple orchard was closed when I plugged directions into the GPS for the best route. Bummer! I couldn’t believe it, it was 7 pm on a Saturday night in the fall. How?!

We headed straight home, except for a stop to pick up Red Robin takeout for dinner. Takeout twice in one weekend!? I justified that I needed a good meal before my race AND by the time we get home, it would be close to 8:30 pm and I sure was not going to cook anything, especially after my full day of activities! What was the grocery delivery order for then? My sister, mom, and I were having a tea party on Sunday and I needed just a few items to make my contributions. Red Robin has a great chicken sandwich and their takeout packaging is really well done. Their containers are ridged on the bottom so that nothing becomes soggy. It was a great meal!

On Sunday morning, I had my alarms set for 5 am! I was going straight to my parent’s house for the tea party for the race: my produce needed to be washed, farro (grains) cooked, pie dough made, cooler packed, tea pot and select dishes wrapped to keep safe on the drive, and an outfit for myself. When it was time to go out the door, I was scrambling! For breakfast I ate a slice of cinnamon raisin bread with peanut butter and honey on it.

The drive was easy and pleasant at this early morning. When I exited the freeway, it was starting to back-up into the zoo. I expected this to happen at 7:30, not at 7 am. I parked one floor above compared to last year (3rd floor instead of 2nd floor). This is easy to take the pedestrian ramp down, though. My foot felt like it could have hurt a little bit on a step or two. I was thinking I’d have to abort my plan for a speedy 5k race and just take it easy. There was no line at the packet pick up in my last name category, already the restroom line was long. I remembered this from last year. Luckily, I didn’t need it. I noticed a course map sign and to my surprise, it looked like the last mile of the race finished inside the zoo! This isn’t to say the zoo didn’t communicate this to us, they probably did, this was me not reading my emails because I was already familiar with the race dynamics here.

I returned my shirt to the car, sat for a few more minutes, and headed back out. It was 7:30 am and seemed like there was no backed-up line to get into the zoo. I did a ¼ mile warmup run in the front of the zoo, avoiding any crossings to hold up cars. My sister and her friend were on their way still! When it was 7:50 am, I was just finishing my stretches and hip swings when she messaged (voice car to chat) that they got off the freeway ramp. At the same time, the race announcer said the race would be delayed 15-20 minutes. Like last year, there is major freeway construction in this area. So much so, that the zoo made every Wednesday this summer stay open until 8 pm to allow patrons more time to enjoy the zoo when it takes people more time to get here.

My friend David and his brother spotted me before the race! It was great to see them. We picked a spot near the front; I advised we should because of the congestion and mix of walkers we have. As I’ve said before and in their post-race survey, the timing company could possibly aid with this, but they should have a banner some yards back for the walkers to line up behind. Even better would be a few pace group categories for the runners. They had over one thousand participants! I’m sure you’ve experienced a race where everyone is tripping over each other, pushing past, and runners coming to dead stop encountering walkers earlier on. It is a borderline dangerous start to the race if you’re a runner in the middle of the starting pack of walkers.

The race was off and my pace at the start was 8:00 and I knew I could not maintain that – I worked to slow down a little, even though the pace felt ok. My first mile was 8:31. Approaching mile two, I had to make conscious efforts to push the pace. You can see this on the Garmin map. My second mile was 8:37.

As we entered the zoo, we went by the warthogs, zebras, and giraffes, which were out. We turned towards the sloth bear, past the Australian Outback, and turned to run by the grizzly bears. The bear was right there! There was a photographer just past that and I bet they could have captured faces of delight to see the bear there. Then we ran past the apes and chimpanzees. At this point, I was out of steam. I didn’t turn to look to see if they were visible. We went by the tigers and red pandas. I felt I was barely moving and didn’t look. We followed the powder chalk line (or flour?) past the picnic areas, the fountain, and the camels. We turned in front of the reptile house and around the pond. My third mile was 8:41. Even reaching mile three, there was nothing there to sprint to the finish.

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My first goal was sub-26 minutes. My second goal was to finish faster than last year’s time of 28:52. My finish time was 26:19 (8:28 avg). I’ll take it! We are closer to 26-minutes than to 27-minutes. Overall, finished 145/1795, female 37/1118 (mind you, there a lot of walkers!).

This year, it was 70 degrees at the start and VERY HUMID. In past years, I carried or tied a long-sleeve shirt to my arm for after the race. If I’m expected to stick around and enjoy the treats when the weather is chilly, I require layers or I’ll freeze! This year? Definitely not needed. It as so humid, my forehead sweat was dripping onto my sunglasses.

After the run, I chit-chatted with David and Michael for a bit. I sent them off to enjoy the zoo while I waited for my sister and her friend. They ended up being 100% walkers this time so I probably could have gone for food and headed back to see them at the finish, haha! At least I was not cold in the slightest. I didn’t mind waiting.

Then we found the line for food. It was deceiving as there appeared to be a super long line, but that was for a free giveaway. There were multiple lines for food and it moved very quickly. They had a dietary restriction food line, as well. Nothing like a 9:30 am hot dog accompanied by a donut! They had a lot of entertainment options which would be good for a group or family with kids. We did walk around together towards the river otters and vultures before heading out.

I went straight to my parents’ house and had about three hours before our tea party. A quick shower and I was rolling out the dough for tomato pie. While that baked, I made the tomato-mozzarella-nectarine farro salad. It was a delightful afternoon with friends and family. My sister’s friend who came to the race came to the tea party. It was nice to see her twice in a day! The treats were delicious.

When I got home, besides unpacking the car I had to clean up my kitchen from the morning rush! I wasn’t sore from race and my foot didn’t bother me either, but my feet felt tired! I couldn’t wait to sit down. I think I fell asleep about 8 pm that night!

Now to prepare for the next race!