When Weather Destroys Your Running Schedule - Hurricane Florence Cancels Three Races in One Week

  This week, besides my half-marathon training, I had three races that I would participate in: The 9/11 Run for Our Troops 5k, the South Carolina Tunnel to Towers 5k, and the Splash and Dash Adventure Race.  But, apparently Mother Nature had other plans.  However, Hurricane Florence will make its initial impact on the Carolina coast late Friday. 

  I started to wonder how training would go on Friday when the internet, social media in particular, became abuzz with word that Hurricane Florence was coming this way.   Monday was the start of things getting serious though, when I got two emails from the CWC Jaycees.  The first email from the Cayce West Columbia Junior Chamber said that they would monitor the news and that the South Carolina governor, Henry McMaster, had issued a mandatory coastal evacuation order for 11 September, the day of the 9/11 Run for Our Troops 5k.  The CWC Jaycees sent out their second email just a few hours later stating that the race event was postponed and they would send word on the future date for the race.  The next day, I got an email from the Run For Our Troops stating that the race was rescheduled from September 11^th to November 11^th, Veteran’s Day.

   With the Tuesday race postponed until later, the next word I got concerned the Splash and Dash Adventure Race.  I was looking forward to this one because it was not a typical type of race that I do.  I usually run in 5k to 15k races, or participate in the occasional duathlon (run-bike-run).  The Splash and Dash Adventure Race had us set up as a team of two, run two miles together, bike four miles together (on separate bicycles if you are asking), and kayak one mile.  The Splash and Dash organizers were the first ones to initially send an email out regarding the weather and warning people that they would be watching the weather.  So, a little before noon on 11 September, they sent an email out stating that the Splash and Dash race was cancelled.  Based off of the weather models that I’ve seen online, the Saturday race would be in consistent rain throughout the entire race, and considering there is a kayaking portion on the river, it’s good that this one is cancelled.  The Splash and Dash probably would have used the least amount of resources from the county and city in terms of police and paramedics, but it’s still a good call.

  The final race event to send out information on their event was the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5k in South Carolina.  I got the email on Wednesday, 12 September, at 2:30 PM and my wife send me social media posts stating that the race originally scheduled for 14 September was cancelled and that while no refunds would be issued, we could still get our shirts on 21 September and there would be a limited amount of time for free registration for those who signed up for this year’s race.  That limited time would be announced later in 2019. 

   This week was building up to be a pretty busy time for me with three races and the need for a long endurance run, but with Hurricane Florence barreling down from the Atlantic, plans can be wiped out in a short amount of time.  I was really looking forward to participating in two races I haven’t done before and running amongst the crowd with the Tunnel to Towers race, a race I truly love being in while supporting a great cause.

See the links below for the races and more information regarding the events:

The 9/11 Run for Our Troops 5k

The South Carolina Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5k

The Splash and Dash Adventure Race

My review of the Hot Summer Night 5k

The Hot Summer Night 5k took place on a “famously hot,” muggy and humid, and almost rainy Saturday night in the Shandon neighborhood. It was in its 25^th iteration but this was only the second time I’ve ran it.  As a former military guy, I love tradition and keeping history going, so when I read the article by Mark Bedenbaugh that this race started back in 1993, I was even more interested in giving this race another go around.  

 Last year, we started and finished at Hand Middle School, however, this year the course was altered and we began next to the gas station on Devine and King Streets.  At promptly 7:15 PM, 248 of us took off and headed south on King Street before turning left at the end of Hand Middle School and onto Duncan Street.  That first mile was very flat and easy.  Before every race, I always try to position myself towards the back; that really helps with video capturing with the GoPro, though back in my early military days it was to stay clear of the extremely fast runners.  On this night though, while I started almost as far back as possible, I ended up going much faster than I had wanted (a 7:47 mile according to Strava versus the 8:30ish pace I originally planned).  It was pretty crowded at the beginning, but that made it fun to weave in and around people on the course; of course, that lasted only the first half mile or so. 

  The second mile involved turning off of Duncan Street and onto Bonham Road before swinging another right onto Monroe Street.  But right before those turn sat the water stations which I sorely needed.  I sweated like a mob boss in a sauna out there and the cups of water were quite refreshing.  The weather was still so muggy and humid but the clouds didn’t break meaning no rain yet.  There were a lot less people around me, even with the water break, so my pace dropped to a 8:17 mile.  I guess I really need a crowd to keep moving.

  Pushing through that third mile was more of a chore than I would like to admit.  My right leg cramped up around the two and a quarter mark and it would happen two more times.  That leg of the race though is where the little mind games of seeing hills affected me, too.  It was definitely not my best running moment.  I should mention that I really love running through the entire area since it’s pretty well shaded and there are supportive groups of people who come out of their homes to cheer us on.  In fact, somewhere on Monroe Street was a family who had their hose on to cool off runners as they went by.  We eventually hang a right when Monroe Street crosses South Queen Street and take another right at Duncan Street.  Hand Middle School is in clear view, but we head back north and push through on King Street until swinging back to Devine Street.  That last turn was very welcoming and gave a nice small strip to do a final gather-all-your-adrenaline-and-sprint to the end.  I could hear the crowds and see people taking pictures as I attempt to propel and thrust my way to that finish line. 

  After crossing and finishing, I head to the back parking lot at Strictly Running to get my results, but I stay for a while to enjoy the food from PDQ, who had grilled AND fried chicken out in addition to their lemonade and three different types of cookies.  Pizza, hummus and pitas, sliced fruit, and chicken salad were also on hand as well as cups of water and Gatorade.  K3 Koala Bottles also had a stand set up; I have one of their bottles for my bicycle and absolutely love using it.  

  While this is the 25^th anniversary for the Hot Summer Night 5k, this race took place on the same day as a particular race I did as a child 35 years ago.  That race, the Woodstock 5k, was then known as the Midsummer Morn 5k and was organized by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival before they moved to Montgomery, Alabama.  When that happened, the Anniston Runners Club agreed to take it over and eventually renamed it for the street it took place on.  That particular race has become the Anniston Runners Club signature race and according to the Anniston Star, the local newspaper, over 1200 people participated in that race this year.  It seems that race has grown significantly since I first took part back in July of 1983.  While I couldn’t make it to the then called Midsummer Morn 5k, I still like taking part in what I consider a Columbia tradition with the Hot Summer Night 5k.  

 

Volunteering and "Volunteering": Civilian Running Events versus Military Running Formations

  The other week, I volunteered for the South Carolina Governor’s Cup race.  This is the second time this year I’ve volunteered to help out for a racing event, but it got me thinking about the differences between a military organized run and a civilian racing event.  

  With both, there’s a lot of coordination across multiple entities.  You have to get with the local law enforcement and road officials to ensure the proper routes are closed off to traffic.  If there is a major intersection anywhere along the course, both events need to have someone with authority out there to direct traffic during the lengthy gaps of runners.  Both events also require a lot of work at the start/finish areas and that includes having people telling the participants where to go, where they can’t stand, and to help corral people to the correct designated areas.  

  Of course, the biggest difference between the two is I have never seen a water station on a military route, but I covered that in an earlier post.  

  For the Governor Cup Race, I helped out at the awards table.  It was our responsibility to get the plaques and top three finisher’s prizes prepped and ready for presentation.  We took care of the 5k awards, the half marathon prizes, and two different sets of medals for “triple crown” participants and the state’s prestigious runners’ club. 

  It was quite a task to set up the medals, plaques, and finisher coasters in a particular order and just like the military, not everything goes according to plan. No matter how much planning, prepping, and rehearsing you do, sometimes you just have to adapt, improvise, and overcome.  I say this because while we had all the awards separated by race and in age order, the award announcements alternated between the youngest and oldest categories and worked towards the middle.  And then there was the weird static electric issue with the plaques.  While we had no issues pulling the plaques from the 5k awards, the half marathon plaques wanted to stick to the bubble wrap that encased them in their respective boxes.  That made for a slow down in presenting the awards and there was at least one woman who insisted on telling a few of my fellow volunteers on how to get the awards ready for the next set of runners.

  But the overall experience was a positive one, and unlike the military, I wasn’t told that I had to volunteer to help out with the event.  I also received more of an appreciation for those who volunteer to help organize, run, and help out with the running races. 

No Water For Formation Runs But You Need It For A Race

  I recently ran in a 5k race in Greenville, South Carolina, and I noticed something out of the ordinary out there.  They had no water stations along the route and those who participated did not have water readily available at the finish line. We had to walk a little bit to the refreshment tables to get our water.  This got me thinking about how I never needed water while running with my Soldiers, but when in a race, I almost always seek out the water stations.

  One of my more memorable moments in the military are the formation runs.  For those who don’t know, a formation run is when a unit runs together, usually in a rectangular shape with three to four people in the front and everyone falling in behind them.  A unit formation run can be as small as a squad run with only four to twelve people, all behind one person and as big as division with hundreds of rectangles comprising thousands of people if the commander wishes.  But usually, a formation run will range from a platoon (about 30 people) to a battalion (between 300 to 800 people).  Each rectangle gets a cadence caller, a singer if you will, who is charge of keeping everyone in step so no one trips over another person’s feet.  I could go on about some of the songs used for cadences, but that can be for another day.

  These formation runs are intentionally slow, too, at least by military standards.  Most people like to keep them at basically a ten minute per mile pace, though I have run in some that went at a nine minute per mile pace, and then there were the rare seven minute a mile pace runs.  These formation runs can usually go for at least 45 minutes, though I remember a brigade run taking over an hour to do. 

  There’s no water along the route for a formation run, either.  Instead, you’re expected to be already fully hydrated, drink some water before the run, and have water readily available once you’re dismissed from the formation run.  I always kept a container of water in my car on days like those.  Because the pace was so slow compared to how fast we were supposed to run as individuals, you can say I was accustomed to not having water during a run.  Even with the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), while we ran as fast as we could for two miles, there was no water on the course; only after you were done. 

  Now, when I participate in a 5k race, I’m not running at six miles per hour (the ten minute a mile pace), so I’m going to need some sort of liquid out along the course.  And while I could go without water the entire race, I know there is always someone out there who is participating in the race for the first time, underprepared for the race, or have the weather (heat, humidity, glaring sunlight) severely affect them.  This past weekend in Greenville, I was actually thirsty along the course while running the Zoom Through the Zoo 5k.  I did drink plenty of water the night before and I had several cups up to two hours prior to the race, but for some reason, I still craved liquid refreshment while running.  Before I hit some discouraging hills about two miles in, I was working an eight-minute mile pace, which is a little faster than I have been doing, so on the positive side, I’m slowly getting back to my old self.  Then I started to run out of steam, figuratively, because I needed to cool off with some water, yet none was nearby.  If I was feeling this way, how did the people I passed at the beginning of the race feel?  And I wasn’t the only one seeking out water after the race, either; another runner asked me where I got my water bottle from when I walked back to the finish line.  This particular race was the first time I’ve ever run a 5k race and there were no water stations set up on the course.  

 This is one of those perplexing mysteries to me.  Why do I not need water while in formation, but if I’m running more than two miles in a race, I crave it?  Maybe it’s all the cadence calling and responses of a formation run. Maybe it’s the slower pace.  But whatever the case, I need to keep an eye on it.

Double time and Dance: Why a Song About an Airplane is More Important Than Audiobooks and Podcasts

  For 25 years of my running life, whenever I ran, there was a song being heard aloud.  Sometimes, that song involved a cargo plane. Other times, a song about where everyone was at during the run could be heard.  These songs were cadences and very familiar to anyone who has been in the military for more than a couple of weeks.  Cadences are rhythmic and set to a beat that is roughly 180 beats per minute. That sounds fast, but it is really just a beat that strikes every time the left foot hit the ground. 

  Cadences keep the military in step because whenever you have a large mass of people moving in the same direction, the most efficient way to do so is to have them in step so as to not have random people trip over each other and create some Looney Tunes falling scenario.  With the double-time march, each person starts by leading with their left foot as they move forward.  When I ran in formation, we usually had three or four columns of troops, depending on how many people were available and how big the overall operation encompassed.

  The cadences themselves would sometimes entertain the runners, but more often than not, everyone would end up with a “C-130 rolling down the strip,” and be one of “Sixty-four paratoopers taking a one-way trip.”  A few times, an adventurous person would sing this cadence with gusto or change up the routine a bit.  

  Cadence calling and cadence singing are a part of life in the military.  If you are running by yourself one day, you might mentally hear a running cadence in the back of your head and your feet adjust to the cadence rhythm.  I know my feet have… on multiple occasions.  I eventually hit a certain rank in the military where I could just do physical training on my own and my preferred choice of exercise is always running.  Weight training by myself? Uh, nooo. Plyometrics? I’ll pass. Run? Heck yeah!  If I wasn’t running with a select group of people, I would venture off and knock out six miles on my own, which probably scared some of my company commanders because in Texas, the temperatures creep up and we’ve heard reports of single runners getting hurt or even having a heart attack and no one was around.  But I would run and sometimes that mental C-130 would visit me.

  Which brings me up to my current running situation.  I usually run to music now. I slap my Zune into my right armband (because it still works and I love that thing), and I set out on workouts or 5k and 10k races with a preset playlist.  My running playlists have a tendency to be dance songs while I’m out there.  As much as I love genres like classic rock, old Motown, and current top 40, dance songs have a range of beats between 110 and 180 a minute.  Those beats help push me to go further and the slower dance songs help with a guy who has slowed down over the years. 

  I’ve had quite a few people tell me that I should listen to podcasts while running, but I just can’t.  For me, podcasts are reserved for non-exercise activities, to include driving.  But the biggest thing that stops me from doing podcasts and even audiobooks during a run is the lack of a beat.  I can’t run to someone conducting prose or explaining how the latest Intel processor will benefit a third world country’s school system.  But having Avicii and Carly Rae Jepsen going? Yea, that helps a lot more.

  Though, I have been known to start a race or two with the theme to Halo 3, or even the opening song to Chariots of Fire. 

  But that C-130 is always going to be with people like me.