Race Report: Pacing at Capital City River Run Half Marathon

This past weekend I had one of the most fun times I have ever had at a race. I was a pacer for the 10:30 group at the Capital City River Run Half Marathon in Lansing, Michigan. For those of you who don't know me personally, this is my "hometown" race now. It starts in downtown Lansing, not too far from the capital runs through part of downtown, across the campus of Michigan State University and then onto the Lansing River Trail, then snakes back to downtown for the finish.

About 2/3 of the race, the parts through MSU and the River Trail, are on my regular running routes, so the  course if very familiar. It is also one of the major runs for my Playmakers running club, as can be clearly seen by the number of red shirts in the crowd.

I have never been an official pacer before, and I have to say that it is an absolute blast!! I was picked up as a substitute because one of the regular pacers for my group, Hollie, was injured. I soon found out that the other pacer for the group, Nancy, was also not going to make it so by happy chance one of my favorite running buds, Dee, got to pace with me! Pacers for this race wear costumes, which totally sealed the deal (both for Dee and me). I mean who doesn't love a good run in a costume?? We decided to be police officers, mostly because we both had the necessary accouterments on hand, except for a few essentials like whistles and fishnet stockings, which were quickly purchased.

Race morning was beautiful: cool, clear, and sunny. The entire experience was a blast. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I am going to save all kinds of space and just play the video so you can see for yourself: (I originally had this set to "Born to Run," but there is that little copyright issue, so you have some blues instead.)



More than anything else, what this day reminded me of is what a really, really great group of runners I get to hang with here in Lansing!

Trail Running O'Leno State Park: A Pleasant Surprise

We are on the move again, heading to South Florida for Dances With Dirt Green Swamp. We stopped at one of the lesser known state parks along the way for an overnight, and I found some fun trails.

The park was O'Leno State Park, which is not too far off the 75, just north of Gainesville. We chose this park, not for its amenities but because it was halfway between where we were and where we needed to be. Our expectations were not high. We were just looking for a place to pull in for the night. It turns out that it was a really serendipitous choice, as it was a beautiful park with a system of easily accessible trails that made it perfect for a little run to shake out the kinks in my pre-DWD taper.

The trail system includes hiking and mountain bike trails. There is a river, the Sante Fe, in the park, with a suspension bridge built by the CCC in 1938. The trails are typical Florida, packed sand with stubborn grass poking through in spots, nice and soft to trot along on. The trails were wide and well cleared, which is great because I am still having allergic reactions to the things I got into on my first ill-fated trail run in North Florida.

There are several trails in the park, all of which begin just east of the suspension bridge, which is a major landmark. The one I did today was the green one, called the Parener's Branch, which is listed as 3.69 mi. The green loop allows both mountain bike and hiking, but connects into the yellow trail to complete the loop back to the bridge, which is hiking only, so I am not sure if that mileage is for only the green portion or whether it also includes the yellow section that competes the loop. I also ran the entire yellow loop (video coming) which is 1.44 mi  and is for hiking only. There are additional trails in the system, Sweetwater (1.87 mi) and River Rise (4.25 mi), so one could put together a decently long run if connecting trails. I did not see a lot of wildlife, but there were a few extremely skittish deer, some baby alligators, and many butterflies.

In talking to some wonderful ladies on the camp staff (one of whom was from Ann Arbor), I found out that I had just missed their annual Race The Tortoise 5k held in the park on March 3 this year. I was kind of bummed about that. I mean who doesn't need a race shirt with a tortoise running across a suspension bridge?

Anyway, I thought I would share the experience with you all just to put you in a Green Swamp state of mind: