Kansas. Part 1 to emporia

Part 1 of the Kansas trip. 

The last Thursday of May, The Mike and I started off for Kansas for his Dirty Kanza bike race.  (200 miles of "gravel" in the Flint Hills of Kansas (flint =what arrowheads were made from). A few years ago he told me to 'go do something else' on race day, so he wouldn't be tempted to bail on the ride at the various points where spectators can see the racers.  In the past I've partaken in the Hospital Hill Run, but this year the two races weren't on the same weekend and I searched a few pages and found Rural Route 13.1 on the Running in the USA site. He had a race to do and I had a race to do! YEAH!  

Our first stop was the cap city of our state, getting something at a bike shop and then heading over to Jason's Deli for lunch.  They have gluten free bread upon which to make sandwiches. Of course, the sandwiches have so much filling, it's just much easier to eat it with a fork and knife :-)  

Our next road side stop was just inside Missouri at the fabulous rest stop with a nice walking path and cutouts of bison and a lone Native American on horseback.  

We got to Emporia and checked into the dorm rooms.  Dorm rooms? Really? It turns out, once the local hotels are booked full, the local University rents out dorm rooms. Funny, we met in college, but neither of us were living in the dorms at the time!  The University is a short jaunt to the main street where the race starts/stops and where shopping and restaurants are located.  Perfect location.  We had a breakfast card, which also let us into the bldg, and our roomkeys on a chain. Made us feel like latch key kids. About 200 other folks were in the dorms as well.   

Our room was a basic dorm, but location, location, location, is the key!  

Beautiful town architecture. 

Around Campus

Thursday night we had a date at Radius Brewing Company with a fellow racer The Mike had met on the Tour Divide last year.  They were staying with a local resident and his wife, who came along as well. I'm not sure who ended up making this place the dinner location, but it's a reminder to not judge a book by its cover.  We've dined at microbreweries before and have had excellent luck being able to choose a gluten free item. [ Last year it was in a small town in Montana where I had the meat and cheese appetizer "tray" which was a very large cutting board with enough meats, cheese, and dried fruit, that we had some leftover for breakfast!] This establishment's menu had several options that would be gluten free and others that could have easily been made gluten free (burger without the bun).  I actually had a conference call to be a part of for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, so I missed out on a bit of the pre-dinner atmosphere.  Mike ordered a beautiful cobb salad for me with blue cheese crumbles and grilled chicken. He had an artisan pizza and it looked fabulous (he said it was too).  As we were with company, I didn't get any photos of the food ---I do have some control!

Friday morning we had our first experience with the dining hall. I had communicated with the director before the weekend and she knew someone would be coming in with food restrictions.  Kimberly was greeting all diners and she got me in contact with the head chef who prepared scrambled eggs for me 'in back'.  A group of racers saw that my food was being done in back and looked questioningly at me. I just said, "food allergies" and one was very interested, as he said he needed his stuff prepped specially as well. ---It never hurts to ask!

The Mike and I went out to walk around campus (it's not very large, reminded me of the private college campus I attended for a couple of years before a transfer), and then explored the main street shopping area. All the shops fully embraced the tourist dollars--I mean racers--- who came to their fine town.

Friday Mike checked into the race:

Check in at the Granada Theater.

The first year Mike did this race, there was a viewing of The Goonies on the big screen in the middle of the afternoon!  

Of the 1800 riders, The Mike was chosen to be on one of 30 trading cards. A big honor indeed.   

One of the 'windows' inside the Granada. 

The Granada

Fabulous sign at Jimmy Johns. 

Friday we ate at Jimmy Johns for lunch.  I forgot to ask for no mayo and they put a LOT of it on.  I wonder if that did me in on Saturday morning, since I have to avoid soy as well. Hmm...

I went out on Friday afternoon for my short run to stretch the legs.  As I came up through a campus road, there were inspirational signs already chalked on the pavement for racers. .  .

. . . It was very nice to see this just on a 30 minute run. I can only imagine what it was like for the cyclists who finished before dark.  

my favorite

This is a one room school house moved to the edge of Emporia University.  Beautifully set against the gorgeous sky.  The stone posts are prairie fence posts, which I had need of to ask two men working as I didn't know what they were.  

Those two guys then said that this area on the west side of the school is to become the national monument for fallen teachers, such as those at Sandy Hook.

From the Emporia Gazette's facebook page:  Emporia Gazette There are 112 educators that have died in US schools. This is the national memorial to those fallen educators. The memorial has been funded through donations and was spearheaded by the National Teachers Hall of Fame also located in Emporia. The memorial will be dedicated on Thursday. Many family members of those listed on the memorial will be at the ceremony as well as several dignitaries. The public is encouraged to attend. 

I've been to this town four times now and never knew this until this trip!

All up and down the main business street there are various pianos painted and left for people to play. They all seem to be tuned well ---at least the ones of which I tickled the ivory.

July, August and September running

July, August and September races

JULY

I was at the hometown in July for the hometown days then and participated in the fun run, timed--but not seriously timed--"5k-ish" race.  My watch actually said it was 3.2 miles. Maybe it should be made into a 3.1 by finishing at the bar instead of on the elevator scale ;-)


(And, my face is *always* red after I run, no matter how long, hard, or weather! However, it's never red when I'm actually running).

I did the awful thing that day though, of running all my miles. I was supposed to run ten, so I went out and ran five, then went to the house, re-fueled, and ran/walked into town for the race. The Mike came in before the race started and got some pictures, but none I think are web worthy. Not to mention I wasn't completely feeling 100% since I had ice cream the day before when we took in the Jocelyn Art Museum and stopped at Dairy Queen on the way to the homestead  :-)   When you have dairy and sugar you're not use to, the performance level isn't going to be there. Amazingly though, my time wasn't much different from the previous year I participated (it was really hot and humid that year).

Dale Chihuly
piece at the Jocelyn

AUGUST

I have no photos from my August run.  It wasn't an actual "race" but rather a fun run to raise funds for a Veteran and paying it forward to others.  I actually had forgotten about the event until I walked to a food establishment that day and saw Taylor getting out of car.  I had been thinking earlier that day that I just would not run an August event. Not only was this a night run, which I had never entered before, it was also a glow stick event. Everyone who entered got at least one glow stick, and then helpers were handing out multiples as we waited for the start.  Others bought their glowsticks at stores and came for the costume event.  Definitely fun, definitely different and definitely want to do this event again. You could choose to run or walk.  The path was lined with glow sticks every foot or so. On the darker parts of the course, the glow sticks were end-to-end around curves and the like. It was very cool to run in the dark along those areas.   The only thing I wished was different would be not allowing people with flashing/strobe lights. Those were really hard to run with in the field of vision.  Some people had them on their hands as rings, others had them in their hair.  It was okay to see at the start when we still had street lights. Hard to handle when we were on the trail. . .then again, maybe my eyes are just getting (eek) 'old'.   One of the great things for this event was having so many veterans there and others who had prosthetics.  Many also ran with us. I wasn't sure if they all started the race, or if some positioned themselves along the course. I saw a couple who had been off on the side and then got onto the trail to run.  The sound of the feet on the ground was interesting and a great rhythm. At one point I was thinking, "this is a good pace" and then all of  a sudden the guy got a burst of energy and he was off! Afterwards there was water, cupcakes and gluten free cupcakes!  I ran/walked back to where I parked my car and a neighbor came up. He had never done a 5K before and was amazed at what all was involved. 

SEPTEMBER   

I had a hard time deciding which races to do this month.

There is the standby, Park to Park, that I've done for several years. It is fun. The race director is awesome. You can stand around and chat with the elites afterwards. Great music, great food, massages, and it's in a state park near a small lake, so it's beautiful as well. It is run on all trails in the area.

There were others I wanted to do as well.  The half marathon in my home town, the Quad Cities half marathon near the end of the month, and a few others.

I decided to run Park to Park and the Wabash Trace half marathons as training runs. I knew I wouldn't be going "all out 100%" but that I could use the people, the atmosphere and the energy to carry me a little faster than maybe I'd do in a training run on my own.

Park to Park was mentioned in Runners World this year as one of the top picks for a half marathon due to its trail run, awesome race director, beautiful weather, etc.

Enter race day and the humidity was high, the heat was already present, making the combination feel a big muggy. Then, a few minutes before race time, a cloud went overhead and we had a bit of a shower.  Ugh. More mugginess!   There were people not able to get in to park and were having to be bussed up to the start line. Due to the number of people still needing to get bussed to the start, the director made the very tough call to delay the race. He has never had a race start late.  Some people were disappointed, others loved the delay and used it to go to head to the portapotties. The folks with the mics reminded us to think of if we were in those folks' places/shoes. . . then schooled us in a brief 'cliff note" version of a classic. 'if you don't know what compassion is, read To Kill A Mockingbird.  As a person with an English Ed degree, I LOVED that!  In light of a contest the festival had on Facebook, I won an entry to the VIP tent, which meant I had a smaller gear check area, food waiting for me afterwards, a place to meet up with some friends who were also in the VIP tent, etc.   This was also the first race that hubby wasn't going to hang around, ride through the woods on dirt trails and take pics of me randomly!

The race started a bit before 8am, an pavement still slick with the short shower.  The Elites went off and did their amazing fast stuff while I wondered if I had what it took to do 13.1 today, let alone 26.2 in a few weeks in Detroit.   If you hadn't read some of the other running posts, my training has been off this year due to fatigue, lethargy, coldness and just plain not feeling "ON" this year.

I knew most of the course and knew there were some turns and scenic areas, but I also am use to running the trails with some WIND, or breeze of some kind. I am operating, this year, on the run/walk method and due to the heat, the race director had bicycle patrol out checking on racers. It seemed everytime I was at a walk break point there'd be  a bicycle go by to see if I was okay!   The air was fairly still until about mile four or five when the course opened up to a southerly direction and a wonderful breeze there. I caught up with a friend's sister at this point (or rather, she caught up with me) and we talked a bit and then she picked up her pace a bit.  Knowing the trail is a good thing and something I forget when I go to other towns to race. Sometimes I drive the course and sometimes I don't . It's always a good thing though!  I knew that when we came to the "end" of one trail, we had to turn left to do a short loop and then come back to the pedestrian bridge we could all see.  I also knew that the curvy road on the way out was our way back to the finish. I'm sure some people have the curves counted. I am not one of those people.My body pretty much screams with joy when I see the "TURN AND SPRINT" sign.  Instead, I focus on the steps at the given time and try to find a way to motivate myself to the end.  

I had been quite hot when running, and kept hiking my tank up to the chest to get the belly some air to try to cool down the body. In the last section before we had to turn left for the quick loop, I was walking more often.  After crossing the river, I knew there wouldn't be a lot of people for a mile and a half or so, so I just took off the tank and ran. I wasn't around a lot of people at this point and only felt comfortable (ha ha) doing it because of the trail/trees.  As I got closer to the park entrance of the trail, I put the shirt back on and then did the "try to catch" so and so routine.  I had been trying to "reel in" my friend's sister as I could see her on the trail ahead of me in the last mile every so often. In the last few curves I could see her ahead and thought, "I'm going to catch her!   

Alas, it wasn't to be had.  She crossed the finish line just as I had turned the corner to sprint.  Finishing about nine minutes slower than what I had wanted for this training run. . . the highlight--> hubby WAS at the finish line for me!  He had just gotten back from his bicycle group ride!   

After the race, walk around, cool down, enjoy the VIP tent.  Pizza, bagels, chocolate milk, cookies, potato chips galore.  I went to the regular food tent for the gluten free food--found some chili and lots of Larabars to enjoy, along with the chocolate milk!   While biking to the race is fun, it's always the riding the bicycle home that's the issue!  We broke up the ride home with a stop at the local mexican restaurant


The next training run/race was the Wabash Trace Nature Trail Marathon, Half Marathon, Marathon Relay in Southwest Iowa.  Great former railroad bed trail and we were running it on the descent. They had packet pickup on Friday night, with dinner and a speaker from Runners World magazine.  There was also packet pickup on Saturday morning, which was FABULOUs since things went south on Friday and hubby wasn't able to go with me, which meant I left town later than I had planned/needed to in order to get to the pick up then.   Since the race was point to point, they had busses running from the finish town to the marathon town and to the half marathon town early in the morning. It worked out well that a relative was riding the bus, so his car was in the finish town for us afterwards. My car would be in the start town and we could store our race packets/shirts in the car. I headed into the town early to get the packet and get in some prerace running per the coach.

There were a few areas of climbing and enough to make your bum notice, but not enough to make one struggle. . .that's how I recalled running the trace before However, in the race, it was different --as racing always is, right?  We started in the small town, went about twenty feet, turned and immediately started up the snow-sledding hill of the town, then we meandered around until we were at the Wabash Trace on the north side of town and we ran south to Shenandoah for the race. We almost had a 5K under the belt by the time we headed out of town.  It is is nice running a path you've run before, and knowing the surface--gravel/worn asphalt in the town, crushed limestone most of the way on the trail, and with 3 or so miles left it turned to asphalt trail and concrete streets.   It was nice, too, to know I was running this as a training run and not as a race so much. Thus, I didn't mind stopping to pick up the 47¢ laying on the trail !

Various folks were out on the trail, at intersections with roads, cheering us on  and seeing so many friendly faces!  One fabulous woman (WKS) wasn't able to race, and she kindly offered to pick up some oranges for me for a mile marker stop, and then she had grapes too!  It was awesome to see a friendly face, as well as her adorable son with a great cheerleading signs! One was:  

The Trace is mostly tree lined from a time when Earl May and Henry Fields nurseries had train cars moving with seeds in the cars (and some would blow out).  Every once in a while the trees would open up and we would get the nice brisk wind coming from the south.  As we crossed the highway, we passed mile marker 9, traffic was stopped by the sheriff's department, then we had an aid station and a seemingly 'straight shot' to the  finish line. . . I didn't realize we'd come into Shenandoah and turn to the east side of town and we had some climbing to do back there, but still it was a "fairly flat" course regardless of those four or five blocks. As we made a turn and headed north I knew we had to be getting close to the finish line on Sheridan Avenue.  I asked which way we turned at the diagonal street and knew the finish was near so I just kept going past other people, even though I knew I wanted to rest---there'd be time for resting in eight blocks!   An announcer stood at the WCTU historic water fountain and then we turned the corner and pounded pavement for a few more blocks. Great finish line area with 'railroad crossing arms'  for decoration.

Feel free to check out some photos of the race here on Facebook.    I am so glad I didn't run this race last year. I wanted to, in its inaugural race, but wasn't sure of my ability to run a 'training race' with limited time before the Omaha Marathon last  year. I'm glad I didn't as I found out that runnign downhill just makes you want to go faster all the time!

The finish line is near the old Depot in Shenandoah, which is now a restaurant--refreshments for runners were outside and I went in to get a LARGE milk for getting sugar and protein in the body.  Also open, but I didn't get in that day, was the Everly Brothers museum (restored childhood home).

Next on the agenda is a run/walk (walking) Pancreatic Cancer Purple Stride event to honor my mother.

In October, the main goal is Detroit Free Press Marathon, running Detroit, USA and Windsor, Canada.  I have my 'passport card' and am ready to roll. . . or so I think, part of me is still screaming (EEEK) that it's less than a month away!