She Runs by the Seashore

After officially deciding on the NCR Marathon as my fall marathon, I decided to complete at least four races for the RRCA Maryland Grand Prix this year. The NCR Marathon is part of the Grand Prix, and I’d already done the annual RRCA Club Challenge, which I do every year — even though this year, I struggled with a cold and had my slowest time over the six years I’ve been running it. Runners who do at least four of the series races are eligible for awards.

I’m not super fast, but I also don’t know how many people in my age group will complete at least four races. Plus, it’s nice to support other Road Runners Club of America clubs and enjoy new races. I wore my Eastern Shore Running Club gear to the race to represent the club.

The Annapolis Striders’ Dog Days 8K Cross Country Run was my second race of the Grand Prix series. Although the races are listed online, I heard good things about this one from Mark, president of the Kent Island Running Group. With all the races aside from KIRG’s two races being on the other side of the Bay Bridge, this was also one of the closer ones. My next race in the series will be KIRG’s Historic Stevensville Distance Festival 8.15-miler on Sept. 29.

The Dog Days 8K Cross Country Run was held on the Anne Arundel Community College campus in Arnold on Aug. 4. I had headed up to the “western shore” the previous day, stayed with my family in Baltimore County and then still had a pretty early wake-up to make it to Arnold by the race start at 8 a.m. I arrived early to pick up my bib, but parking and packet pickup were super easy and quick.

The race was only $15 as a non-Annapolis Striders member, and personally, I love low- or no-frills races. I have a bunch of shirts already, and while swag can be nice, it’s certainly not necessary for me. The race had a well-marked course, volunteers along the way and refreshments afterward. There were also plastic water bottles available afterward as swag.

I ran cross country during my senior year of high school (17 years ago), and although this race was longer than the races I ran in high school — 8K compared to 5K — it brought me back to cross country. We started out in a grassy field, which I remember doing at those high school races. The first mile was on grass — two loops of a field — and then there were parts of the course that included sidewalk, asphalt and trail.

Knowing that the course would be just under five miles, I was shooting for a sub-one-hour finish, as it was warm and a trail course. I just missed that, coming in at 1:01:04, but I still felt good about my race.

The first mile was my fastest, as of course, it was the beginning of the race, and it was also a pretty flat loop on the grass. I ran that mile in 10:13.

The race continued onto a sidewalk and through parking lots, then onto the trail. I slowed down some on the trail and also got water from the water stop twice — it was easily accessible two times very close to each other. Someone at the water stop called me “kiddo,” which was kind of fun as a 33-year-old. We went back onto the trail and dealt with some hills. There was another water stop later on, where I also stopped for some water.

Toward the end, there was a road portion that was a long, gradual uphill before another trail portion. I walked as needed throughout the race, including the uphill. Then, we made it back to the grassy field for one more loop, and I gave it what I had at that point — I knew what to expect and I could see the finish.

My watch logged a total ascent of 282 feet and a total descent of 288 feet. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I live in a super flat area, so any kind of hills are challenging for me — but most places have more hills than Salisbury, so I knew to expect that.

I finished the race with my second-fastest mile of the run — 11:53 — and then headed up to the refreshment area. There were several snacks, including Italian ice from Rita’s. I also worked at Rita’s in high school, so that was another fun blast from the past and a nice cold treat on a warm morning. I connected with members of the Kent Island Running Group afterward.

There were overall and age group awards, and the winners got bags of coffee, which I thought was a cool prize, though I did not win anything. Now that I know the course and know what to expect, I think I could run it in under an hour next year, as long as the weather is not too bad.

I finished toward the end — 143 of 163 participants — but I enjoyed the run and being able to test myself. Afterward, I went for a bike ride on the nearby B&A Trail.

Splits

Mile 1: 10:13
Mile 2: 12:17
Mile 3: 12:47
Mile 4: 13:47
Mile 5: 11:53
Last bit (watch had 5.02): 0.02 miles at 8:18 pace
Final: 1:01:04, 12:17/mile on results; 1:01:06, 12:11 mile on watch