A month or so ago, I saw that U.S. Road Running was offering
medals for virtual races to celebrate national Talk Like A Pirate day which is
tomorrow, September 19th. I got to thinking and it hit me; the
Bolingbrook Fun Run Club would probably like a pirate themed event. I tentatively asked “who would do this if I
set it up?” and a bunch of folks showed interest. The BFRC Run Like A Pirate 5K was launched.
After taking a look at the calendar, I chose to schedule the
run on Wednesday, September 17th because I figured most people would
not want to run on Friday night. And, because
we were running, the event became Run Like A Pirate. If people wanted a medal, they could order
one from US Road Runners and use our event to do their virtual race.
This is my race report from the “race director’s”
perspective.
First, this wasn’t really a race. Sure some people are fast and someone came in
first but the idea was to have fun. BFRC
uses Meetup.com to announce our events to our members and as soon as I posted
it, people started to RSVP “yes” and before I knew it, there were something
like 35 people signed up bringing an additional 8 guests. Seriously?
I thought five or six people would show up and we would have a nice
little jaunt on the trail. This was
turning into an event.
One afternoon, I happened to be out near the mall that has a
Gordman’s in it. I had never been in the
store and in fact, thought it was a furniture store. No, it is kind of a low end department store
and had lots of interesting junk. To my
surprise, I found two pirate nightlights and bought them to be costume prizes
for Run Like A Pirate. So, I started
advertising that we would have costume prizes.
More people signed up.
Now, I am not a costume person. In fact, I think the last time I wore a Halloween
costume was probably ten years ago. But,
since I was setting this event up, I figured I had to at least make an
attempt. This past Tuesday night, I was
heading out to dinner with a friend and stopped at Party City. Luckily, since Halloween isn’t far off, the
store was full of costume stuff. I didn’t
want to spend much so I bought a cheap hat, bad teeth and an eye patch. My costume was born. Black tights, a white shirt, a bandana, a
sash and an earring and I was set. I
definitely looked like a second rate pirate but it was good enough.
What a glorious day yesterday turned out to be! The weather has been up and down the last
couple of weeks but yesterday was perfect, not too hot, not too cold and
beautifully clear. As I set off in my
costume to plant the turn-around sign at the half way point, I couldn’t help
but smile at our luck. And as people
started to show up in their pirate costumes, I thought this is going to be
fun.
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| Linda & Gladys Manning the Ship |
Gladys, the club leader and Linda had volunteered to help me
out and we quickly set up a table, started handing out bibs, collecting raffle
tickets for later and socializing. The park
we started from was pretty busy but we managed to have our little party in a
fairly quiet corner. Adults were
wandering around in pirate costumes and running clothes, sometimes both,
children were brandishing homemade swords and teenagers were pretending not to
have fun. Another club member, a
professional photographer, was there to take pictures and people were hamming it
up.
The funniest thing of the evening was when the Naperville
Park District police showed up on a four wheeler and asked “do you have real
swords?” We were like “what?” In fact, he had to ask a few times before we
understood what he was asking. Uh, no….
we have little kids with sticks.
Seriously? He didn’t even ask if
a group of 42 people had any alcohol. We
did not. But, that would have seemed
more likely than real swords.
One thing I had not taken into account is that it is
September and the sun is starting to set earlier and earlier. I was getting worried as 6:30 approached that
the trail might get too dark. So right
at 6:30 we called everyone to the starting line, gave a few words of wisdom
like “stay to the right or you’re going to get hit by a bike”, “turn around at
the turn around sign” and “have fun” and they were off! It was great to see the fast runners take
off, the middle and the back of the pack continue to socialize as they ran and
children running with their parents and grandparents. Many of us think of BFRC as family and this
event felt like a family picnic on steroids.
While they were running, we discussed that since there were
so many kids, we wouldn’t choose best costumes but just raffle off the two
night lights, a water bottle, a Brooks water bottle, a Brooks toiletry set,
Road ID certificates, a session with our photographer and a few other
items. Then we waited for them to come
in!
Our two fastest runners came in neck and neck in the 25
minute range. One of them managed to
make that time while taking videos out on the trail, amazing! It’s always fun to watch the fast people do
it. What they do doesn’t look like what
I call running (get it?!)
After everyone was in, we had the raffle and sure enough one
of the youngest kids quickly won one of the pirate night lights. He was excited and adorable carrying it
around. I asked his mom if his sister
was upset that she didn’t win anything and she said that his sister was more
interested in the Pirate’s Booty. She
was just happy eating that. Oh, to be
little again. At the end of the night
there was about a quarter of a bag left and after asking her mom, gave it to
the little one. She was very pleased!
We also had a few new people attend last night. I hope we were welcoming. I know we tried to be.
As the evening ended and we packed up my car and Glady’s
car, I think we could say well done. It’s
funny how some events appeal to people and other events don’t. Who knew everyone wanted to run like a
pirate?
Why am I nervous?
Because it’s a 15 mile, freakin’ trail run. I don’t have any idea how fast or slow I will
be out on the trail. The course is a 5
mile loop that we run 3 times. I don’t
know how to handle the fast people that will be lapping me two or three times
while they complete the 50K. Will it be
motivational or will it blow my mind?
How does one run through mud and not lose their shoes? How does one run through mud period? Will the uphills be so steep that I have to
crawl? Will the downhills scare me? Oh, so much to worry about. The 50K has an eight hour cut off and
apparently, if I need it, I can take all eight hours for the 15 miler. I sure hope not! I’m not shooting for a goal time but eight
hours is way beyond my expected finish time.
Why am I excited? Because it’s a 15 mile, freakin’ trail
run!!! What fun it will be running
through the woods and trails on a lovely April morning. I spend too much time on suburban
blacktop. How great will it be to see
trees in bud, mud and green grass. !!! I’ve
been combing over the Facebookpage for the run, looking at previous years’ results
and photos and reading all sorts of trail run motivational stuff. The photos from previous years look
fantastic. The sun has been out, the
trails look soft (someplace VERY muddy) and everyone looks happy. All
the women look beautiful and about half my age.
Sigh, sometimes I think it would be better if I felt 57 (whatever that
means) then maybe I wouldn’t sign up for these races. On the other hand, if I finish strong,
being 57 years old just adds to my bad ass status. Or maybe, just to my ass status. Either way. :-)
