I ran the O'Fallon Firecracker 10k on the morning of July 4th. It was my slowest, hottest, most miserable 10K. I've only run 2 10Ks but they the distance is beginning to become my least favorite. I'm hoping the US Air Force 10K can change my mind but I'm truly considering dumping the 10K distance next year and focusing on my marathon, half-marathon and 5K distances.
Pre Race
I had worked until 0230 the day of the race and came home to grab some sleep. I managed to get a little more sleep then I wanted and ended up getting to the race site later than I had planned. I had preregistered for the race but needed to pick up my bib and my shirt. The lines were horrible and the computers went down. Someone ended up asking everyone who had preregistered to give their name and he wrote our name and bib number down and would put it in the computer later. Because of all of this I missed the national anthem and the official start of the race.
Starting Line
Missing the official start wasn't a problem since they funneled 291 runners through very small start. I jumped in towards the back and was fine. My chip shows that my start time was 7:09:41, my phone said the temperature was already 89 degrees and sunny as all get out.
The Course
For a race in its 28th year of running and a race in Missouri in July, I expected a lot more. The course was not scenic at all and had 0 spectators. The town didn't even seem to care about the race or be on board, many people ignored signs, course volunteers and even local police to drive through the race and practically over several racers who were forced to jump onto the sidewalk. There were 3 water stations and they only had water and the cups were tiny, maybe 2 ounces of water. I did make a friend during the race and chatted with him for a little while until he left me in his dust, I caught back up with him right before the one redeeming point of the race. The local fire/ems station had set up a sprinkler for us to run through it was fantastic.
Finish Line
Maybe I was delirious from lack of water and electrolytes but the finish line seemed very hard to find and in retrospect placed in a crappy spot. We finished in a ball park on July the 4th, could I have gotten something more themed than the generic finish line blow up, that was set up near the concession stand? I walked across the ballpark to the "finishers only area" which was overwhelmed with people who had obviously not just finished a 5k or 10k and got a bottle of water. There was the obligatory free beer which I did not have since I felt I was near heat stroke any way. The post race food provided was an interesting choice, there was a vendor giving out chips and salsa from Chipotle, a vendor with philly cheese steaks and 5 hour energy. I grabbed my bottle water and managed to find the one vendor giving out something that wouldn't make me vomit and proceeded to eat 3 oranges that the very nice manager of the local shop n save cut up for me. He even offered me a bag to take a few more with me but I declined and grabbed a Popsicle before thanking him and leaving. As for the vendors set up in the "expo" area, there wasn't a whole lot to interest me but I did end up spending almost 15 minutes talking to a vendor for solar panels. Odd choice for a running event but something I had been researching for when I purchase a house. Both gentlemen had business cards with addresses in Colorado but where incredibly knowledgeable about the Missouri area.
I ended up with a finish time of 1:31:23 but I didn't die, I ran my second of 4 10Ks for the year and what happened after I left the race more than made up for the race. My Garmin details are below.
O'Fallon Firecracker 10K by BethanyBRN at Garmin Connect - Details
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