Oswego Gobbler Hobbler 10k Race Report

Shortly before I finished my first 10k in September, I began looking for a second 10k to do. I decided to sign up for Oswego’s Gobbler Hobbler 10k on November 9. It was only $30, and it was a relatively short drive away from my house. Additionally, this race has been going on for years so I figured it’d be well run.

What I did not anticipate, however, was how rough having 19 mile running weeks and stair-climb training at the same time would be. I did very well for about 2 months until the end of October hit. At this point, my runs started becoming significantly harder because my body was ridiculously sore. I had to drop my mileage significantly in hopes of performing well at the Sears (Willis) Tower stair-climb. As a result, I went into this 10k with having only run 27.7 miles in the last 3 weeks when I really wanted to be around 48 miles in that time period.

In addition to struggling with mileage, I was just plain struggling this past week. I had really bad climber’s cough from the stair climb, and that was affecting my breathing during my runs this past week. (Climber’s cough is primarily an annoyance, not a critical health issue.) I didn’t even want to do this race anymore, but I decided that it was dumb to get my first DNS for that reason. I did adjust my goals, and my goal for this race was just to finish.

I got out to the elementary school where the race started and finished about an hour before the race. I needed to still pick up my packet, and I anticipated long lines. Because I got there so early, it was very easy to just pick up my packet with a very minimal wait. The packet pick-up was just the race bib and a hoodie, but that’s okay because this was cheap for a 10k race and the hoodie seems to be really nice. The school gym was also set up nicely to sit and wait before the race, and the school bathrooms were available for race participants to use.

(See how comfy it looks?!)

I headed to the start line about 10 minutes before the race was scheduled to start. The race was a “place yourself at your pace” based on sign kind of race, but it seemed that most runners did a great job of lining themselves up correctly. Normally, if this happens, I have to dodge and weave at first, but I thankfully did not have to do that this time!

The race unfortunately started 10 minutes late. Because of how cold and windy it was, this was not appreciated. This likely happened due to the packet pick-up lines becoming very, very long later on. I’m going to chalk that up to poor communication about when to do packet pick-up. I had looked it up on this past Thursday, anticipating a packet pick-up on Friday or Saturday, only to discover that the pre-race day packet pick-up had been the previous weekend.

Once the race did start, I fell in a steady pace. I was going right along, and I actually felt good…something I had not expected. We ran briefly on Route 31, a road normally with 45 mph traffic, so that was an exciting piece for me. We crossed over the Fox River and then traveled north on the east bank for what seemed forever. Around that time, I realized that I was running too fast for a 10k, and there was no way that I could safely sustain that. Because of that, in the third mile, I started taking 30-45 second walk breaks. I really feel like I had to do this, primarily because of how my training fell apart on me in the last 3 weeks.

The race led us through a subdivision before taking us back over the Fox River and back into another subdivision. Along the way, the race was very well monitored by both volunteers and police officers. I never felt that I was alone, and indeed, I was never alone.

I took my final, brief walk break at mile 5. Even though I knew that I only had 1.2 miles to go, I knew that my body needed a brief break. Once those 30 seconds were up, I was off for the rest, and I told myself that walking was no longer an option.

As I approached the school, I knew that I still had a bit of distance to cover as this was yet another race that loves to add loops at the end. (Race directors, stop doing this! It’s mental cruelty!) I held on as long as I could, and at the sight of the finish line, I tried to increase my speed, but I just could not go any faster today.

After the finish line, I just kept walking and walking, knowing that if I sat down, my body may have actually temporarily shut down. I got to where they had water, and I definitely took 3 cups of it. It seems that I also forgot to properly hydrate myself prior to this race.

I went and found the location where they had promised pancakes. Unfortunately, pretty much all of the pancakes were gone. You see, this race also had a one mile option, and this one mile option started about 10 minutes after the 10k started. With the one mile race, all of the finishers were done before the first 10k finisher even finished. There were ~440 one mile racers vs 300 10k racers, and the one mile racers ate all the pancakes. Geez. That was a race planning fail.

The timing was done by a company where you could type your bid number in and get your race results right after finishing. (Same company I think that did the Skyrise Stair Climb.) Because of that, I went and found out that I finished in 4th place in my age division. Because of that and being tired, I decided to just go home and not stick around for the award ceremony. I’m sure it was nice. The winners and age division winners got trophies. They also raffled off a couple of turkeys. Although I had put my name in the raffle, I did not care to win…I’m a vegetarian, and my parents don’t want to cook a whole turkey this year anyway.

I finished the race in 57:38. This was 40 seconds off of my PR. I can only imagine what I could have done if I had truly been in 10k shape. This actually excites me because it means that I truly have made significant improvements over the past couple of months. If I can do that well when I’ve had a crappy 3 weeks of running, that’s awesome.

So would I recommend this race? Yes. I will probably not do it again because of the annual closeness to the Sears Tower stair climb, and stair-climbing remains my priority for now. The race directors still need to work out a few hiccups, but overall, it was a well done and nice local race.

Time: 57:38
Division Place: 4/9
Total Place: 157/304

This was the last race of 2014 for me. I’ll have more in 2015. So far, 4 stair climbs! I also have my eye on a 5k and an 8k in March. I’m sure there will be plenty more races in 2015. I still love racing.