September 1, 2025 • 32 mins
It was a packed holiday weekend for the Back of the Pack crew! In this episode, Kyle recaps three very different Labor Day weekend races. First up: the debut of the Ottawa Half Marathon, a brand-new event from KC Running Company that steps in where the Lagerhead Half left off. Then it’s on to the Always & Furever 5K at Lexington Lake Park, a family-friendly event supporting a local dog rescue. Finally, we close out the long weekend at the Leawood Labor Day 5K, put on by the Leawood Rotary Club. Three races in three days, it’s safe to say the back of the pack didn’t take this holiday off!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello, everyone, greetings and salitations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Back podcast. I'm your host,
Kyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in. Pardon
me if I see him a little little load today,
A little tired. Not gonna lie, I am tired. I'm
freaking exhausted. Man. It was a three race weekend for
the podcast, and I went back and I took a
look at my spreadsheet and I got to thinking, have
(00:34):
I ever done a three race weekend before? And from
quick glance, I don't think I have. I think this
was the first time ever that I pulled that one off.
So I don't know what I was thinking, but I
done thought it and did it, and here we are.
And so I'm glad that this wall is here to
support me, because otherwise they'd probably be falling over at
this point. You never really want to start a three
(00:55):
race weekend with a half marathon, you know, maybe build
up to that or just stick it like five K
five K, five k, maybe five K ten k, five k,
but half five five Good grief? What was I thinking?
I don't know. I make the mistakes, so you don't
have to. So there we go. That's what we were doing. Anyway,
I hope you were having a great Labor Day weekend.
Not gonna lie. This is gonna be a pretty quick episode.
(01:16):
We're gonna do our race reviews from the three races
this weekend. They're gonna send you about your merry way
so you can enjoy the the officially unofficial end of
summer that we're at right now, as it is Monday, September. First,
it is Labor Day. Now some I'm going to bring
up because I'm bringing this up almost every Labor Day,
because I still don't know where people draw the connection.
(01:37):
Please remember, this is Labor Day. This is not Memorial Day.
This is not a military themed holiday. This is not
a remembrance of service members who have been killed in
action or whatever the case might be. This is very
different from that. So the people who are still trying
to make this a military holiday, nothing I'm saying it
can be. I mean, it certainly could be, and I'm
all for military holidays whenever you want to put one
(01:59):
out there. But no, well, just remember, let's talk real
quick about Labor Day. So Labor Day in the United
States federal holiday, right, got it? Yeah, celebrated the first
Monday in September, created to honor and recognize the American
labor movement and the contributions of workers to the strength
of prosperity and well being of the country. Again, this
is just a real quick little synopsis that I found
(02:20):
of it. The origins go back to the late nineteenth century,
a time of rapid industrialization when workers often face long hours,
low pay, and unsafe conditions. So clearly not much has changed.
I say that as a banker. Al Right, funny labor
unions organized strikes and rallies demanding better treatment, and in
eighteen ninety four, following a major railroad strike and growing unrest,
(02:44):
Congress made Labor Day and official federal holiday. So today
it's seen both as a day of rest and appreciation
for workers and as the unofficial end of summer, marked
with parades, barbecues, community events, and of course plenty of
holiday races. And that's where we come into this weekend.
As we had plenty of holiday races. We started off
(03:05):
with the brand spanking new, never been run before first
time Ottawa Half Marathon in Ottawa, Kansas, about a forty
five minute drive away for me, especially on a nice
Saturday morning when people were still sleeping. It was an
early race start, so we had to get on down
to Ottawa. It was in the story of One of
the stories of this weekend is we had some pretty
(03:27):
decent weather for the end of August. I'm not going
to say it was perfect conditions, because it wasn't perfect,
but considering what the end of August in the beginning
of September can be, what we ended up getting was
pretty lovely. So we went down there is about sixty
five degrees when we got there. Sixty five degrees is great.
Problem is and problem for all the weekend humidity sky high.
(03:48):
It was very humid. There was a threat of rain
all weekend, and while it did eventually get here ish,
it never was what the forecast said it was supposed
to be. I let this whole weekend was going to
be pretty much a washout. We had some sprinkles and
that's about the extent of it. Now. I know some
places in our area got a lot of rain, but
A the rain wasn't at any of the races, and B,
(04:11):
especially in my area, it was minuscule at best. It
was really not much. But anyway, we get down to
Ottawa on a nice morning. It is overcast, which is good.
It is sixty five degrees, which is good. Humidity is
sky high. It's not great, but we're there. I'm not
sure how many people signed up for this race. I
would like to say between the half marathon and the
five k, those were the distances offered. Maybe they got
(04:34):
three hundred. Is three hundred fair assessment for anyone who
was there. Let me know if I'm off, could be
three fifty. Maybe they got to four, maybe they got
to five. I'm gonna say this is about a three
hundred person race, and again, not bad for your first year.
This takes the place of Loggerhead. Loggerhead was a November
race run in the same part of town, starting like
just a block over from where this race started. But
(04:56):
I think a lot of people maybe they liked the
November I feel like Loggerhead might have been a little bigger,
but even Loggerheads numbers were way down. Again, you're driving
all the way out to Ottawa, so for the Kansas
City folks, you're at anywhere between forty five minutes and
maybe an hour fifteen hour twenty to get down to Ottawa, Kansas.
So it is a bit of a trek now, if
you're from Ottawa, hooray you get a local race right
(05:19):
there in the heart of your downtown. The race started
in front of town Hall like which is actually very cool,
a very picturesque start to the race. It was very pretty,
a lot of people taking pictures in front of the
big historic building. You're starting right there on Main Street,
so the street is lined with shops and cars and
things and stuff. Some buildings still have businesses in them.
(05:39):
Some don't, you know, such as the way of small
town America anymore. But it was a very picturesque start. Now,
the start line in the finish line were not the
same thing. So while this was mostly an out and back,
the finish line was a few blocks away. I don't
think everyone realized that going into this. It was mentioned.
(06:00):
I'm not gonna sider and say, oh, they did not
communicate with us. It was communicated. I just don't think
people really understood the actual distance that we were talking
between start line and finish line. So we start. The
race starts pretty much on time, no problem. The half
marathoners begin first. The five kres got to wait by
I think they said about fifteen minutes, just to let
(06:22):
the half marathoners kind of clear out. We start in
front of the courthouse. We start going on Main Street.
I do believe that we were heading were we heading north?
I think we were heading north ish on Main Street?
Either which way. We go down a few blocks and
we make our right turn and then it is basically
an out and back. So when we make the right
turn and we go down in little ways, we're jogging along.
(06:44):
We're not quite a mile marker one yet, although it's close.
We look off to our left and there's the finish line.
So the finish line is just right there, off the
left side of the road. A few people are over
there working the finish line, you know, getting things set
up and the you know, we get the wave and everything.
It's like, uh oh, you know, we're almost a mile
quiet and maybe three quarters of a mile already into
this race from the start line, and now here's a
(07:04):
finish line. I know that I parked. I parked close
to the start line, but at least I was on
this side of it, you know, kind of not in
between start and finish, still close to the start. But
I would get to my car before I got all
the way back to the original start line. I know
a lot of people parked on the other side of
the start line, so they had even farther to go
to get back to their automobiles after the race. Again,
(07:27):
big deal. No, after a half marathon, do you want
to walk that extra distance? Let's just say it's not
first and foremost on your list, right right, fair enough
to say. Anyway, we start trekking on. I began the
race with the twelve minute per mile pace group. All right,
so what is that about? Two thirty five, two thirty
six somewhere in there? Half marathon. Now, I know my
(07:50):
current level of fitness in the distances I haven't been
doing lately. That holding that for the entire half was
not going to be a thing, but I wanted to
start with them. It was a super pacer, Katie and
then Cody. We're kind of working together as a pacer
or tandem. And I was with them, and what Jesse
was there, and Allison was there, and a few of
the other run fan members were there. First time half
(08:13):
marathon was there. If I could remember her name, I'd
give her a shout out. I hope you enjoyed your
first half marathon. The coworker of Jesse's and so we
were all just kind of running together, shooting the breeze, this,
that and the other. Once we got in between mile
three and a half and four, that's where I'm like,
all right, everyone, have a great race. Because I knew
I was going to start dropping back. I did not
want to try and continue to keep that pace any
(08:35):
farther or I would have you know, I would have
gone out like an a hole and really warned myself
out and at first half of the race. Could I
have kept up with them for the first ten k
Probably I was feeling pretty good. Would it have been
a good idea? No, No, it would not have been
a good idea. So always keep that in mind. Sometimes
when you're trucking along with your buddy or you're with
a pacer, but you know you're a little in front
(08:56):
of where you want to be or where you should be,
don't be afraid to bring it down the earlier. Sometimes
we feel like we have to get to some imaginary
qualifying mark, like I'll stay with them for the first
five k or I'll stay with them for the first
five miles, or I'll stay with them for half of
the race. Okay, Well, you don't have to like you're
not required to. If you know that you're you're kind
of blowing the second half of your race. We'll drop
back a little early so that you don't monk at
(09:19):
mile eleven. Just food for thought, do with it what
you will. So I started falling back. They continue on.
I know that other people eventually dropped off that pace
because I saw them later on the course, but you know,
they recruise along doing their thing. Good job out of them.
I was starting to experience a little gastric distress, shall
we say. I had heard rumblings that there was a
(09:41):
porta potty around mile four point eight, somewhere in their
close to mile marker five. I was going to have
to wait for that, whether it was in use or not.
I was definitely gonna need that restroom once we got
to it. And so we're trekking along, trekking along, and
then right at the aid station, which was actually it
was at mile four and a half, there was the
one porta pot Yes, it was in use. Yes, I
(10:02):
got in line to say that that porta party was
the hero of my race, that would be an understatement,
because again I had been running along looking off the
side of the road, and again this is just this
is a trail. This is another flat, gravel ish trail.
We'll get back to what it was actually consisting of
here in a minute. And then it was just tree
(10:23):
lined off the sides. So I'm kind of looking at
what tree I feel I could dive behind, and then
what tree looked like it had the biggest leaves on
it for potential coverage of you know, hand in area.
That's how bad my stomach was feeling during the first
part of that race. Thankfully, the person in front of
me was not in the restroom long, the gentleman who
(10:46):
was actually next He's like, oh, no, go ahead, And
I double checked with him twice, like are you sure?
Are you sure? Because I knew it was going to
take a second, And thankfully, I'm gonna say ninety seconds.
I lost maybe one hundred to maybe two minutes. But
either which way, my trip to the restroom was a glorious,
glorious moment that changed the trajectory of my race and
(11:09):
day might have even benefited my life for the better.
All that to say, thank god that restroom is right
there at mile four and a half, so upon leaving
I felt like a new runner. Everything was great. I
got my drink and on I went. But I want
to thank that porta potty for being there. I want
to thank whoever put that porta potty there. You guys
made the Christmas card. Yeah, yeah, you're on the Christmas
(11:30):
card list. Expect something in December. But thank you porta potty.
I tip of the cap. Anyway, I continue on. All right,
we're at mile five because we started this race in
front of the courthouse, and we did a little bit
in that downtown. It wasn't exactly to mile marker six
and a half where you turn around it was. It
was measured just a little differently, so about mile six
(11:51):
and three quarters, so six point seven five, six point
eight zero somewhere in there is where we finally made
the turn and started heading back, because again just an
out and this course we had previously run along. And
if I get this wrong, if I'm wrong on names,
I apologize. When we did Loggerhead in November, it was
(12:12):
a different route, it was a different trail. I think
we eventually picked up. I think it's the Katie Trail.
Isn't Katie Trail that side of Ottawa? I think it
was the Katie Trail which is crushed limestone, no problem.
Crushed limestone and dirt, very flat, very fine crushed rock.
(12:32):
Super great. That was the trail for Loggerhead. Okay, so
now because of the way the direction we went out
and the course that we took, we're now on the
Flint Hills like Nature Preserve trail. And while pieces of
it were flat crushed limestone, not all of it. We
did a lot of different terrain hopping during this race.
(12:54):
So we started on asphalt and then we go down
to it I think it was kind of more like dirt.
We could to the crushed limestone, and then we're kind
of back on some dirt leaf mixture. A lot of
sticks on this course, and we're moving along there and
then there's some concrete bridges. There's some really high bridges
with no rails on the side, so if you're afraid
(13:14):
of heights, you didn't like those bridges at all. And
then we get to this part and be guys, if
you ran this race, you know where I'm going with this.
It was mile five. It was dirt and big rocks.
This was not grabble, this was not crushed limestone. There
were some big honkin rocks on the trail and a
(13:37):
lot of us were clipping them and people were twisting things,
and I hit one myself. That did me no favors
at all. So I hit a rock I don't know,
maybe as big as a softball, But when it hit
the bottom of my foot, and I had no idea
what was coming. I didn't see it. I mean, it
just felt like it cut through my shoe and into
my foot. It just was a stabbing pain on the
(13:59):
right part of my foot, right below where the toes
are on the pad as it were. And man, that
thing hurt like a mother. And because it so jarred me,
it forced my knee, which I've told you my knee,
my right knees. I think there's more on that to come,
but my right knee is no point on right now.
But it caused that to move in a way it
wasn't wanting to move, just the jerk of the body.
(14:22):
And so that really kind of altered the path of
my race. Show we say things did not go as
smoothly after I hit that rock. During that just that
one mile, someone had said that that trail had gotten
washed out, that there was some flooding earlier in the year,
and that's why that trail was the way that it
was because there was no limestone, There was no not
(14:43):
even pack muddy. It just was dirt, a lot of
dirt and rock is all it was. So if you
hit a rock, and I know other people did, there
are people who kind of twisted an ankle, jerked their knee,
you know, hurt their feet because no one, I don't well,
I can't say no one. I assume not many people
were there wearing like ultra marathon trail shoes. They were
(15:03):
all in their running shoes thinking this was going to
be a loggerhead, very fine, very crushed gravel course. And
it wasn't that we had a lot of different trains
we had to traverse on this. The shoes that I
wore my Brooks were running on the roads, they were
not the right shoes to wear for this event. I
definitely should have been in shoes with a harder bottom,
harder sole to the shoe would have helped me against
(15:26):
those rocks. So that's what it was. It was what
it was. But anyway, it was only about a mile long,
some mile five to six. You're going through that area,
you're hitting the turnaround. Then what miles it was mile
eight to nine, I think was it coming back. But thankfully,
when you were on the coming back part of it,
the rocks weren't so bad on the other side of
the trail. They were bad on the right side as
(15:48):
we were going out, but they weren't bad on the
right side as we were coming back. So thankfully for that,
not as bad. One perfect, but not as bad. By
the time I get past mile ten into eleven. Once
we get to eleven, that's where the sun was starting
to come out. The clouds had burned off, and Saturday
was a warmer day for the Kansas City area. The
race got up into the low eighties by the time
(16:10):
we all got into the barn and the last full
mile of the race, mile marker twelve is where you're
at the end of the trail of the nature preserve
and you're just on kind of the road back, no shade.
The trees are gone at that point, and the sun
was beating down, so I think most people, especially the
people let's say two and a half hours and above,
(16:32):
really got the brunt of the sunshine on that last
mile of the race, and it got toasty, toasty, toasty toasty.
So we finished at about eighty two degrees. That did
the last mile? Finish the race? Was it my best time? No?
Was time added because of my restroom stop? Yes? Am
I willing to accept that at a time because I
got to stop of the restroom. Oh hell yeah again
(16:54):
porta potty. I took a selfie with the porta potty
on the way back, like that was my buddy from
the race. I can share that picture of no one
needs it, but yeah, so finish the race. Good race,
enjoyed it for its first year. Again, you can't control
everything on the trail. I think the other side of Ottawa,
the Katie Trail is an easier run. The Flint Hills
(17:14):
Nature Trail definitely more challenging. It's all still flat as
a pancake, which is great, but the last mile with
no shade was a little rough. Again, could have been
a lot worse for August. So I'm not poo pooing
on it. And then finish the race, and then you
got to make the long walk back to your car.
That is what stunk the most. Like I've got all
my stuff. I'm kind of not feeling great after the
(17:35):
run because it's getting hot. I could use some more water.
I could use some food. I could use some stuff
to kind of replenish. But I gotta get all the
way back to my car. So long walk up and
around down Main Street again, get back to the car.
Take the pictures away to go. So here is the metal.
If you are watching on Facebook and or YouTube, nice metal.
I mean it is a big som of gun. This
(17:57):
is a big metal here. So it says Ottawa Half
Marathon in five. I'm gonna be a jerk face, all right,
I admit it. I admit I'm being a jerk face
on this. But like, this is a big metal and
we ran a half marathon for this. You five carriers
got the same metal. I don't know, man, maybe they
could have gone with like a little smaller, slim down
version for the five cares. Because this is big iron,
(18:18):
this big one day. Nabit got Terry running around wearing
a metal like this and she just hit the five
kick anyway, I'm teasing, no, I don't care. But anyway,
so that was our first race. That was it. That
was the Ottawa half Marathon. I give it a two
thumbs up. I hope they will do it again. It
was a good time. I somehow expect that next year
(18:40):
it'll probably be one hundred degrees and we will suffer
horribly and it's gonna feel like Rock Island and it's
gonna be nasty and gross, and we're gonna hate every
second of it. We lucked out this year, lucked out
for the entire weekend that we did not get the
temperatures one could get. Fast forward to the next day.
All right, So that was Saturday. Now we're up to Sunday. Sunday,
Thank the good Lord above, we had a five k
(19:01):
coming up instead of the half marathon the day before.
This is the Oways and for Ever five k and
this year they added a K Dash nine because dogs.
So it's the olas In Forever five K Dash nine
five K nine race. This takes place in DeSoto, Kansas
and Leon at Lexington Lake Park. This is where I
did the Virtual Marine Corps Marathon. I've done races out there,
(19:23):
I've done bike rides out there. I know this park.
I like this park. You have a great mix of
flat parts, hills, a mile and a half loop, so
you're never more than a mile and a half away.
Well really, you're never more than like three quarters a
mile away from your car and from help and whatever
the situation might be. It's around the lake. There's a marina,
there's shelters, there's playgrounds, there's great parking area. This is
(19:46):
a wonderful park. I really like this park a lot. Okay,
So Lexington Lake Park and Dusoto, Kansas, that is where
this race took place. We did it last year. Last
year was the first time we had heard of it.
Came back this year seemed a little smaller this year.
I imagine registration was down just a little bit. This
race is not a body's race, but it is timed
and set up by Bodies Race Company, and then they
(20:06):
work with the Animal Shelter Alwaso And when I say forever,
if you are ever, they work with Bodies and so
this is technically a bodies event. But we get there.
The race started super duper late, let's just call it
what it was. Started super duper late. Then then start
talking into the crowd until about eight o'clock, which is
when we were supposed to go. So a lot of
(20:26):
times standing around waiting for everything to get done. Blah
blah bah blah. Okay, Okay, I'm not going to get
on too much because it is for a good cause
they're trying to give credit where credit is due for
the people that keep this animal shelter going. Animal shelters
are super important. I love dogs, and so I want
the dogs to have the best quality of life that
they can while they're in the shelter. This raises money
(20:47):
for that. Let's raise the money. I can stand around
for five minutes to wait for the race to start.
You get all your spiels in, Thank all the people
that you need to think. Thank your sponsors who are
helping with this event. Keep them happy so that they
will keep helping with the dog thing. Life is good,
no problems, no beef here. We did have some of
the same folks, so I know there were some people
who doubled up and tripled up this weekend. Shout out
(21:08):
to Carrie and Terry and Dan and Paula and Christina
and Jason and they're more and I'm gonna miss more,
oh Jesse. And let's say I think Aaron got some extras.
But there are a lot of people who were doubling
and tripling up this weekend. So good job to local
run Fam for being out there doing your thing. Fran
also as well, and again I know I'm still gonna
(21:28):
miss some It's not personal, believe you me. But a
lot of people showed up at that little race, and
it was good to see the run fam there. It
is a small race, but maybe one hundred peple one
hundred and fifty people. If that is one hundred and
fifty fair, we'll say one hundred and fifty people took
off When the race began, My legs were super tired.
I went out like an a hole in the first
(21:48):
mile because I knew the wheels were gonna fall off eventually.
I had just done a half marathon the day before,
and now I'm trying to run this five k again.
Lexington Lake Park is a little challenging. It is not
the easiest run you've ever done. There is some uphill,
there is some downhill, there are some flat parts, there's
some turns. It's not easy, and on this morning, even
more humid. Now. The sun never came out Saturday morning,
(22:11):
nor was it expected to. It was actually supposed to
rain on us on Saturday. We never got a drop,
but the humidity was still sky high. Another race starting
at sixty five felt a little warmer for some reason,
but probably because the humidity and due point were way up,
but the rain never came, thank you so much. So
it was a sweaty, sweaty five k now if I'm
(22:32):
gonna have a complaint about the olas and forever. Their
first two eight stations were fine. They were people, they
were out offering water and they're just giving away the
little bottles of water in the plastic. The y'all on
the second half, were you scared? Were rerunners a little
too intimidating for you? Because there were two tents set
up and I assumed those tents were going to be
(22:54):
eight stations to the point. There were coolers sitting there,
but the cooler lids were closed stuff with stack on
top of them. And the volunteers were standing behind the
tent off in the deep grass like they were afraid
of us running jerkfaces. And so there was no support
after the aid station at mile marker one, and so
(23:15):
you had the one I guess what was even a
mile marker one. It might have been before mile marker one.
I think it was a little before. But then you
had to go all the way out and around. You
had to go to the turnaround, and then you had
to come all the way back, so you weren't back
to them. No, it wasn't mal marker one. It was
like the one mile turnaround, so it was like a
half mile in the race. So you got them twice,
but you got them at the very beginning, and then
(23:36):
you got them at the very end, and then the
other two tents that were set up farther in the course.
I guess we're just there for decoration. But those volunteers
were having none of it. They were just standing back there,
arms folded, nothing, handing out to runners. And if they
thought that we were just gonna stop open their coolers
and get what we needed and then close the coolers
and move on, that's not exactly how AID stations work.
(23:59):
So if I'm going to offering criticism of the OL's
and forever, the volunteer is just needed to be made
a little more aware of what would be beneficial to
the runners. And again, you're volunteering for the race. You're
there to support the runners, So support the runners. Don't
stand a half mile behind your tent like you can
smell us already and you don't want to deal with this.
(24:21):
If you don't want to be around the runners, don't
volunteer for the race. That's when I think of it. Anyway,
I ran the good first half of the race. I
ran a crap second half of the race. The legs
were tired. I was done. But around we go finish
the race, everything was great. Here is the medal. This
is you know, this is one of those races where, yeah,
this is a chin se medal, but you know what,
(24:42):
I'd rather the funds go to what they need to
go to, right, all right, So it says Olds and
Forever five K nine race, blah blah blah. Yeah, there's
nothing special about this. It's nothing on the ribbon, nothing
really on the back. You know, this was a cheaply
made medal. It's about what we almost did for the
five k. We did a millionaires but I get it.
But I want that money to go towards the shelter
(25:03):
and the dogs. So this will hang on my wall
just like all the other ones. No problems, no issues.
Life is good again. I like that race. I've done
it two years in a row. I feel like last
year maybe it was a little bigger, better. This year
just kind of was what it was. Also, didn't feel
like there as many dogs out there for adoption. I
think you need to get the dogs out there for adoption.
I know last year I was gonna steal a few
(25:23):
of them. This year there were like maybe two or three,
and they didn't have the pins set up with the
little puppies in it. Maybe the problem is they don't
have that many dogs on site. Maybe they've all been adopted.
Maybe they're all in there forever homes. I hope that's
the case. If that's the case, super great, I will
shut my pie hole immediately in good job out of
you guys. But other than that, there are one as
many many dogs to play with out there, and that
(25:44):
was very sad because I like to see the doggies. Anyway,
fast forward to Monday, Labor Day today, here we are
the Leewood Rotary Club does their Leewood Labor Day Dash.
We grab the medal here just so I've gotten it
in my hand. So this race changed locations last year
and all years previous that I knew of. It started
at a business park over in Leewood. Now it started
(26:07):
at a park park in Leewood at Leewood Park. This
is a new change for me. I've never seen this
race at this location before. I've never done a race before.
At this location. A lot of people say it is
where the Midnight Run takes place. I've never done the
midnight run. It almost seems to fall on a day
where I either had just run a half marathon or
was just about to run a half marathon, and I
(26:28):
wasn't going out for a race at midnight. No, thank
you very much. So it sounds like that's where this
race has taken place before, but it was a new
course for me. You park at Leewood Park. You were
by the swimming the public swimming pool and the park area,
and there's some soccer fields and that's where you're at.
They have enough people, enough volunteers from the Rotary Club.
They're directing traffic. I had people out there with Wan's
(26:51):
appointing me where to go, where to park, where to
do this down and the other. So they are doing
just find other volunteers. Everyone was super friendly. This was
the morning where the rain actually came, so I excuse me, now,
I got Jacobs. So I drove a little bit through
the rain that morning, no problem. Got there. It kind
of simmered down a little bit. I go over, I
get my packet. Then the rain picks up. People start
(27:14):
scrambling around. You know how it is. I go to
my car, I get my bib on, I'm ready to go.
It's still a while before race time. I always keep
in my car an emergency poncho. You know, you can
go to Walmart. Credit to Walmart. You guys want to
sponsor someone sponsor us ninety nine cent poncho. You just
get one. You keep it in the globbox of your car.
On a race morning like this, where it gets a
little rainy, you take it out and you spend your
(27:36):
ninety nine cents. Okay, fine, So I had one of
those sitting in there. It was great, worked out well,
kept it on until the race started. A lot of
the run families at this race, a lot of people
getting their second, third race whatever. You know. Andrew was
out there, Delise was out there again, so many people
And now see, now I'm gonna feel like a jerk
face because I'm gonna lead people out and that I
(27:56):
should never have started with the names in the first place.
Oh well, what can you do? You know, I love
you all, just don't hold it against me. Bill was
out there. Shout out to Bill, Bill, You're so nice
and so good. Crowd, good, crowd maybe five hundred for
this race. I'm gonna say five hundred for this race.
It seemed like a pretty big race. It was last year.
Last year when we did this race, it was my
(28:17):
three hundred race. Today it was my three hundred and
fifty third. So not a bad year. Not a bad
year of running. Averaged a race per weekend, maybe a
hair more like one point one races per weekend or
something like that. Anyway, it was fine. This course was
also just an out and back. I think what I
(28:37):
liked about the previous course at the Business Park it
seemed almost like a circle. I know it wasn't quite
a circle, but it seemed almost like in a round
where this was just in back. You know, what can
you do? I know on a holiday you got to
get cops to close roads. You got to coordinate with cities,
like there's hoops you gotta jump through. So I get
all that. This course leaves the park, you take a
(28:58):
right on the little road takes you into the park.
You get to Mission Road, big road, cops there block
it off. Thank you much. You hang a left on
Mission Road. You go up a little bit. We hang
a left on another road and I don't know if
that was quite College Boulevard. It might have been, could
have been. Maybe it wasn't. I could be wrong. You
go down that road a little bit, you get to
the turnaround, you go to the turnaround, you come back,
you get to Mission Road. Now you take it right,
(29:19):
you come back to the road to the park, you
take it right, you come back down and you take
a left finish line. Boom you done. I had no problem.
They had the photographers out there. The eight stations were
at least as far as I saw, there were plenty stocked.
No issues finish the race. They have nice medals. They
had great medals last year. This year is good as well.
Here you go Leewood Rotary Club Labor Day five K
(29:39):
twenty twenty five, and you can see these all a
little closer on the metal Monday post. But it's got
a nice ribbon. I am going to complain about one
thing this weekend, all right, in race directors, you guys
can tell me to shut up, and I will shut
my pie hole. To some extent. We are in an
epidemic right now of everyone going with road id bibs.
(30:02):
Most of the time you're gonna say, hey, it's a
cost saving measure because personalized bibs are too expensive. And
most of the time I tell you, fine, we don't care,
or that's what a race director might tell you. What
I'm gonna tell you is, even if it's something that
we don't say out loud and we just keep in
the back of our minds and we don't really say
to anyone, I'll say it. We don't like road id bibs.
(30:24):
No runner likes road id bibs. We don't like them, Okay,
A we want a bib that's associated with the race
b We want a bib whird the chip is not
on the front. We don't want the chip on the front.
These just look bad, all right. They're not enjoyable, they're
not memorable. They don't add to the experience of the event.
And out of my last five races, I have four
(30:47):
road id bibs. A just you know, if a race
wants some feedback, and I know it costs more. I've
said that before, I'll say it again. I understand there's
a big cost associated with getting personalized bibs, but I
can also tell you that, even if a runner won't
say it out loud, we like the personalized bibs. We
don't like road Id. Some people might not care, but
(31:09):
some of us definitely do. So on behalf of the
runners who hate the road Id bibs. But we're never
gonna say anything about it anyway, because in the grand
scheme of things, it is not that big of a deal.
I will tell any race director who is listening and
who cares, we don't like road Id bibs. So if
you want to score brownie points that we'll certainly appreciate,
(31:31):
even if we don't voice get nice bibs. There we go.
And if I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong. But you
can't tell me I'm wrong because I know I'm not
wrong because I don't like road i D bibs and
I'm a runner, So take that anyway. That's gonna do it.
I somehow still manage to fill an entire episode just
reviewing three races. I'm sorry, and my road I D
bib rant aside didn't help anyway, that's gonna do it.
(31:55):
What the heck, I'm gonna shut the heck up here.
It's the end of the holiday weekend. Man back to
work tomorrow, and now summer's over and boo anyway, Hey everyone,
thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode
of the Backup Back Podcast. I am your host, Kyle Walker.
It is my pleasure as always, everyone, have a safe
week of training, enjoyed this nice weather. It's still here
for a while, and we will see you next week
Hello, everyone, greetings and salitations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Back podcast. I'm your host,
Kyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in. Pardon
me if I see him a little little load today,
A little tired. Not gonna lie, I am tired. I'm
freaking exhausted. Man. It was a three race weekend for
the podcast, and I went back and I took a
look at my spreadsheet and I got to thinking, have
(00:34):
I ever done a three race weekend before? And from
quick glance, I don't think I have. I think this
was the first time ever that I pulled that one off.
So I don't know what I was thinking, but I
done thought it and did it, and here we are.
And so I'm glad that this wall is here to
support me, because otherwise they'd probably be falling over at
this point. You never really want to start a three
(00:55):
race weekend with a half marathon, you know, maybe build
up to that or just stick it like five K
five K, five k, maybe five K ten k, five k,
but half five five Good grief? What was I thinking?
I don't know. I make the mistakes, so you don't
have to. So there we go. That's what we were doing. Anyway,
I hope you were having a great Labor Day weekend.
Not gonna lie. This is gonna be a pretty quick episode.
(01:16):
We're gonna do our race reviews from the three races
this weekend. They're gonna send you about your merry way
so you can enjoy the the officially unofficial end of
summer that we're at right now, as it is Monday, September. First,
it is Labor Day. Now some I'm going to bring
up because I'm bringing this up almost every Labor Day,
because I still don't know where people draw the connection.
(01:37):
Please remember, this is Labor Day. This is not Memorial Day.
This is not a military themed holiday. This is not
a remembrance of service members who have been killed in
action or whatever the case might be. This is very
different from that. So the people who are still trying
to make this a military holiday, nothing I'm saying it
can be. I mean, it certainly could be, and I'm
all for military holidays whenever you want to put one
(01:59):
out there. But no, well, just remember, let's talk real
quick about Labor Day. So Labor Day in the United
States federal holiday, right, got it? Yeah, celebrated the first
Monday in September, created to honor and recognize the American
labor movement and the contributions of workers to the strength
of prosperity and well being of the country. Again, this
is just a real quick little synopsis that I found
(02:20):
of it. The origins go back to the late nineteenth century,
a time of rapid industrialization when workers often face long hours,
low pay, and unsafe conditions. So clearly not much has changed.
I say that as a banker. Al Right, funny labor
unions organized strikes and rallies demanding better treatment, and in
eighteen ninety four, following a major railroad strike and growing unrest,
(02:44):
Congress made Labor Day and official federal holiday. So today
it's seen both as a day of rest and appreciation
for workers and as the unofficial end of summer, marked
with parades, barbecues, community events, and of course plenty of
holiday races. And that's where we come into this weekend.
As we had plenty of holiday races. We started off
(03:05):
with the brand spanking new, never been run before first
time Ottawa Half Marathon in Ottawa, Kansas, about a forty
five minute drive away for me, especially on a nice
Saturday morning when people were still sleeping. It was an
early race start, so we had to get on down
to Ottawa. It was in the story of One of
the stories of this weekend is we had some pretty
(03:27):
decent weather for the end of August. I'm not going
to say it was perfect conditions, because it wasn't perfect,
but considering what the end of August in the beginning
of September can be, what we ended up getting was
pretty lovely. So we went down there is about sixty
five degrees when we got there. Sixty five degrees is great.
Problem is and problem for all the weekend humidity sky high.
(03:48):
It was very humid. There was a threat of rain
all weekend, and while it did eventually get here ish,
it never was what the forecast said it was supposed
to be. I let this whole weekend was going to
be pretty much a washout. We had some sprinkles and
that's about the extent of it. Now. I know some
places in our area got a lot of rain, but
A the rain wasn't at any of the races, and B,
(04:11):
especially in my area, it was minuscule at best. It
was really not much. But anyway, we get down to
Ottawa on a nice morning. It is overcast, which is good.
It is sixty five degrees, which is good. Humidity is
sky high. It's not great, but we're there. I'm not
sure how many people signed up for this race. I
would like to say between the half marathon and the
five k, those were the distances offered. Maybe they got
(04:34):
three hundred. Is three hundred fair assessment for anyone who
was there. Let me know if I'm off, could be
three fifty. Maybe they got to four, maybe they got
to five. I'm gonna say this is about a three
hundred person race, and again, not bad for your first year.
This takes the place of Loggerhead. Loggerhead was a November
race run in the same part of town, starting like
just a block over from where this race started. But
(04:56):
I think a lot of people maybe they liked the
November I feel like Loggerhead might have been a little bigger,
but even Loggerheads numbers were way down. Again, you're driving
all the way out to Ottawa, so for the Kansas
City folks, you're at anywhere between forty five minutes and
maybe an hour fifteen hour twenty to get down to Ottawa, Kansas.
So it is a bit of a trek now, if
you're from Ottawa, hooray you get a local race right
(05:19):
there in the heart of your downtown. The race started
in front of town Hall like which is actually very cool,
a very picturesque start to the race. It was very pretty,
a lot of people taking pictures in front of the
big historic building. You're starting right there on Main Street,
so the street is lined with shops and cars and
things and stuff. Some buildings still have businesses in them.
(05:39):
Some don't, you know, such as the way of small
town America anymore. But it was a very picturesque start. Now,
the start line in the finish line were not the
same thing. So while this was mostly an out and back,
the finish line was a few blocks away. I don't
think everyone realized that going into this. It was mentioned.
(06:00):
I'm not gonna sider and say, oh, they did not
communicate with us. It was communicated. I just don't think
people really understood the actual distance that we were talking
between start line and finish line. So we start. The
race starts pretty much on time, no problem. The half
marathoners begin first. The five kres got to wait by
I think they said about fifteen minutes, just to let
(06:22):
the half marathoners kind of clear out. We start in
front of the courthouse. We start going on Main Street.
I do believe that we were heading were we heading north?
I think we were heading north ish on Main Street?
Either which way. We go down a few blocks and
we make our right turn and then it is basically
an out and back. So when we make the right
turn and we go down in little ways, we're jogging along.
(06:44):
We're not quite a mile marker one yet, although it's close.
We look off to our left and there's the finish line.
So the finish line is just right there, off the
left side of the road. A few people are over
there working the finish line, you know, getting things set
up and the you know, we get the wave and everything.
It's like, uh oh, you know, we're almost a mile
quiet and maybe three quarters of a mile already into
this race from the start line, and now here's a
(07:04):
finish line. I know that I parked. I parked close
to the start line, but at least I was on
this side of it, you know, kind of not in
between start and finish, still close to the start. But
I would get to my car before I got all
the way back to the original start line. I know
a lot of people parked on the other side of
the start line, so they had even farther to go
to get back to their automobiles after the race. Again,
(07:27):
big deal. No, after a half marathon, do you want
to walk that extra distance? Let's just say it's not
first and foremost on your list, right right, fair enough
to say. Anyway, we start trekking on. I began the
race with the twelve minute per mile pace group. All right,
so what is that about? Two thirty five, two thirty
six somewhere in there? Half marathon. Now, I know my
(07:50):
current level of fitness in the distances I haven't been
doing lately. That holding that for the entire half was
not going to be a thing, but I wanted to
start with them. It was a super pacer, Katie and
then Cody. We're kind of working together as a pacer
or tandem. And I was with them, and what Jesse
was there, and Allison was there, and a few of
the other run fan members were there. First time half
(08:13):
marathon was there. If I could remember her name, I'd
give her a shout out. I hope you enjoyed your
first half marathon. The coworker of Jesse's and so we
were all just kind of running together, shooting the breeze, this,
that and the other. Once we got in between mile
three and a half and four, that's where I'm like,
all right, everyone, have a great race. Because I knew
I was going to start dropping back. I did not
want to try and continue to keep that pace any
(08:35):
farther or I would have you know, I would have
gone out like an a hole and really warned myself
out and at first half of the race. Could I
have kept up with them for the first ten k
Probably I was feeling pretty good. Would it have been
a good idea? No, No, it would not have been
a good idea. So always keep that in mind. Sometimes
when you're trucking along with your buddy or you're with
a pacer, but you know you're a little in front
(08:56):
of where you want to be or where you should be,
don't be afraid to bring it down the earlier. Sometimes
we feel like we have to get to some imaginary
qualifying mark, like I'll stay with them for the first
five k or I'll stay with them for the first
five miles, or I'll stay with them for half of
the race. Okay, Well, you don't have to like you're
not required to. If you know that you're you're kind
of blowing the second half of your race. We'll drop
back a little early so that you don't monk at
(09:19):
mile eleven. Just food for thought, do with it what
you will. So I started falling back. They continue on.
I know that other people eventually dropped off that pace
because I saw them later on the course, but you know,
they recruise along doing their thing. Good job out of them.
I was starting to experience a little gastric distress, shall
we say. I had heard rumblings that there was a
(09:41):
porta potty around mile four point eight, somewhere in their
close to mile marker five. I was going to have
to wait for that, whether it was in use or not.
I was definitely gonna need that restroom once we got
to it. And so we're trekking along, trekking along, and
then right at the aid station, which was actually it
was at mile four and a half, there was the
one porta pot Yes, it was in use. Yes, I
(10:02):
got in line to say that that porta party was
the hero of my race, that would be an understatement,
because again I had been running along looking off the
side of the road, and again this is just this
is a trail. This is another flat, gravel ish trail.
We'll get back to what it was actually consisting of
here in a minute. And then it was just tree
(10:23):
lined off the sides. So I'm kind of looking at
what tree I feel I could dive behind, and then
what tree looked like it had the biggest leaves on
it for potential coverage of you know, hand in area.
That's how bad my stomach was feeling during the first
part of that race. Thankfully, the person in front of
me was not in the restroom long, the gentleman who
(10:46):
was actually next He's like, oh, no, go ahead, And
I double checked with him twice, like are you sure?
Are you sure? Because I knew it was going to
take a second, And thankfully, I'm gonna say ninety seconds.
I lost maybe one hundred to maybe two minutes. But
either which way, my trip to the restroom was a glorious,
glorious moment that changed the trajectory of my race and
(11:09):
day might have even benefited my life for the better.
All that to say, thank god that restroom is right
there at mile four and a half, so upon leaving
I felt like a new runner. Everything was great. I
got my drink and on I went. But I want
to thank that porta potty for being there. I want
to thank whoever put that porta potty there. You guys
made the Christmas card. Yeah, yeah, you're on the Christmas
(11:30):
card list. Expect something in December. But thank you porta potty.
I tip of the cap. Anyway, I continue on. All right,
we're at mile five because we started this race in
front of the courthouse, and we did a little bit
in that downtown. It wasn't exactly to mile marker six
and a half where you turn around it was. It
was measured just a little differently, so about mile six
(11:51):
and three quarters, so six point seven five, six point
eight zero somewhere in there is where we finally made
the turn and started heading back, because again just an
out and this course we had previously run along. And
if I get this wrong, if I'm wrong on names,
I apologize. When we did Loggerhead in November, it was
(12:12):
a different route, it was a different trail. I think
we eventually picked up. I think it's the Katie Trail.
Isn't Katie Trail that side of Ottawa? I think it
was the Katie Trail which is crushed limestone, no problem.
Crushed limestone and dirt, very flat, very fine crushed rock.
(12:32):
Super great. That was the trail for Loggerhead. Okay, so
now because of the way the direction we went out
and the course that we took, we're now on the
Flint Hills like Nature Preserve trail. And while pieces of
it were flat crushed limestone, not all of it. We
did a lot of different terrain hopping during this race.
(12:54):
So we started on asphalt and then we go down
to it I think it was kind of more like dirt.
We could to the crushed limestone, and then we're kind
of back on some dirt leaf mixture. A lot of
sticks on this course, and we're moving along there and
then there's some concrete bridges. There's some really high bridges
with no rails on the side, so if you're afraid
(13:14):
of heights, you didn't like those bridges at all. And
then we get to this part and be guys, if
you ran this race, you know where I'm going with this.
It was mile five. It was dirt and big rocks.
This was not grabble, this was not crushed limestone. There
were some big honkin rocks on the trail and a
(13:37):
lot of us were clipping them and people were twisting things,
and I hit one myself. That did me no favors
at all. So I hit a rock I don't know,
maybe as big as a softball, But when it hit
the bottom of my foot, and I had no idea
what was coming. I didn't see it. I mean, it
just felt like it cut through my shoe and into
my foot. It just was a stabbing pain on the
(13:59):
right part of my foot, right below where the toes
are on the pad as it were. And man, that
thing hurt like a mother. And because it so jarred me,
it forced my knee, which I've told you my knee,
my right knees. I think there's more on that to come,
but my right knee is no point on right now.
But it caused that to move in a way it
wasn't wanting to move, just the jerk of the body.
(14:22):
And so that really kind of altered the path of
my race. Show we say things did not go as
smoothly after I hit that rock. During that just that
one mile, someone had said that that trail had gotten
washed out, that there was some flooding earlier in the year,
and that's why that trail was the way that it
was because there was no limestone, There was no not
(14:43):
even pack muddy. It just was dirt, a lot of
dirt and rock is all it was. So if you
hit a rock, and I know other people did, there
are people who kind of twisted an ankle, jerked their knee,
you know, hurt their feet because no one, I don't well,
I can't say no one. I assume not many people
were there wearing like ultra marathon trail shoes. They were
(15:03):
all in their running shoes thinking this was going to
be a loggerhead, very fine, very crushed gravel course. And
it wasn't that we had a lot of different trains
we had to traverse on this. The shoes that I
wore my Brooks were running on the roads, they were
not the right shoes to wear for this event. I
definitely should have been in shoes with a harder bottom,
harder sole to the shoe would have helped me against
(15:26):
those rocks. So that's what it was. It was what
it was. But anyway, it was only about a mile long,
some mile five to six. You're going through that area,
you're hitting the turnaround. Then what miles it was mile
eight to nine, I think was it coming back. But thankfully,
when you were on the coming back part of it,
the rocks weren't so bad on the other side of
the trail. They were bad on the right side as
(15:48):
we were going out, but they weren't bad on the
right side as we were coming back. So thankfully for that,
not as bad. One perfect, but not as bad. By
the time I get past mile ten into eleven. Once
we get to eleven, that's where the sun was starting
to come out. The clouds had burned off, and Saturday
was a warmer day for the Kansas City area. The
race got up into the low eighties by the time
(16:10):
we all got into the barn and the last full
mile of the race, mile marker twelve is where you're
at the end of the trail of the nature preserve
and you're just on kind of the road back, no shade.
The trees are gone at that point, and the sun
was beating down, so I think most people, especially the
people let's say two and a half hours and above,
(16:32):
really got the brunt of the sunshine on that last
mile of the race, and it got toasty, toasty, toasty toasty.
So we finished at about eighty two degrees. That did
the last mile? Finish the race? Was it my best time? No?
Was time added because of my restroom stop? Yes? Am
I willing to accept that at a time because I
got to stop of the restroom. Oh hell yeah again
(16:54):
porta potty. I took a selfie with the porta potty
on the way back, like that was my buddy from
the race. I can share that picture of no one
needs it, but yeah, so finish the race. Good race,
enjoyed it for its first year. Again, you can't control
everything on the trail. I think the other side of Ottawa,
the Katie Trail is an easier run. The Flint Hills
(17:14):
Nature Trail definitely more challenging. It's all still flat as
a pancake, which is great, but the last mile with
no shade was a little rough. Again, could have been
a lot worse for August. So I'm not poo pooing
on it. And then finish the race, and then you
got to make the long walk back to your car.
That is what stunk the most. Like I've got all
my stuff. I'm kind of not feeling great after the
(17:35):
run because it's getting hot. I could use some more water.
I could use some food. I could use some stuff
to kind of replenish. But I gotta get all the
way back to my car. So long walk up and
around down Main Street again, get back to the car.
Take the pictures away to go. So here is the metal.
If you are watching on Facebook and or YouTube, nice metal.
I mean it is a big som of gun. This
(17:57):
is a big metal here. So it says Ottawa Half
Marathon in five. I'm gonna be a jerk face, all right,
I admit it. I admit I'm being a jerk face
on this. But like, this is a big metal and
we ran a half marathon for this. You five carriers
got the same metal. I don't know, man, maybe they
could have gone with like a little smaller, slim down
version for the five cares. Because this is big iron,
(18:18):
this big one day. Nabit got Terry running around wearing
a metal like this and she just hit the five
kick anyway, I'm teasing, no, I don't care. But anyway,
so that was our first race. That was it. That
was the Ottawa half Marathon. I give it a two
thumbs up. I hope they will do it again. It
was a good time. I somehow expect that next year
(18:40):
it'll probably be one hundred degrees and we will suffer
horribly and it's gonna feel like Rock Island and it's
gonna be nasty and gross, and we're gonna hate every
second of it. We lucked out this year, lucked out
for the entire weekend that we did not get the
temperatures one could get. Fast forward to the next day.
All right, So that was Saturday. Now we're up to Sunday. Sunday,
Thank the good Lord above, we had a five k
(19:01):
coming up instead of the half marathon the day before.
This is the Oways and for Ever five k and
this year they added a K Dash nine because dogs.
So it's the olas In Forever five K Dash nine
five K nine race. This takes place in DeSoto, Kansas
and Leon at Lexington Lake Park. This is where I
did the Virtual Marine Corps Marathon. I've done races out there,
(19:23):
I've done bike rides out there. I know this park.
I like this park. You have a great mix of
flat parts, hills, a mile and a half loop, so
you're never more than a mile and a half away.
Well really, you're never more than like three quarters a
mile away from your car and from help and whatever
the situation might be. It's around the lake. There's a marina,
there's shelters, there's playgrounds, there's great parking area. This is
(19:46):
a wonderful park. I really like this park a lot. Okay,
So Lexington Lake Park and Dusoto, Kansas, that is where
this race took place. We did it last year. Last
year was the first time we had heard of it.
Came back this year seemed a little smaller this year.
I imagine registration was down just a little bit. This
race is not a body's race, but it is timed
and set up by Bodies Race Company, and then they
(20:06):
work with the Animal Shelter Alwaso And when I say forever,
if you are ever, they work with Bodies and so
this is technically a bodies event. But we get there.
The race started super duper late, let's just call it
what it was. Started super duper late. Then then start
talking into the crowd until about eight o'clock, which is
when we were supposed to go. So a lot of
(20:26):
times standing around waiting for everything to get done. Blah
blah bah blah. Okay, Okay, I'm not going to get
on too much because it is for a good cause
they're trying to give credit where credit is due for
the people that keep this animal shelter going. Animal shelters
are super important. I love dogs, and so I want
the dogs to have the best quality of life that
they can while they're in the shelter. This raises money
(20:47):
for that. Let's raise the money. I can stand around
for five minutes to wait for the race to start.
You get all your spiels in, Thank all the people
that you need to think. Thank your sponsors who are
helping with this event. Keep them happy so that they
will keep helping with the dog thing. Life is good,
no problems, no beef here. We did have some of
the same folks, so I know there were some people
who doubled up and tripled up this weekend. Shout out
(21:08):
to Carrie and Terry and Dan and Paula and Christina
and Jason and they're more and I'm gonna miss more,
oh Jesse. And let's say I think Aaron got some extras.
But there are a lot of people who were doubling
and tripling up this weekend. So good job to local
run Fam for being out there doing your thing. Fran
also as well, and again I know I'm still gonna
(21:28):
miss some It's not personal, believe you me. But a
lot of people showed up at that little race, and
it was good to see the run fam there. It
is a small race, but maybe one hundred peple one
hundred and fifty people. If that is one hundred and
fifty fair, we'll say one hundred and fifty people took
off When the race began, My legs were super tired.
I went out like an a hole in the first
(21:48):
mile because I knew the wheels were gonna fall off eventually.
I had just done a half marathon the day before,
and now I'm trying to run this five k again.
Lexington Lake Park is a little challenging. It is not
the easiest run you've ever done. There is some uphill,
there is some downhill, there are some flat parts, there's
some turns. It's not easy, and on this morning, even
more humid. Now. The sun never came out Saturday morning,
(22:11):
nor was it expected to. It was actually supposed to
rain on us on Saturday. We never got a drop,
but the humidity was still sky high. Another race starting
at sixty five felt a little warmer for some reason,
but probably because the humidity and due point were way up,
but the rain never came, thank you so much. So
it was a sweaty, sweaty five k now if I'm
(22:32):
gonna have a complaint about the olas and forever. Their
first two eight stations were fine. They were people, they
were out offering water and they're just giving away the
little bottles of water in the plastic. The y'all on
the second half, were you scared? Were rerunners a little
too intimidating for you? Because there were two tents set
up and I assumed those tents were going to be
(22:54):
eight stations to the point. There were coolers sitting there,
but the cooler lids were closed stuff with stack on
top of them. And the volunteers were standing behind the
tent off in the deep grass like they were afraid
of us running jerkfaces. And so there was no support
after the aid station at mile marker one, and so
(23:15):
you had the one I guess what was even a
mile marker one. It might have been before mile marker one.
I think it was a little before. But then you
had to go all the way out and around. You
had to go to the turnaround, and then you had
to come all the way back, so you weren't back
to them. No, it wasn't mal marker one. It was
like the one mile turnaround, so it was like a
half mile in the race. So you got them twice,
but you got them at the very beginning, and then
(23:36):
you got them at the very end, and then the
other two tents that were set up farther in the course.
I guess we're just there for decoration. But those volunteers
were having none of it. They were just standing back there,
arms folded, nothing, handing out to runners. And if they
thought that we were just gonna stop open their coolers
and get what we needed and then close the coolers
and move on, that's not exactly how AID stations work.
(23:59):
So if I'm going to offering criticism of the OL's
and forever, the volunteer is just needed to be made
a little more aware of what would be beneficial to
the runners. And again, you're volunteering for the race. You're
there to support the runners, So support the runners. Don't
stand a half mile behind your tent like you can
smell us already and you don't want to deal with this.
(24:21):
If you don't want to be around the runners, don't
volunteer for the race. That's when I think of it. Anyway,
I ran the good first half of the race. I
ran a crap second half of the race. The legs
were tired. I was done. But around we go finish
the race, everything was great. Here is the medal. This
is you know, this is one of those races where, yeah,
this is a chin se medal, but you know what,
(24:42):
I'd rather the funds go to what they need to
go to, right, all right, So it says Olds and
Forever five K nine race, blah blah blah. Yeah, there's
nothing special about this. It's nothing on the ribbon, nothing
really on the back. You know, this was a cheaply
made medal. It's about what we almost did for the
five k. We did a millionaires but I get it.
But I want that money to go towards the shelter
(25:03):
and the dogs. So this will hang on my wall
just like all the other ones. No problems, no issues.
Life is good again. I like that race. I've done
it two years in a row. I feel like last
year maybe it was a little bigger, better. This year
just kind of was what it was. Also, didn't feel
like there as many dogs out there for adoption. I
think you need to get the dogs out there for adoption.
I know last year I was gonna steal a few
(25:23):
of them. This year there were like maybe two or three,
and they didn't have the pins set up with the
little puppies in it. Maybe the problem is they don't
have that many dogs on site. Maybe they've all been adopted.
Maybe they're all in there forever homes. I hope that's
the case. If that's the case, super great, I will
shut my pie hole immediately in good job out of
you guys. But other than that, there are one as
many many dogs to play with out there, and that
(25:44):
was very sad because I like to see the doggies. Anyway,
fast forward to Monday, Labor Day today, here we are
the Leewood Rotary Club does their Leewood Labor Day Dash.
We grab the medal here just so I've gotten it
in my hand. So this race changed locations last year
and all years previous that I knew of. It started
at a business park over in Leewood. Now it started
(26:07):
at a park park in Leewood at Leewood Park. This
is a new change for me. I've never seen this
race at this location before. I've never done a race before.
At this location. A lot of people say it is
where the Midnight Run takes place. I've never done the
midnight run. It almost seems to fall on a day
where I either had just run a half marathon or
was just about to run a half marathon, and I
(26:28):
wasn't going out for a race at midnight. No, thank
you very much. So it sounds like that's where this
race has taken place before, but it was a new
course for me. You park at Leewood Park. You were
by the swimming the public swimming pool and the park area,
and there's some soccer fields and that's where you're at.
They have enough people, enough volunteers from the Rotary Club.
They're directing traffic. I had people out there with Wan's
(26:51):
appointing me where to go, where to park, where to
do this down and the other. So they are doing
just find other volunteers. Everyone was super friendly. This was
the morning where the rain actually came, so I excuse me, now,
I got Jacobs. So I drove a little bit through
the rain that morning, no problem. Got there. It kind
of simmered down a little bit. I go over, I
get my packet. Then the rain picks up. People start
(27:14):
scrambling around. You know how it is. I go to
my car, I get my bib on, I'm ready to go.
It's still a while before race time. I always keep
in my car an emergency poncho. You know, you can
go to Walmart. Credit to Walmart. You guys want to
sponsor someone sponsor us ninety nine cent poncho. You just
get one. You keep it in the globbox of your car.
On a race morning like this, where it gets a
little rainy, you take it out and you spend your
(27:36):
ninety nine cents. Okay, fine, So I had one of
those sitting in there. It was great, worked out well,
kept it on until the race started. A lot of
the run families at this race, a lot of people
getting their second, third race whatever. You know. Andrew was
out there, Delise was out there again, so many people
And now see, now I'm gonna feel like a jerk
face because I'm gonna lead people out and that I
(27:56):
should never have started with the names in the first place.
Oh well, what can you do? You know, I love
you all, just don't hold it against me. Bill was
out there. Shout out to Bill, Bill, You're so nice
and so good. Crowd, good, crowd maybe five hundred for
this race. I'm gonna say five hundred for this race.
It seemed like a pretty big race. It was last year.
Last year when we did this race, it was my
(28:17):
three hundred race. Today it was my three hundred and
fifty third. So not a bad year. Not a bad
year of running. Averaged a race per weekend, maybe a
hair more like one point one races per weekend or
something like that. Anyway, it was fine. This course was
also just an out and back. I think what I
(28:37):
liked about the previous course at the Business Park it
seemed almost like a circle. I know it wasn't quite
a circle, but it seemed almost like in a round
where this was just in back. You know, what can
you do? I know on a holiday you got to
get cops to close roads. You got to coordinate with cities,
like there's hoops you gotta jump through. So I get
all that. This course leaves the park, you take a
(28:58):
right on the little road takes you into the park.
You get to Mission Road, big road, cops there block
it off. Thank you much. You hang a left on
Mission Road. You go up a little bit. We hang
a left on another road and I don't know if
that was quite College Boulevard. It might have been, could
have been. Maybe it wasn't. I could be wrong. You
go down that road a little bit, you get to
the turnaround, you go to the turnaround, you come back,
you get to Mission Road. Now you take it right,
(29:19):
you come back to the road to the park, you
take it right, you come back down and you take
a left finish line. Boom you done. I had no problem.
They had the photographers out there. The eight stations were
at least as far as I saw, there were plenty stocked.
No issues finish the race. They have nice medals. They
had great medals last year. This year is good as well.
Here you go Leewood Rotary Club Labor Day five K
(29:39):
twenty twenty five, and you can see these all a
little closer on the metal Monday post. But it's got
a nice ribbon. I am going to complain about one
thing this weekend, all right, in race directors, you guys
can tell me to shut up, and I will shut
my pie hole. To some extent. We are in an
epidemic right now of everyone going with road id bibs.
(30:02):
Most of the time you're gonna say, hey, it's a
cost saving measure because personalized bibs are too expensive. And
most of the time I tell you, fine, we don't care,
or that's what a race director might tell you. What
I'm gonna tell you is, even if it's something that
we don't say out loud and we just keep in
the back of our minds and we don't really say
to anyone, I'll say it. We don't like road id bibs.
(30:24):
No runner likes road id bibs. We don't like them, Okay,
A we want a bib that's associated with the race
b We want a bib whird the chip is not
on the front. We don't want the chip on the front.
These just look bad, all right. They're not enjoyable, they're
not memorable. They don't add to the experience of the event.
And out of my last five races, I have four
(30:47):
road id bibs. A just you know, if a race
wants some feedback, and I know it costs more. I've
said that before, I'll say it again. I understand there's
a big cost associated with getting personalized bibs, but I
can also tell you that, even if a runner won't
say it out loud, we like the personalized bibs. We
don't like road Id. Some people might not care, but
(31:09):
some of us definitely do. So on behalf of the
runners who hate the road Id bibs. But we're never
gonna say anything about it anyway, because in the grand
scheme of things, it is not that big of a deal.
I will tell any race director who is listening and
who cares, we don't like road Id bibs. So if
you want to score brownie points that we'll certainly appreciate,
(31:31):
even if we don't voice get nice bibs. There we go.
And if I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong. But you
can't tell me I'm wrong because I know I'm not
wrong because I don't like road i D bibs and
I'm a runner, So take that anyway. That's gonna do it.
I somehow still manage to fill an entire episode just
reviewing three races. I'm sorry, and my road I D
bib rant aside didn't help anyway, that's gonna do it.
(31:55):
What the heck, I'm gonna shut the heck up here.
It's the end of the holiday weekend. Man back to
work tomorrow, and now summer's over and boo anyway, Hey everyone,
thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode
of the Backup Back Podcast. I am your host, Kyle Walker.
It is my pleasure as always, everyone, have a safe
week of training, enjoyed this nice weather. It's still here
for a while, and we will see you next week
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