Race Report: Super Dolphin Day: St. Simons Island, GA

I retreated this weekend to St. Simons to participate in the 30th running of the Dolphins. The Super Dolphin Day Races, that is. Sponsored by the local elementary school, where else can you do a race that features a pasta dinner sitting at elementary school lunch tables, and the tee shirt features the tagline “Faster than a Speeding Mullet”?

Now let me be extremely clear. I have NOT been doing any speedwork. At. All. In fact, I’ve only had one real tempo run of just over 4 miles a few weeks ago and even that netted out to be a blistering 10:52 pace. So suffice to say, expectations were low and unknown. My primary goal was to not go out too fast and get discombobulated, but rather just run a sound race and not totally beat my legs up.

Dad and I went to the pre-registration and pasta dinner Friday night, where I was informed that Tilley could NOT register, despite the fact that the posted rules had no mention of no dogs. iPods? Sure. Strollers? Absolutely. Weaving 6 year olds all over the course? But of course. Dogs? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Which really sucks…I was really looking forward to this moment: “….and for the 10K, in the 1-8 female age group….Tilley Hodgeski!” And then watch the crowd go apeshit when a corgi wearing her own race number and ChampionChip waddles up to the table to get her medal and her picture taken with the Super Dolphin. Sigh.

After enjoying our feast, we did our best to drive the course even though the start was rather ambiguous, so we drove it in reverse. I wasn’t sure if they would have mile markers and I wanted to get a handle on my pace in some way at least at the 1 and 3 mile marks.

After a night of fitful sleep as the last of the southeastern storms (that I drove through Friday) expired themselves along the coast, I rose at 6am for a half bowl of oatmeal and a hot shower. I always shower before a race, since it both loosens me up and relaxes me. By 6:45 I was out the door, leaving a seriously confused and mildly irritated Tilley behind. I left a note for Dad with my approximate times on the course and directions to the finish line with instructions to bring Tilley. Turns out it was for not; and the only on-course race shot of me would be a quasi-sasquatch shot at the top of this post proffered by the race photographers. Order yours now ;).

It was a pretty tame turnout, and felt pretty low key. I warmed up a little and wandered over to the start line…which as it turns out wasn’t chipped, so even though it was a chip timed race, we had a gun start. So my time is probably about 4 seconds longer than true. And yes, every second counts :).

I sized up the competition…there were some SERIOUS runners there, most of them women about my age. There were a few token wife/girlfriend running with serious runner male types, and a few token overdressed runners (it was 61 degrees). With little fanfare, we were off. As usual, everyone burst out like a shot and I just kept it steady to get into a rhythm. Before I knew it, we were at the first mile maker with a nice person calling out times. 10:20. Right on.

After a little weaving through the back neighborhoods in the village, we struck out on Mallery up towards East Beach. The course was great; it really gets in a lot of the island from village to marsh to sound to ocean. A lot of people ran on the sidewalks, but probably 70% of us stayed on the road. I would say 80% raced with music. I train with music, but find racing with it both a distraction as well as not being terribly safe. I had a little cat and mouse re-catching some folks who had passed me, and one guy who had the heaviest feet EVER and insisted on staying (what felt like) two feet off my left elbow (the one moment where I wished for not music, but maybe earplugs). As a reward for not clocking the guy, I arrived at the three mile mark to hear “THIRTY”. 10:00 minute miles. PERFECT.

I think I was worried about losing it somewhere between 4 and 5.5 miles, because I must have slowed down to try to leave too much in the tank. I also hit a brutal headwind for probably the last 1.5 miles of the race which didn’t help….but overall I felt good, in control, and nothing was falling off (sadly, including my 6 spare pounds of PMS water).

I finished under the clock at 1:04:50, so 1:04:46. I wandered around aimlessly (repeat: Grandy stood me up!) and made a few friends including a woman who lives on Jekyll and two women who did the race as a run-walk, they are just starting to race. They are patients and big fans of Dr. Berg and were *so* nice. I regret not going to breakfast with them; I waited for the results since in all the past years only 2-4 women were in my age group. Turns out, this year there were nine. And I was ninth place. Breakfast would have been a much better call :)

Ouch! The age group brass finishes were like well under an hour. The truth is, I think I deserve a medal – I ran the race exactly as I had planned, and did better than I thought. If I had come across anywhere south of 11:30 minute miles I would not have been surprised, so I feel really good about the effort. Even better was the fact that I totally could have run longer….granted not at race pace, but it makes me feel like the Shamrock half won’t be a complete joke. Plus I will have my sidekicks with me which inevitably will make it much more entertaining than just high fiving the volunteer kids on the route (which ain’t bad fun either).

I went home to retrieve Tilley and Grandy for a quick breakfast at Dressner’s then a walk around the village. They were just then giving out awards so Tilley got in her requisite “CAN I PET YOUR DOG” time with strangers. And?

Our picture with the Super Dolphin.