Lakeshore Miracle 10K
By Scedastic
My first race report, and only my second race (the first was a 5k a couple of weeks ago).
The course:
The Lakeshore Miracle Run 10k (I believe it's called miracle b/c it benefits the local children's hospital, NOT because it's a miracle if you can do it
)takes place near and along the eastern shores of Lake Michigan. The first mile is on a chip/seal country road, followed by a gravel road for about 0.25 mile, then the path winds through narrow, sandy, hilly trails to the beach. On the beach, the course goes north along the shore (the sand was very loose up to the water’s edge, with a steep entrance to the water, so runners were single file), to a water station, then back south, to a pair of steep dunes. After the second dune descends abruptly, the course returns to the sandy, narrow trail leading back to the gravel road, the paved road, and the finish line. It was beautiful scenery, in a heavily wooded area. The trail was lots of fun, with branches and sometimes fallen trees and logs to jump/climb over. Most of the time it was only possible to run single file.Barefootin’:
I brought my huaraches with me just in case, but they were not needed, and it rather annoyed me to have to hold them the whole time. I did slow down for the gravel road a bit, but that wasn’t long enough to worry over. The only issue is that the exfoliating nature of the sand has left my soles soft as a baby’s bottom when I had just been getting to the point of tolerating hotter pavement when running barefoot, so my skin will likely take a while to thicken up again. Other than the free pedicure, and having to watch out for branches and rocks in the path, it was very barefoot friendly. In fact, for those poor suckers who kept their shoes on for the beach run and on the dunes, I expressed sympathy more than once when people looked miserable sloshing around in wet shoes on loose sand. Yick.
The workout:
I began the race terrified about my peroneal tendonitis being aggravated by all the uneven ground, but I felt just fine. I ran the whole course, with the exception of the last part of the steepest dune, and a water break at the beach to talk to a sweet little ~3yr old girl handing me the cup who said “nice job running.” My foot muscles definitely got a big ole workout, and I can feel it a bit the morning after, but no soreness.
I do think that this course would be especially difficult in shoes, since so much of the run was on sand, and right at the water’s edge. I saw several women who ditched their shoes for at least the beach part of the run. Splashing in the water was lots of fun.
The dunes were fine. I’ve run up dunes many times before, and as part of workouts years ago when I lived closer to the lake. When I take my kids to the lake shore now, we always go to state parks with big dunes and race to the top as many times as they will tolerate it. The reward is the flying-run down and splash into the cold water of the lake.
Being more used to dunes may not have given me an advantage in technique, but I think it might have helped psychologically, since I knew what I was in for. Some appeared a bit more overwhelmed by the idea.
All in all, it was a blast. I’ve never done group runs before this summer. It’s a rush. Now I finally figured out why people sign up. Though I don’t get competitive (I’m too slow for that), I do like seeing people out there running. My goals for this race were to enjoy the scenery (check!), NOT reinjure my peroneal tendon or get overwhelmed by the heat(check!), NOT to finish absolute last after everyone else is gone (check!), and to have fun (check!).
I ran nearly the entire time, even when in the water, but at a relaxed pace, enough that I could chat with those around me (to their annoyance? Dunno, some folks looked really serious, and most people at the starting line looked pretty fit to me), and I managed to do about an average time overall (6th place in my age group---but keep in mind, the times for this 10k were abominable, due to the challenging course). Nevertheless, I finished with energy to spare, which was a bonus.
I will definitely try to run this again next year. Road races don’t get me all excited, but this was fun, different, and full of beautiful scenery.
