Since this was the 2nd race in the first-year "Bridge Series" I HAD to do it even though I was already signed up for the Houston Half the following day. The things I'll do for bling! (It's now started to become more about the challenge than the bling, but I'm not quite ready to admit that.)
I was dreading having to drive down to Galveston and do this race all alone. Would have loved to have someone just come along even if they didn't do the race. Luckily I was easily able to talk Tommy into doing it with me! Yay! Luv ya, man!
Price & swag:
The $40 price tag was $5 higher than the Kemah edition. There was a lot more cost involved in this race since it was run in Galveston (which is nortiously difficult to deal with) and on a federal Interstate. Not sure what all was involved int he latter, but I know TxDOT was involved.
The only swag was a gender-specific technical fabric shirt - no hat or medals. I received a nice (personal) e-mail from race director Robby Sabban explaining that this race was more expensive than the others and there was not the budge for medals. Most 10K don't give medals, so not something typically expected at races. This was after I had posted a request for a picture of the bling on their Facebook page.
Pre-race:
When we turned off the main street onto the street behind the Galveston Daily News, people were parking all over the side of the street and walking. I asked one person if the lots were full and she said that she had not driven all the way down. So I went down there & there was plenty of (free) parking and several volunteers directing us where to park. Very conveniently located across from pre/post race and the start line. I had to do race-day packet pick-up, which was quite time consuming at Kemah (one line to get bib #, another line to get bib & packet and a 3rd line for race chips). They had the bibs in the packets and in alphabetical order, so the pickup was very quick. You still had to go to another line to pick up the chip, but that moved quickly also.
RUN!
The 7am start time meant we started in the dark, but that's not too unusual for most races. We did a little section on the Galveston side of about 1/2 a mile before getting to the Causeway. There was one water stop on this section, as water stop (or any support) on the bridge.
There were impressive cones on this Interstate bridge (TxDOT requirement) that were taller and closer than any other I've seen in a race. Only one lane of traffic was blocked off. Along with the wide shoulder, this provided a comfortable course from the traffic on the causeway.
Although this pert-near 3 mile bridge is long, it was not a difficult climb. MUCH easier than Kemah!
Views were great going over to Tiki Island just as dawn was breaking. (Coming back was not as comfortable as the sun was in our eyes.)
We were just past the 2 mile marker when the race leader went past us headed back to finish. Runners were very good about all staying in the shoulder lane, leaving the other lane for returning runners.
There was a party feel on Tiki Island as we circled around. There were two water stops in this 2/10ths of a mile or so loop.
Back across we not only had the sun to deal with, but also the wind. I did take a short walk break of under 1 minute when cresting the Causeway.
Coming back, I saw the Finish line was not where the Start line was & worried "WTF?? -- Where's the finish??" Luckily, it wasn't far - we turned into the drive of the Galveston Daily News & it was right there, less than a tenth of a mile.
One minute under goal - WHOOPEE!
Post-race:
Although we did not get medals, the post-race food was better than Kemah (and better that many races - MUCH better than the half I did the following day). Mario's pizza had fresh cheese pizza (if you noted when they came out of the thermal carrier, it was even a bit warm. Although cold pizza is still great.) Toll House Cookies were there handing out freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Miller Lite or 64, Muscle Milk, some new fangled waters and sodas were also on hand. Oh yeah - we were all handed a cold bottle of water while in the finish chute as our timing chips were cut off. These little nicety are really appreciated!
Although the food was good at post-race, I did miss having a DJ. There was an announcer calling out finisher names, but not tunes at post-race. Koala was doing massages.
A nice post-race!
(I had 3 cookies, 2 slices of pizza, 1 beer and a muscle milk -- that pretty much cancels out the calories burned doing the race!)
One more race -- LaPorte half-marathon in December -- to complete the bridge series!!
