Larry Don's 7 & 7K Race Report; Saturday, May 23, 2020

The majority of this post was written on Saturday, May 23.  The last part was finished on Tuesday, June 2.

I knew for about a week or so that this morning's race in Gustine was likely a go.

I've gotten to know Randall and Kate Denning, the owners and operators of Race Day Event Services, which is based in Hamilton, over the past few years as I've run many races that they've time in and around central Texas.

I had reached out to see if the county didn't have any restrictions and that is why there were able to proceed with the race.

Kate had shared with me that they had gone through the Governor's directives and waited for his address on Monday before sending a final e-mail out with decisions.  Things really aren't addressed except that non-contact groups were allowed in no more than groups of four.

Therefore, the plan was to have staggered starts of four runners at a time.

And while the city of Gustine had cancelled its annual Homecoming festivities, it was still having its Farmers Market on the Square and the 60th annual Gustine Rodeo.  So, the race was a go!

I ran a race the last Saturday before things started to shut down around the state, country and world, so I wanted to see what the first one back looked like.

Even though Waverly's birthday was today, she didn't have any expectations of my time specifically so I drove to Waco Friday evening, stayed there last night and drove to the race site this morning.

Packet pickup was the same, but then again:  this was a smaller race.

Eighty-five (85) runners and walkers finished a year ago and 60 finished today. 

I don't know how many runners came out for Homecoming a year ago, but I would guess that the variance was just from getting going again.

Even though Kate had said in our communications that "this race will look much different than any of our others," the lack of a big crowd ensured that it didn't have to be.

There were reminders for runners to ensure that they practiced social distancing and leading up to the start that was indeed very much the case.

The biggest change was going to be that there would be no water on the course.

As the pre-race announcements were made and the National Anthem was sang, I was a little apprehensive and I sensed a bit of it in the crowd, not fully knowing what to expect.

The pre-race prayer was well offered and shortly thereafter, the horn went off. 

I was standing on the side near where the timer's area was, as I do a lot of times since I know so many of them, and I finally got going 30 seconds after the start.

When I ran the race on Saturday, March 14, a 5K, in New Braunfels, I was very tuned in on the breathing of the runner closest to me - and there were 192 finishers in that race - as we really didn't have a lot of information about how the virus was spreading.

Today, the goal was to just stay spread out front and back as well as left to right.

With sixty runners on a 7K course, it is fairly easy.  I just can't see right now when you start to have 500-plus runners in a single lane of traffic what that's going to completely look like.

Three times during the race, I needed to spit.  Of course, I've read all of the concerns of folks with runners about the flume behind when one sneezes, coughs or in this case, spits.  I literally stepped off the course, bent over and as close I could to the ground, I spit into it and got going again.

I would advocate to all that if you need to sneeze on the race course to do the same thing as well.  (OK, maybe not the bend over to the ground part, but you get the idea.)  Either one of our races aren't that important, especially given that we haven't been able to do it for awhile.

This race was produced last year by the race directors to honor a friend, Larry Don Troutt, who had passed away in the year prior to last year's Gustine Homecoming.

I sensed from conversation during the post-race awards this year as well as the posting on last year's event Facebook page that there had been a race during the Homecoming celebration in year's past.

Last year, I made the trip to run a race in Comanche County and then headed off to Alpine to run a 10K that evening.  (Yes, indeed.  That was a road trip and a half, but I loved it.)  Seven Hills Running Club president Steve Allen was at that race a year ago too.

As I was saying earlier, there wasn't much different in how this year's race was run from last year's - other than there being no water on the course.

Volunteers were every place you needed to make a turn at - and the course was a mix of not-so-smoothly paved road or those with gravel and dirt, but thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was a year OK.

Overall, I ran fairly well I suppose.

Seven kilometers is 4.3496 miles, but Steve last year said he had it as 4.23 miles.

Last year, on a warm day, I ran it in 42:15.47.  This year?  42:10.65.  At least I could say that I was consistent!

I was second in my age group in 2019, about 50 seconds off the pace of Gary Cook from Carlton, Texas.  (I wonder if this is actually Carrollton.)

I guess Gary was busy this year as I took first in my age group, which I was rewarded with a nice gold-painted horseshoe.

The awards were handed out by Larry Don's brother and sister.

My only hope is that I wish that municipalities can see the way on how to bring back races online in a safe manner going forward.  Only time will tell.