Where is the Haunted Mansion?! - Evergreen Pumpkin Run 5k Race Report

So, I ran this a few years ago, and I was basically dead last (there was a course snafu)... I want to run the 10 Mile again, when I'm in better shape (and I can finish during the time limit), but I decided to give the 5k a try this time.

However... I was actually hesitant to go back to Jax, after my near-fatal accident last weekend. It really shook me, and I thought long and hard about not even coming. But I can't throw away money! So, I thew all my gear in the car and headed to the cemetery.

I arrived pretty close to go-time, so it was already VERY crowded. There was no parking left inside the cemetery, so I drove past, following other cars, and parked across the street from a laundromat.

It's hard to remember where I parked! So I take random photos of stuff nearby.

Once parked, I put on my costume - I was a Disney Tourist! I had Mickey Ears, a refillable mug (instead of my Nathan), a Mickey tee shirt, an "I'm Celebrating!" button, and I even carried a map. I thought it was cute (on such a short notice), and it was easy to run in.

Those lines behind me? Yeah, those are the potty lines!

The grave area is a big square, and I'm on the other side of it... the crowd goes ALL the way around

I was surprised this year that I didn't see nearly as many costumes as I did the last time. Maybe it was too hot...

Slow Girl Strategy - Don't start last, won't be last

The 5k and 10 mile runners all took off (in stages) at the same time... if that makes sense. All the 10 minute mile people went together, then the 11 minute people, etc.

My slow ass, of course, was near the back.

I didn't take many photos this time... the course is the same, there wasn't much that grabbed my attention, so this isn't a very photo-heavy blog post.

Mile 1 Action Shot

This mother and son/daughter were running completely covered in these Mobi suits. I don't know if the suit represented anything, but damn, good for you, mom!

How do you breathe?

I stayed with a large group for most of the race, which is a reason I like big races. 

Lots of people!

Around Mile 2, I picked up a Chatter. You know the type, other solo runners, who see that you're runnign solo, so hey, we should chat! Ugh... This Chatter was about 15, and he just kept going on and on and on... His mom and dad left him (to run faster), he likes his high school, this cemetery is awesome, wow, was that a train, why are they so many old graves here...? On, and on, and on...

Chatty Chet is breakin' my rhythm

I shed him once I got near the mausoleum roundabout, but I could hear him back there chatting with other runners. No offense, kid... I do these alone. I don't need company!

Mile 3 - I'm dead tired

I finally made it to the finish line, and was not surprised at my time. I didn't try very hard today. I got slowed down by Chatty Chet. And, well, I'm slow.  My time reflected that. I finished 57:20 (pace 18:26), and was 1259th out of 1402 total finishers (the race had 2,087 total finishers between the 5k and 10 mile!). I was 134th out of 148 in my age group.

Cute medal, and it glows in the dark!

I took a fun finish line photo with my Disney park map, then walked around for a few minutes.

Okay, so WHERE is the Haunted Mansion?!

This race doesn't have much of an after-party. I picked up a bottle of water and headed out of the cemetery and back to my car.

I made a quick stop at a local convenicence store to change clothes, then drove up to Mayport for lunch.

Basket of local Mayport shrimp, fries, and hush puppies. DELICIOUS!

After lunch, I did a little window shopping and headed home. 

How Megacon Almost Got Me Killed

My kiddo loves anime, so it makes sense that she loves to go to Cons (you know, like Comic-Con). There is one in Jacksonville that she loves and wanted to go for the whole weekend. Last minute, her ride wasn't able to take her up there, so she and I loaded up in the car bright and early on Saturday and I drove her up there.  We grabbed some breakfast (which she proceeded to drip all over her nice, white shirt, causing us to take a side trip to Walmart for a new nice, white shirt), and got to the Con right before they opened.

This was my first time having the kiddo stay overnight somewhere in a different city, so I was a little apprehensive, but she's twenty years old, mom! Leave her be!

After dropping her off, I picked up some lunch and then headed over to my favorite mega-store - IKEA!  I don't really remember what I bought (I know I spent a lot of time there, looking at random stuff and making Big Plans in Remodeling, which never actually happen...), but I know I was there for quite a while. I left there around 1:30 or so, and, as I always do, grabbed some snacks and a drink at Wawa.

I left Wawa at 2, after texting hubby that I was on my way to pick him up, and I'd be there around 3:30.

I had to take J. Turner Butler Boulevard (JTB) to get to I-95. Usually I have no issues on this road, but today was not that day...

In the area of the Southside exit (115), heading West, there were no cars in front, behind, or next to me (looking back, it was kind of weird, actually...). I was jammin' along to my music, enjoying my frosty Wawa beverage, when I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw a grey vehicle in the middle lane (same lane as me) coming up really fast behind me. Now, I was going 80-85 to begin with, so he was going super-fast.

X Marks the Spot

Over the next probably two seconds, this discussion ran though my head:

My first thought was Dude, you need to go around me if you're gonna drive like that. 

Then, This asshole needs to go around me!
 

Followed by, I don't think he's gonna move!!

Then in a rush of thoughts, Holy SHIT! I don't think this guy is gonna move! If I move to the LEFT lane, he can keep going, but HE might go to the left lane, because that's the fast lane, so should I move to the RIGHT lane? What the fuck am I going to do? He's going to hit me, he's gonna hit me, gonnahitmegonnahitmegonnahitmemovemovemove!

His car, over in the ditch. He and his girlfriend are sitting down in the grass on the right

He was coming up VERY, VERY FAST on my tail, the whole time I'm having this split second dialog in my head. Without even consciously deciding what to do, I sped up and began to move to the right. He moved left, and I thought for sure he was gonna hit my rear end and either plow right in to me, or send me into a tail spin at 90mph. I could see neither his headlights nor his bumper in my rearview mirror when he cleared me. He swerved too hard to avoid me, and then overcorrected too much, and swerved back in front of me. I immediately slowed down and swerved back into the middle lane to try to avoid him. As he swerved in front of me, he almost clipped a vehicle in front of him (we'd caught up to traffic at this point). He began to fishtail and he spun 180º before flipping off the road and into a ditch. He was facing EAST at this point, in a huge bog of mud and grass. I hit the brakes and pulled over, along with a few other cars, to offer assistance. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911 as I began to walk over toward the vehicle. Other people were down in the mud by the car; they had pulled out a man, but he said that his girlfriend was still stuck in the car. I stayed on the phone to speak to 911, but they already had multiple reports of this accident, so I got off the phone (they're not super-friendly, those Jax operators...).

I walked over to where the guy - and his now unstuck girlfriend - were sitting. Both seemed okay on first appearance - the girlfriend had a huge gash on her knee. The guy was on the phone with his mom (I heard him sob, "Mom, I flipped the car!"). There was a guy there in jeans and a tee shirt (he reminded me of Hank from Breaking Bad), who turned out to be an off-duty Jacksonville police officer. He shared that the car has blown past him earlier, and he called the cops on them at that point, before the crash even happened. While talking with the two of them, he discovered that the guy and girl were having an argument inside the car, and the driver kept accelerating while they were arguing and she wasn't paying attention. Because they weren't paying attention, they didn't see me until the last minute, hence the swerving and almost dying part.

I went back to my car and pulled out some napkins and some baby wipes I always keep handy and returned back to the girlfriend so she could clean herself up a little bit. I also bent over and yelled at them (in that stern, "Mom" kind of way), saying that their bullshit almost got me killed, and they needed to be more careful from now on. I've been in car accidents. I've flipped a car. I knew that yelling at them now would make no difference... they were still dealing with the aftermath... but softer, more stern words would stay with them forever. They'll replay this accident in their heads over and over, each time hearing me say "you almost killed me." They'll remember this forever.

I joked with one of the other onlookers that I was due home in 45 minutes, that I would be late, and Hank overheard. He said that there were enough witnesses, so I was able to leave. I asked if I should stay to give my statement, or if I should email a witness statement to him, but he said I was good to go. So I went.  I left about the time Fire Rescue arrived on scene.

I tried to check online to see if they were ever charged with anything, or if they were ticketed, but the Duval County website is very hard to navigate. I don't even know their names...

I called Hubby from the car and told him that I was going to be even later "because of an accident." I got to him around 4, and when I got home, I told him what had happened. I was messed up in the head by then, man... my brain loves the What If? game.  What if he hit me? What if I spun? What if I flipped? What if I died? What if...? What if...? What if...?  I spent the majority of the evening curled up on the couch with him, trying to make sense of this event. Why did this happen? Was the Universe trying to say something? Was God trying to teach me - or them - a lesson? I'm not spiritual by any means, but I felt that there was a reason for this... I settled on my being an obstacle for them to stumble over, so that they learn from this (and possibly NOT kill someone down the road).

OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS... I THINK I MAY HAVE REALIZED SOMETHING!!!

Holy crap, man!

Adding this from the future (whoooo-oooo-oooo)...

Okay, so why did this happen? I still think it was to teach them a lesson.

BUT...

Let's think back to what happened to ME in May...

I was in a small car accident that totaled my little Sentra and spurred me to purchase this bigger, faster, Altima...

What if...

What if THAT accident is really what saved my life?

Okay... if I hadn't had that accident, I would've still had the Sentra in October, right? So, I would have been driving the Sentra when this gal came up behind me. That Sentra didn't have the same amount of oomph or horsepower that the Altima does.

I don't think the Sentra would have been able to get out of the way of their car.

I think I would have been hit, and I think I would have died.

That little accident in May possibly saved my life.

Nice Hat - Inaugural Pumpkin Run 5k

I think I've talked about this before, but if not... the Gainesville running scene sucks. There's not a lot of races, not a lot of GOOD races, and most races don't give a lot of swag for what they charge. So... I usually leave town to go to a race.

I took my chance on this race, and I'm kind of happy I did. It was affordable (I think $30?), it came with a medal, and I liked the beneficiary of the race.

Since it was local, I was able to do early packet pickup on my lunch break. It was at a local church, which - awkwardly - was holding a funeral inside. I was able to get my shirt and bib, but I had to come back at another time to pick up my free pumpkin (spoiler alert... I never got my pumpkin).

Nice shirt (not technical)

On race day, after I took hubby to work, I parked at the Bus depot close to the park, which gave me about a 1/3 to 1/2 mile warm-up walk to the start line.

I was near the P at the bottom, where it says Lot Opens...

Since I didn't have to worry about getting my bib and stuff, I could relax and enjoy the morning. I've run here before, but I've only done a few races here, so I was interested to see what the difference would be.

Beautiful lake for being a storm water runoff retention pond!

A lot of people complimented me on my dorky fascinator hat (note to self... no braids with this hat... I looked bald!)

It stayed on well, while I ran, too!

It looked like a great turnout (they had over 400 finishers, which is great for an inaugural Gainesville race). We all gathered around the start area (though none of us really knew which direction we'd actually go...) and headed off!

LOTS of bodies!

The route was really confusing at first.  We ran around the park, back towards the start line, then we went down towards the Gainesville-Hawthorne Rail Trail. Luckily, I'm never the leader, so I just followed the people in front of me.

The Mile 1 Sign isn't awake yet

The "back" of the park (near where I parked, actually)

Not yet! We have to go all the way around first...

"Fish only for compliments" sign (no one wants to eat three-eyed Simpson fish)

The park is beautiful in the morning (I've only been here previously in the afternoon), with lots of wildlife.

Soon, we made a full circle and headed onto the Depot Trail (this leads to the G-HRT. It's a lovely 16 mile paved trail that connects the city of Gainesville to the City of Hawthorne, utilizing old train tracks that have been re-imagined into a pathway. The history is really cool and you should read it!)

You can just see a parking lot through the trees

Thankfully, this trail is mostly shaded. In the summertime, it's brutal out here in Florida!

These folks are already on their way back!

Cool race route markers

Our route took us over SE 4th Street, and then the 5k turned around at Williston Road. We returned back to the park and made a final half-circle around the lake.

Headed back towards the finish line

Wow, holy crap, look at my time!!!

That's my best time EVAH!!

Okay, so... it's tiny... but it's bling!

Oh, wait... no, wait...

The course wasn't a full 5k? 

Nope, not according to a lot of other runners at the finish line. And not according to my Garmin. 

Aww, man...

Well, crap...  

The pace, in the official results, was listed wrong, since they calculated it for 3.1 miles. Garmin shows that my pace was actually 17:06/mile. Still not BAD, but it's certainly not 15/mile! With my Garmin pace, I would have finished at 53:07. Still an OK time for me.

Oh well. 

Since this was a local race, I didn't stick around very long. There weren't any fun after-race events, or raffles, or anything, so I just made my way home, threw on some comfy lounge pants and vegged out for a few hours, then hauled myself off the couch and went grocery shopping.