Event Name: Mandarin Run 10K Date: November 15, 2003 Time: 8:00 a.m. Distance: 10K Location:
Jacksonville, Florida, USA Host: Native Sun Natural Foods / 1st Place Sports Course Layout: Loop
Course Terrain: Asphalt; a "hill" from mile 4 to finish; neighborhoods; shady Weather Conditions:
53F/11.7C; sunny; no breeze; moderate humidity Sociological (Fashion, fighting, foolery, and food):
Fashion: parkas, mufflers, one coordinated outfit that was stolen from some bicycle rider Fighting:
none that I saw - unless you count (see next) Foolery: "Why, Hon, you look terrific. Whose husband
are you after?" "Thanks, Dearie, I don't think you'd know him - he can read."
"What a shame since she's so rarely ever in hers." <meow, meow, pfft, pfft - CAT FIGHT!!!> Food:
bagels, bananas, sports bars, sports drink (In past years this event has ended with a feast. Instead
of people appreciating the past years, most seemed to [censored] about this year's eats. Yep, runners are
happiest when they're complaining.) Personal Time: 58:40 gun (58:17 watch) Personal Pace: 9:27
Personal Place Overall (males): 300 out of 349 Personal Place Age Group (males): 47 out of 54
# of participants completing the course: 549
Winning Time: 30:20 (Zeph Joseph) - 34:41 (Firaya Zhdanov) Last Finisher: 1:22:37 Results URL:
1stplacesports.comman03res.htmOpen ↗ Pictures: curly.cis.unf.edumandarin03Open ↗
Comments: This is the only open 10K event in Jacksonville (FL, USA). As I understand it, there were
a few pro/elite invitational 10Ks but the funding and attendance became problems so the
invitationals were folded into the opens. Even the USA 15K Championship held here is a combo
pro/elite and open separated by a seeding rope. This event (Mandarin Run 10K) did have a small
amount of money for the top three female and top three male runners.
The coldest front of the season came through a couple of days before this event. The temps *plunged*
to a bone chilling 40F which had people lighting up fireplaces before the local ice age could
retreat back to Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and all those other New York suburbs where it
belonged. The whole area smelled like burning dust from long unused chimneys. I guess most of the
runners debated how much to wear. I had planned on a Coolmax t-shirt but right before leaving the
house changed to my heavy singlet. It was the correct direction but I should have gone with a
regular singlet. What a wimp!
I love this event! Every time we do it, I wonder why we don't have more non-beach 10Ks around here.
The herd was larger this year than last and the streets that make up the course are not wide
streets. We lined up and a truly bizzarre thing happened. The crowd shut up to listen to the RD's
announcements. I mean, I looked around for empty pods (I've been told I need to explain that this
refers to Invasion of the Body Snatchers but if I'm going to have to do subtitles, someone needs to
get out more). It was eerie. Rod Serling or Alan Funt had to be nearby. We all politely (!) listened
to the announcements and got ready to run. The slower people were (mostly) at the back and the
quicker people were (mostly) at the front. The RD announced that the command to start would be
"Runners ready" and then a cannon shot but if the cannon didn't fire, we'd start with "Ruuners
ready" again. The RD let loose with "Runners ready" and then a beat later the cannon fired. Like I
said, eerie - no hitches.
The first mile was very congested but very convivial. People with personal stereos had the volume
down, fast people with strollers kept pace with the slower runners until the crowd had thinned a
bit, and talkers chatted quietly within their groups. I had to really work to eavesdrop on anything.
I don't remember a pot cannon spewing fumes on the crowd before the start. Odd. Susan and I ran the
entire event together. There was a strong urge to hold hands. I swear I have no idea what had
happened, maybe the Shadow knows. Then it got weird.
From mile 1 until the finish, we steadily passed people. A few people passed us but not many. We
hit a cruise once the crowd started to (politely) string out. We'd pull up behind someone and keep
a steady pace to shuffle on past. Several runners (mostly males) would run with us for a while and
then fall back. Our splits weren't totally even but the effort was. We felt more in control during
this event than any in recent memory. We hit cruise early on and just went. Even when the incline
hit at mile 4, we just kept steadily going. One young woman caught up with us at mile 4 and stayed
with us until the 6 mile mark and took off. During the time she was running with us, we caught and
passed quite a few people. She seemed to enjoy the company as much as we did. The three of us came
up on a father "running" with his ~10 year old son. The adorable little ankle biter would run a bit
and then whine until Dad walked (urchin sounded like me on a shopping trip to the mall). At this
point the tax deduction would start skipping. The Dad was trying very hard to be patient but was
starting to kiss that college scholarship in track goodbye. However, even this episode was surreal
as the Dad was a little *too* patient and Bill Cosby-ish. Had Stepford gone into franchise? As we
neared the finish line, a group of people were coming up behind us so we picked it up just a bit
and held them off. It was tempting to do a wild goose, in-yer-face dance at them just to have an
unpleasantness and return the cosmos to normal. But, no, I congratulated them on finishing and
wandered off to see if I could find a little old lady who needed to cross the street or a ktten
that needed to get out of a tree. I'm feeling *much* better now. There were two cute puppies
playing at the awards ceremony until the RD got ready to call the winners. Then the puppies curled
up and went to sleep.
It was a wonderful event. I'd just started some calcium channel blocking meds which are supposed to
affect physical activities (and make one barf) so I was a little nervous about the run. In terms of
time, we decided that finishing in anything under an hour would be great. Susan ended up with a PB
and an AG 2nd (gift certificate to a local running store). This puts her in the lead of her AG in
the Jax Gran Prix. I finished happy and barfless so we both won. On the way out, drivers stopped and
let other cars into the line. <shiver>
Splits: Distance Time MHR AHR gun to start :23 86 70 1 9:30 144 134 2 9:14 151 142 3 9:20 149 145 4
9:27 152 148 5 9:30 152 151 6 9:18 157 153 .2 1:53 157 156
Layne
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The rec.running report archives may be found at kinder.cis.unf.edurec.runningOpen ↗