Rutgers Unite 8K 2018 Race Recap

Who ever thought I’d be doing another race recap again (the last and only one before that was 8 years ago)? I’ve been talking about starting up running again for the longest time since it’d probably be good for rounding out my workouts and building my nonexistent endurance, so I’m back today with my recap of the Rutgers Unite 8K race (…from 2 weeks ago)!

Last November, Trish told me she wanted to run a race and asked if I’d do it with her. What better way to motivate each other than by signing up for a race together?!

Rutgers Unite 8K 2018 Race Recap

“Farrah, let’s do a triathlon next!”

We decided on the Rutgers 8K since it seemed like a pretty doable distance. The Rutgers Unite 8K race (+ half marathon) offers the following for race swag!:

• Technical shirt
• Finish medal
• Free race photos
• Commemorative coffee mug
• Vanity bib
• Free 12 or 16 week training plan
• Finish festival party

Because it’s us and we’re fairly type A individuals, we mapped out our proposed training plans onto a shared google doc to keep each other accountable.

So far, so good, right?!

…This “race recap” is very much a “what not to do” post.

Too Much Fuel (hah)

After we picked up our race stuffs, we…went to a sushi buffet and stuffed our faces for lunch. >_>

This is one of the plates we ordered.

We also didn’t eat breakfast, partly due to sleeping in and probably also because of poor planning.

Lack of Planning

We couldn’t find the shuttle stop that’d bring us to the start line…and I also forgot to pee again before leaving my apartment. Running while needing to pee kinda sucks.

We ended up making it to the start line about 2 minutes before it started. Our warmup was basically power walking from the shuttle stop to the start line. 😅

Lack of Training

Between balancing residency, studying for boards/life, and my other workouts/clubs (salsa, ballroom, rock climbing, lifting), let’s just say that I ran a total of 4-5 times from the day I signed up to the day of the race. 75% of these runs happened because of Gixo, and 1 was because another friend is training for a race against Princeton and just started up running again (except for him, “starting up” = 2 miles in 14 minutes–running with me slowed him to 17 minutes 😭).

Do not do this.

Lack of Sleep

This wasn’t actually as bad because I typically only get 5 hours of sleep anyway, and I got 6 hours the night before the race(!). I did work a 25 hour shift up through the morning of the day before the race though. (That being said, the shift itself was actually probably as chill as it could’ve been for working in the hospital.)

Poor/Lack of Preparation

I’m sure at one point, we’d looked up the course beforehand, but we never ended up getting to run it together or separately either until race day. (sigh) The climbing team also had a formal the night before–thankfully, I spent most of my time sitting instead of standing in heels. :D?

I’ve never really run in super cold weather before (the NWM was a comfortable 50-60 in SF). It decided to be in the high 30’s/low 40’s on race day despite being a gorgeously beautiful 70’s the day before. I don’t actually own cold weather running clothes and was debating running with a jacket vs. without. We decided to go without in hopes that it’d inspire us to run faster.

Thank goodness for the headband (it has unicorn kitties on it)–it actually helped a lot in keeping me warm(er)! Also, RBF ftw.

With all that in mind, our expectations for this race were pretty low. We had two goals:

• Don’t die (+ finish the race).
• Maintain a steady pace (preferably at ~10min/mile).

The race itself actually wasn’t bad at all! (I was genuinely worried for a little while given all of the above.) I think what helped me the most was randomly deciding at the start line to find a running playlist on Spotify at 160-170 bpm. It kept me at an easy/steady pace the entire time and I actually didn’t feel like dying at all during any part of the race! (I’m a fan of sprinting the last bit so that part was tiring, haha.)

My second piece of race bling ever!

My arbitraily chosen playlist consisted entirely of songs I’d never heard of before, but some of my favorites include:

• Electricity – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
• First/Last – Afterpartees
• Doused – DIIV
• Turn Away – Mikal Cronin
• Spellbound – Moss
• Generational Synthetic – Beach Fossils

Trish wondering why she’s friends with me.

• Have you ever run a race with little to no preparation? Try to avoid it if you can. :[
• Do you have RBF (resting bitch face) when you run?
• Do you run with music? What’s on your running playlist?