The second running of the Gambler started and finished near Horseshoe Casino and the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, IA. The course winds through parking lots, industrial streets (Tyson Plant anyone??), and a bike trail along a drainage creek and Lake Manawa. Sunday ended up being less than stellar when it came to the weather (40 degrees with winds in the 30mph range. Gross) but it was good brain practice in case Lincoln Marathon day is just as windy.
My goal was to run this race at marathon pace, which for me meant somewhere 8:10/8:15 pace. I did well with that for about 2 miles. Once we reached the bike path and I saw several girls shoot out ahead of me, I knew it was on. I tried to be patient, I knew the wind was at our backs and coming back running into the wind was going to feel twice as hard. I threw down a couple of quick miles to take advantage of the wind and then eased up around mile 6 when we reached the road around Lake Manawa. Everyone was fairly spread out by that point and the wind coming off the lake was miserable. I tucked in behind two other ladies for a while but when their pace dropped below 8:20s, I passed and set my sights on some dude with a sweatband. Taking the left turn out of Lake Manawa was awful, the wind met us head on and we were running on the sidewalk along Highway 92, back toward the bike path. I could hear two more girls pressing on me and I just tried to be patient and focus on taking in my next Gu and getting a decent cup of water. I let them pass right around mile 7 and just kept them close. The wind was absolutely awful by this time (have I mentioned the wind?) and I just could not wait to get off the darn path. When we finally reached 23rd Avenue, we had a long straight away and I focused on picking off every girl in front of me. Around mile 12, I had just one girl left; I surged and tried not to look behind me. A gust of wind blew my hat off and I just let it go (luckily my friend Steve was behind me and stopped to pick it up). The final mile of this course is awful. It winds about 400 times on the roads around the Mid-America Center, Bass Pro Shops, Horseshoe Casino, and the all the hotels around there. The girl caught up to me right around the Mid-America Center and we ran shoulder to shoulder until I finally surrendered to the wind and decided I didn’t want to burn out my legs this close to Lincoln. I finished in 1:43:01, way faster than I had planned on, which netted me 8th female and 1st in my age group. When I finished, I found the girl sitting on the curb and made a point to shake her hand and tell her “great race.” She laid it all out there at the end and she deserved her “win.”
Overall, the Gambler was a good race and a good simulation for pushing through when I did not want to be running at all anymore. By mile 6, I was completely done with running. I just wanted to go home, take a hot shower, and lie on the couch. I managed to push through all the mental games my brain was attempting, and I’m pretty proud that my last 3 miles were 3 of the fastest overall (7:40, 7:28, 7:10, and the last tenth of a mile at 7:04 pace). The course leaves plenty to be desired in terms of scenery (the best part is around mile 5-6 running through the trees in Lake Manawa), but it was well organized and well supported. The volunteers at the aid stations were fantastic and the awards ceremony didn’t take too terrible long. Not sure that I’ll run it next year, but it was a nicely timed event for my Lincoln training.
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