November 2021 challenge: Night racing (Supernova Kelpies 5k)
After my first marathon, I took it easy in November and tried out my first night race, running 5k around the Kelpies.
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| Night runner turned night racer. |
Fundraising for JCWI in 2021
This is the 11th recap post of my 2021 monthly running challenges. These challenges are part of my fundraiser for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI).
Recapping the horrors of UK immigration each month
As part of my fundraising efforts, I am also raising awareness about what's happening in the world of UK immigration each month.
I want people to understand just how much awfulness happens in 28 to 31 days. My recaps will be over on my Medium site.
Why night racing and why Supernova 5k
At the end of my Manchester Marathon post, I said my November challenge would be rest. After months of training, I wanted to take it easy and just do a 5k race.
I ended up finding the Supernova 5k, which is a night race around the Kelpies horse sculptures in Falkirk.
I've never done a night race before, and night racing sounds like a cooler challenge than rest, hence the switch.
I run at night during the week, so I was interested in seeing how I would race in the dark. Also, seeing the Kelpies all lit up at night sounded pretty cool.
The puddle-filled journey
The day of the race was pretty rainy. It thankfully stopped by the time I left for the race, but the ground was still really wet and there were some big puddles on the walk from the train station to the start area at Helix Park.
This being a night race meant it was hard to spot those puddles, so I may have gotten slight wet on the walk over.
A late converging of the runners
I sometimes mention on this blog how one of my favorite parts of races is when you start converging with other runners who are there for the race and you realize you're in the right place.
When races are on a Sunday morning, this can happen early on in the journey to the start, like from the moment you hop on public transport to the race.
I guess it should not be that surprising that this was not the case for a Friday night race. Everyone else on the train and in Falkirk town looked dressed to go out or go home. I looked liked the odd one out in my running gear.
Only when I entered Helix Park did I start to see fellow runners.
The race
Lights, lights everywhere
A night race of course needs some sort of light for everyone to see where they are going. So the first stop when entering the race area was to pick up a headtorch you had to wear while running.
There was also a light-filled Supernova stand to take a picture on and model said headtorch.
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| Headtorch model. |
Even the starting pens were glowing.
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| Entrance to the start line. |
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| Bordered in by lights. |
Friday night dancing warmup
I said I felt like the odd one out on the journey over because people I passed looked like they were going out on a Friday night. Well little did I know us runners would get a tiny rave of our own at the warmup.
I've been at races with group warmups before, but this felt like a proper dance party the way we were moving. Shout out to the masterful warmup choreographer.
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| Racers post-warmup. |
Racing past the back of the pack
I somehow landed in the last start pen of the race. I definitely was not asked to pick a finishing time when I registered, but when I logged into my account after getting the pre-race information, it said I was placed in the blue pen with predicted finish time of 45 minutes.
Marathon training slowed me down, but definitely not that much!
Starting at the back meant there were lots of people to zoom past once the race started. Like at Great North Run, competitive weaving was in prime form. Any gap I saw between runners, I raced right into them to get ahead.
It was really dark
I know I was racing at night, but I still felt genuinely surprised just how dark it was. I think that's because when I run at night, there are almost always street lights. For parts of this race, it was only our headtorches lighting the way.
This felt a bit scary near the start where we were running along a pond at the park. I didn't realize the pond was there at first, so when I saw it, I had this moment of, oh, I need to be careful not to run into that. I just don't think about these things during day races.
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| The pond had some swans in it. |
The Kelpies
I had to stop during the race to take a photo of the main selling point: the Kelpies lit up.
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| I compromised my race time for this photo. |
The finish
Despite all the people to run past at the start and stopping for a photo, I managed to keep up a pretty fast pace (for post-marathon me) all the way through.
My fastest mile ended up being my last, and I sprinted to the finish with a final time of 28:55. I did feel like throwing up right when I stopped, so that's how I know I was being speedier than normal.
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| Another medal photo, but with my headtorch still on. |
The swag
This run was organized by the same people who did the Women's 10k, so I walked away with another drawstring bag holding my swag.
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| Adding to the drawstring bag collection. |
Instead of a shirt, the main race swag was getting to keep the headtorch and getting a snood with the Kelpies on it.
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| In the mood for snood. |
This snood is my new favorite accessory. I wore it in place of a mask at the cinema the next day.
I then wore it over my head and felt like I was a 90s kid in a bandana (which I once was, to be fair).
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| 90s Lauren. |
I'm wearing it like that now as I write this post, except it's also covering my ears because I'm cold. So multi-functional.
Running reflections
My main reflection for November is night racing is different.
Yes, that seems quite obvious, but I don't think I was prepared for how different an experience it would be just by it being dark.
I think this relates to night running feeling normal to me, so how different could a night race be.
But racing demands different things, namely attention to new surroundings, whether it's the journey to the start or along the race route.
You need that much extra focus to do these things in the dark. So while November was not a physically strenuous challenge for me, it definitely was a mental one.
Speaking of challenges, this is where I segue into the worst challenge of all: dealing with the UK immigration system.
Time is running our to get donations in before the end of the year, so please consider donating to JCWI and the great work they do.
December challenge
American running
I'm going to be in the US with my family for the entirety of December. I don't know what running I'll do yet, but I plan to make it super patriotic and taste like freedom.
Or something like that.
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