Before we talk about my experience with the race, let’s talk about the name of the race and the what the race is fundraising for.

The Mustache Dache takes place in November (mostly), because it is also Movember.

 But what is Movemeber you might ask?  Don’t worry, I’ll tell you.

About a decade ago some Bros in Australia decided to challenge other men to a Mo* contest.

*A MO is a mustache, short for the English spelling of Moustache.

The Bros decided that during the month of November they would grow their mustaches for a cause, after some research they decide their cause would be prostate and testicular cancer, as well as depression.  After a couple of years donating their proceeds to local charities they ended up creating a charitable organization of their own.

Fast Forward to now:  Movember is a world-wide charity raising money and bringing awareness for men’s health.  You can go to the Movember website and donate, or participate in the Mo growing contest during the month of November.  You can also find tons of information on men’s health issues and look at pictures of men with awesome Mos.  You can also read the whole story behind the campaign.

Us women have October as breast cancer awareness month, and the men now have Movember because these guys wanted to change the face of men’s health.

Now that the history lesson is done we can talk about my race.  (OK, maybe not yet)  The race was put together as one of the ways to raise money for the above mentioned charity.  It is a fun 5k, there are lots of costumes, booze, fun prizes, kids race, humor, awareness and mustaches everywhere; the real ones and fake.  This race is held in various location across the country.  It is a fun good time.

I thought ‘5k (3.1 miles), easy peasy’ I could do that in my sleep.  In fact I do that on multiple times a week.  I wanted to get my 5k time down to (and below) 3o minutes, giving me a 10 min/mile pace.  In my last treadmill work out prior to this race I ran a 10.07 min/mile 5k.  So, I was ready.

I read a race recap and looked at the course map, and so I knew there would a hill.  But I didn’t really comprehend what that meant.  The course is a 3.1 mile loop with over 400 feet (435 ft gain, to be exact) of elevation gain in the first 1.7 miles (aprox.).  That is about a 5% pitch for this race.  At times, I seriously thought I could reach forward and touch the road in front of me with my hand.  Remember when I was complaining about the hills in my Wine Country Half Marathon?  Well during that whole 13.1 mile race there was only a 328 foot elevation gain.

Yep, you read that right.

So I will confess that I did not run a 10 min/mile.  In fact, there was a great deal of times that I didn’t even run.  And I was questioning my ability to even walk up those ridiculous hills.  It wasn’t one big hill though.  The first 9/10th of a mile had ups and downs with a couple of flats.  After running too fast up the very first hill (I was running 8:30 min/mile) I realized I need to walk up the hills.  So I would walk up and run when it was flat or down.  You get caught up in the moment, everyone was running fast, I felt great, so I did too.  So the first mile I clocked in at about 11:30.

The last hill though, that one was the killer.  At mile 0.91 were were at an elevation of 372 ft; at mile 1.73 we were at 660 ft.  That is 288 ft in less than a mile! It was anything but ‘fun’! Oh and did I mention it was a balmy 30°F out that day too?  Have you ever had your lungs freeze while you were breathing?  The second mile took about 14 minutes.

But what goes up must come down.  I could have made up a bunch of time on the downhill but I didn’t want to lose control and fall.  Cause you know, I would be the one that rolled down the hill to the finish line.  So I ran and I tried to keep my pace to a manageable one, on both the down hill and the flat part.  I ended up completing third mile in about 9:30 minutes.

 

I had a chip time of 0:36:46, giving me a 11:50 min/mile pace.  I finished 360/827 overall and 119/321 for my age.  Pretty good under the circumstances.

Even with the deadly hill the atmosphere was fun and enjoyable.  Everyone was having a good time and wearing mustaches.

Finishers all got these awesome medals (which is also a bottle opener),

a free beer and a free tequila drink;

you also received a shirt with registration.

 

However, if the race is in the same local next year, I might have to pass.

 

 

Just. Keep. Running.

C25K interval information can be found here

Want to find out what races I’ll be doing next year?  Check out my list.