A few male co-workers decided that we should participate in Movember this year. The basic idea is that you grow a moustache during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues – specifically prostate cancer. I was non-committal and shaved once over the first weekend before embracing it. I actually did more of the No-Shave November thing, except that Christy was adamant that I use one a comb for your beard and that I not have a neck beard!
The only catch was that the person in charge of our Movember was adamant that to be in the contest you couldn’t have a full beard – just a ‘stache. So on the morning of November 30 I had to shave my beard into something more ‘stachy. Here are few pictures:
Before aka clean shaven:
Bearded:
How did this Moustache not win?
Some other shots of the “scary” ‘stache. It was also called the Asian looking ‘stache and the No, No, No ‘stache.
Now the race… I saw the Moustache Run, which was actually quite expensive for a 5k at $45. A few days later, Living Social had a coupon for about 1/2 off. I know the money is for a charity, but I still took the coupon which made it a more reasonable price. This was an untimed fun run, but it was still a little disorganized at packet pick-up. About 600 runners had to fit into a tiny little patio area without any signage demarking A-G and H-Z. After we got our bib number – everyone wore 2012 we then had to go to another line to pick up our hat and then yet another line for the post-race beer wristband. None of this had signage which created a lot of confusion.
I had ridden by bike down to the river for the race so after checking in I went back to the bike and waited for closer to start time. I didn’t know anyone else running so I just waited around. As time approached I dropped off my coat at the bag drop and got in line for the start. Check out the Run’s Facebook page for some great pictures.
I went out faster than my current training dictated and pushed the whole thing. I didn’t feel super great the whole time as I pushed myself. I made sure to cut the straightest line through the curvy West River Road and found people in front of me to try to catch. The first mile was 7:20 and was at the top of the Plymouth Bridge, the only real “hill” on the course. Mile 2 was in 7:23. During the third mile I could see the Stone Arch Bridge the whole time which helped make the mile go faster. Mile 3 was 7:13. The last 0.1 miles was in 10 seconds… Strava said the race was only 3.01 miles long, so who knows… Either way I finished in 22:06 which was towards the front of the pack. It hurt and I was very surprised when I saw my time.
After running the Moustache Run I played around a little bit more with the facial hair. Just a Moustache:
And a soul patch:
How should I wear my facial hair?? And I probably should throw out a plug for some prostate cancer organization… so go show your support for men’s health at Minnesota Prostate Cancer Coalition.
