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Komen Race for the Cure 5k (Read 432 times)

    PRE-RACE The Susan Komen Race for the Cure was the race on the schedule today. This is the largest road race in the Lansing area with nearly 1300 participants. I ran last week and earned a time of 20:48 and was surprised that I recovered quickly and decided to race again today.The week leading up to this race I had run 38 miles which was a typical training week the past 3 months. Last year I would taper to about 25 miles for race weeks but I have since learned that there is no need to taper milage for 5k races unless one is running much higher mileage totals. I arrived in downtown Lansing and ran a 2 mile warmup jog. Then went back to my car to change to the racing flats and ran another ½ mile at race pace. I stretched then went to the starting line about 10 minutes before race start. It was a huge field but I wanted to line up near the front. That is until a race director moved us back based on proposed finish times. I was about 15 rows from the front now. Standing in the starting chute I spotted a guy in a yellow shirt who had finished 4th in my AG last week. I will try to stay with him I thought. I also spotted 46 year old Mary Ellen Stornant who has a goal to break 20 this year. Last week she ran a 20:23 to beat me by 150 yards. She was another target for me. I tried to located Allan Haller who had finished 2nd in my AG last week. He was a defensive back for MSU in the early 90s and later went on to play in the NFL for a short career. I could not find him in the mass of bodies. It took a few minutes to get the race underway and I tried to stay loose. Finally after the national anthem the horn sounded. It took awhile to get to the starting mat as we walked for several seconds to wait for the opening runners to get up to speed. MILE ONE I hit my stopwatch as I crossed the mat and away we went. I was in a slow group but found some openings to work with. I looked ahead and spotted yellow shirt about 150 feet ahead. “Just great” I thought “I really need to just start at the front regardless of what I am told” Anyhow it was about ¼ mile to the 1st turn onto Kalamazoo. I loped along at a comfortable pace…glanced at my watch which was around 1:40 well maybe this is a little slow. I had run a 6:50 opening mile last week which was extremely slow for me so I was going to aim for 6:30-6:35 this week. We turned the corner going west on K’zoo street. The wind hit me hard. It was about 12 mph out of the west. I was going to take it easier when going into the wind to save strength. I filled in behind a fit black runner. Could this be Mr. Haller? Maybe I was just happy he was blocking the wind. We came up a short hill and I felt good so I went around this guy and started downhill. The ½ mile mark was approaching. I looked at my watch. It was around 3:20. A little slow. As we rounded the next turn to get out of the wind I looked ahead and saw yellow shirt a good 300 feet ahead now. Well he has got me today I thought. I tried to spot Mary Ellen but could not see her at all. At least we were out of the wind now. I caught a guy I know called Jessie (who runs mid 21s) around the ¾ mile mark. Then I really started to make my move. I methodically passed runners who started too fast every 200 feet or so. Heading towards the capitol a lady called out a time of 5:53. I knew the mile marker was a several hundred feet from here. I hit the mile mark in 6:38 not great but 12 seconds ahead of last week. MILE TWO Now we went back west into the wind. Suddenly a guy in a yellow shirt came out of a bush and starting running right in front of me. It was the guy in my age group! Maybe he had to take a leak. Well what a break for me! Then yellow shirt suddenly ran off the curb and had to stop while holding onto his side. Wow…tough break for him. I later found out he wouldn’t finish the race. I suddenly was running all alone and the next group was about 100 feet ahead. Just run hard and I will catch one of them no doubt. This was true as stragglers started to fall off the pace of the pack. I reeled them in like I was fishing. There were lots of turns on this course….we now went back east past the Vietnam Memorial wall. This was a brick sidewalk with plenty of room to pass and I continued to do just that. At around the 1.75 mile mark some music was blaring “Eye of the Tiger” and at this point I was in full racing mode. It felt like I was dreaming and my feet were floating off the ground. How long would this last? We turned west again and hit the 2 mile mark in 13:20 (2nd mile split was 6:42)…ok I was 17 seconds ahead of last week but I had an ungodly fast last mile last week so I would have to continue to push the pace. MILE THREE The wind was really blowing now and I was alone again. I focused on turning the feet over and just looked at the ground right in front of my feet. I caught an older teen with pink hair and pink ribbons on his arms (Komen race color is pink so pink was everywhere). As I passed him I said “hang in there buddy” then I set my sights on 40 year old Charlie Miller. Charlie had left me in the dust last year but this year he was nursing an injury. I filled in behind him and he was very tough. I finally caught him as we got out of the wind and said “good job”..he just looked at me. I looked at my watch which showed 16:50. Nearing ½ mile to go. I spotted Jim Carter about 100 feet ahead. Jim is a 59 year old who is the runner who most mirrors my times. We ran together this week at track club because we are so consistently even. I am a very good finisher so I knew I could catch Jim. Anyhow wouldn’t you know but Jim was pacing behind Mary Ellen Stornant! I passed Jim right at 18 minutes and we exchanged compliments. Then I snuck between female masters winner Mary Ellen and another guy to her right. What a race! I still had something left….I was barreling downhill towards the final turn. We turned south on Capitol Avenue. A spectator said “last quarter mile ..the finish is right there!” But I knew there were exactly 0.18 miles left which is a far cry from ¼ mile. I had already figured I could run this last leg in about 65 seconds so glancing at my watch and seeing a time approaching 19:30 I knew I would have to run hard uphill to beat last weeks 20:48 but it seemed probable. A 13 year old girl had rounded the last turn just in front of me. She was all of 5 foot tall and 80 pounds. She was destined to be an all-state runner for Williamston soon. I gunned it up the hill even though I couldn’t keep the torrid pace and she gave up no ground. With about 600 feet left I suddenly saw him - Alan Haller. There was no mistaking him. He was leading me by about 80 feet. He is in my age group. I have to pass him! I thought about his blazing track speed and knew if he saw me coming he would easily beat me. I passed the girl with about 300 feet to go but all my focus was on Haller. I thought what a great story if I could pass him at the finish. But I didn’t have enough room and he was finishing strong. Yet I summoned my last bit of speed and gained and then passed Haller with about 5 feet to the finish line! I had beat an ex-NFL player! POST RACE I looked at my stopwatch….my final time was 20:30. I realized I still was not spent. I could have run faster! I stopped an went over to Mr. Haller and shook his hand “sorry about passing you at the end like that. I was just going for a good time” “That’s alright” he said “nice race” I said “you probably still beat me with the chip time” And he did beat me with the chip time…But I will always have the story that I outsprinted an ex-NFL player to the finish line J SPLITS 6:38 6:42 6:36 0:35 last tenth I also beat the guy who won my age group last week by 16 seconds. 7th of 66 in my AG and 59th of 1223 overall. Though my 1st mile was faster this week I can probably go faster there. Eleven seconds faster and I would have finished 4th in my AG. 13 seconds slower than my PR of 20:17
    jeffdonahue


      Nice job - way to stick it out and pass all those people. Sounds like a fun race with lots of runners - could have used a few of them on my race this weekend.
        Great race and report. Going up to an x-nfl player and saying, "sorry I passed you in the end there" was very brave Wink
        RunAsics


        The Limping Jogger

          Sounds like a good time given the course and weather. Most runners feels they could have run faster after the race... except the guy puking in the corner. Anyway, you were faster than your last 5k so that's pretty darn good. However, watch out for Mr Haller in your next race... now that he knows who you are, he may try to put some moves on you! Smile Note that you mentioned looking at the ground while focusing on turnover in Mile 3. You should focus on the neck of the runner in front of you, the one that you plan to pass... looking down affects form. Hard to do into the wind but something to think about.

          "Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."