The Tuesday night biking group fragmented tonight as five of the bikers showed up at Rice Lake's Aquafest run and only two bikers showed up at our normal ride location. Those two bikers then headed north to the Tuscobia trail to watch the run. It was a good group. The picture of the bikers shows Brian Arnold, Ron Kay (he didn't run in khakis), Mark Bittner, Gary Crisler, and myself. Even some of the cross country students I have coached showed up. With rain hitting during the early stages of the run and the humidity very high, it made for a warm evening run. Last year's race winner (Monty from Flambeau. . .sorry I don't remember his last name) took an early lead and held it to the finish in 39:08. I finished second overall with a time of 40:14. My wife finished around 55 minutes in what she thinks was a PR for her, so congrats, Angela. The overall award for this race is pretty cool. It is an old railroad spike with the winners information painted on it. I think the railroad spike might actually be from this trail when it was previously a railroad track. Pictures were taken by Valerie Leair of the Chronotype.
I learned something today. Tying a key for your car to your shoe is a terrible way to secure a key prior to running a race. This race started off great. Wonderfully cool weather. A slight mist in the air. A perfect day for a PR. I started the race off at a great pace. I felt wonderful. All until mile two in the race. The key that was attached to my shoelaces loosened and flew off into the grass. As if that wasn't enough, I then had to find my key which proved no short task. I lost at least 45 seconds to a minute searching for the key and quickly tying my shoe. That time lost allowed several runners to pass me. My time for the remainder of the race was great. I finished in 39:45, which was just 26 seconds from my PR (that's the importance of the lost 45-60 seconds). I gave up an opportunity for a personal record. Still, my time beat last years time of 40:55 and my overall placing improved as well. I finished 15th overall out of 277. My wife cruised to a personal record time of 53:14 (Congrats, Angela!). I then did the same crazy thing I did last year and ran the two mile race afterwards. I started front of the pack to start and held the lead for about 1/3 mile before finally being caught. I ran a strong 2 mile race, but also not a PR. My time was 11:57, which was good enough for 10th overall out of 245 (2nd in my age group). My wife was there to cheer me on. Afterwards, I talked with Albert Omhasa who finished 2nd in the 2 mile and 3rd in the 10K. He was fun to chat with. He told me I "have good speed, but no endurance." He told me I need to add more miles to my training. I told him I would try to see what I could do. Maybe next year will be a better year for the event. Today would have been an ideal time for a PR in the 10K. We had a blast at the race. Monte Stewart (who won this year's Aquafest run) finished strong with a 10th place finish in the 10K run with a time of 38:23.
