RCU Charity Classic

My wife and I traveled out to Eau Claire for the RCU Charity Classic. Angela brought her friend Leiah Bowen from work. We came down for the 10K race. All three of us raced the 10K, with Angela and Leiah running together and finishing in 1:03:51.3 (they finished together in 265 and 266th place) out of 371 runners. Congrats to Leiah, as this was her first race. She was nervous leading up to it, but did wonderful and they both had a great time. I also did the 10K and finished in 40:55.2 (28th overall and 3rd in my age group for a 6:36 min/mile). I then got crazy and signed up for the 2 mile immediately after and finished in 12:20.4 (6:10 min/mile which was 19th overall out of 251 runners and 2nd in my age group). Let me tell you, the lunch at Manny's (a mexican restaurant) was well deserved. Check out the yellow and white runner's number badge on my shorts in the shot of me crossing the finish. That is cool since I was one of the select few to compete in both races. Two mile results are posted at http://www.rcu.org/news_and_education/charity_classic/2008_2mile_overall.pdf 10K results are posted at http://www.rcu.org/news_and_education/charity_classic/2008_10K_overall.pdf

Aquafest 10K. 6/10/08

The annual Aquafest 10K race came down to a matter of feet for me. Although it was not as fast a race for me compared to the previous years, I came within 1 second of third place in this race. I finished in 40:59 which was good enough for 4th place and first in my age group. I closed off a lot of the gap on the runner who finished 3rd place as I ran the remaining mile or so, but was not able to make up enough of the time. The photo was in the Rice Lake Chronotype newspaper and was taken by Dave Greschner.

Panther Pant 5K

The Panther Pant occured at the Cathedral School in Superior, Wisconsin. It was a 5K race. I took off fast at the beginning and tried to stay with the lead guy. One of the guys who finished just ahead of me at the end of the race yelled out to his teammate who actually won the race a quote which I love. He was trying to pump up his fellow teammate and he yelled out "Mike, don't worry about that guy. You've got him. He's nothing." What great sportsmanship. Well, Mike did win the race and my early start to the race spelled a slow finish for me and I ended up finishing 6th overall. My time was 19:36. Perhaps if I would have slowed the pace initially, the overall time would have been better, as I was over a minute slower than the Osceola Healthy Heart 5K I did in April.

Kishwaukee Sunrise Rotary 8K

When your wife is a bridesmaid in a wedding and you have nothing else to do with your time while you wait for her, what is the next best thing to do? Run a race of course. I have not run an 8K competitively before, although I did run one for fun with my brother Dan last year. Boy, this is a tough distance. Not quite a 10K but more distance than a 5K. It takes some getting used to. I had a blast and finished 6th overall out of 87 runners with a time of 32:20. I was second in my age group. . .7 seconds behind the guy who placed first in my age group. Certainly I could have pushed more, but boy was it a windy day during the race. Also, two athletes who had tried out for the Olympics showed up for this small-town race in rural Illinois. They dominated the field.

BACC Triathlon

My wife and I participated in the BACC triathlon today which included a 1/4 mile swim, a 12 mile bike ride and a 5K run. The swim went well, but the bike and run sections were the held in snowy conditions. The winds were so powerful that they could bring a bike to a stop if you didn't pedal on a downhill. Bob Peterson was last year's winner and finished first again by a small margin. Mark Bittner nearly edged him out. I finished about 8 minutes back for third. This shows how much a lack of winter training really hurts early season. . .especially on the bike. It was my first real triathlon and went well. I wonder if snow is part of the forecast for next year's race? My time was 1:17:19. My swim time was 7:30. The bike time was 46:51. The 5K run time was 22:58.

Osceola Healthy Heart 5K

The Osceola Healthy Heart 5K was a great run. I took off fast and finished the first mile at about 5:50, which was about where I wanted to be. I held the lead for the first mile, and then was caught by Joel Ailts of Deer Park. He was a good competitor as he pushed me and we kept pace for a while, but he eventually gapped me going up a hill. He maintained a lead, but I was able to stick it out and finish about 13 seconds behind him. I finished second overall, but had my best 5k time ever with a time of 18:32. I ran a cool down run with Joel. I guess Joel does quite a few runs as well. I was real happy with my run. Luckily, the weather held off. It was cloudy and looked like rain, but nothing turned up with the weather.

Spring Fever 2 mile

My first race of the year was in Altoona. I just decided to try a race the day before. I had only been running for about 3 weeks. Since I wasn't doing Grandma's marathon this year, I decided to take winter off and focus on biking. It was pretty rough going. I went down with a friend of mine to the race. He did the 6 mile. I ran the 2 mile. By the one mile point, the guy who won the 6 mile race (Corey Stelljes) was already about 30 seconds ahead of me and I was only running a 1/3 his distance. Well, he did just run the Olympic trials for the marathon last November. . .he isn't too bad a runner. I finished easily ahead of the next place guy with a 40 second lead. My time was 12:15. I got done and thought, gee. . .that was a short run. I am not used to running only a couple of miles. Usually I am slugging out long distance runs.