Race Reports

This article was originally posted by trivianut at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

If anyone wants to run a really well organized race, I would recommend this highly. I had the chance to run it on Sunday with my daughter. She had been trying to get me to run this throughout her tenure as an undergrad at EC, and we finally got it done. She wanted to run under 2 hours and I thought that was doable. Several things were against us though. It was unseasonably warm for NW Wisconsin, with a high of 83. Added to that was the fact I wasn’t the greatest pacer, and her lack of training did her in a bit. But we went after it, with her mom and brother and all her sorority sisters cheering us on at various points during the race. Our first 5 miles were about 8:40 pace, pretty much right on. It felt really slow to me, but Megan said she was ok. She began to struggle at that point, and she was not sure she was going to be able to finish. I told her whatever pace she could handle was fine, we would get through it together. We did a bit of walk 1-2 min run 10 min cycles. Then I had to make a pit stop and it took about 10 minutes to find her and catch up. When I did reach her I could tell she was laboring even more, and our overall pace dropped below 9 min. Then the 2:00 hour pacer passed us, and she was still struggling. This was very weird for me, because I felt good. But I began to understand that it wasn’t about me. My daughter, who rebelled against any running advice from her dad during her high school career, needed me to get to the finish line. We saw her mom and brother at the 11 mile mark, and then the gauntlet of sorority girls 5 minutes later gave her a momentary energy boost. But we were walking more frequently and for longer periods. I got a bit harder on her, challenging her to keep moving forward. Finally I knew we had just 1/2 mile, and we turned into Carson park to see finishers walking back towards us. She saw a women with a finisher’s medal around her neck – pointed at her and said " I want that!" So I said ‘then let’s go get it" We did run steadily to the end, and finally she kicked it in at the finish. 2 hours and 6 minutes after we started, we cross the line together. It was a great moment for me as a father. Megan was pretty spent the rest of the day, but you could tell she was really happy. She wouldn’t take the medal off. And I had run my longest run in perhaps 7 or 8 years. As I mentioned at the beginning, nothing but good things to say about this race. Well organized, wonderfully scenic course, and the best spectators I have experienced in 35 years of running races. Maybe next year I could come back and run again, but alas, our daughter is graduating and moving out of state to Minnesota to become a Nursing Home Administrator. I am very proud of her for many reasons, and yesterday was but one of those. Ryan you said you’d love to have that opportunity to run with your kids, and I truly hope you do. It was one of the best days of my life. Now my 24 year old son wants to run the Madison Mini (13.1) in August. Of course, I’d love to run at MY pace this time. We’ll see how that goes….

This article was originally posted by trivianut at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

This is the largest road race in Wisconsin, with 10,000 runners. There are some similarities and differences to Al’s Run. They’re both 8k races, with large fields and plenty of competition. The main difference is Crazylegs has a wave start, based on predicted time. Waves of 200 runners go off every 30-45 seconds. My estimated finish time of 38 minutes put me and my son in wave G. On the one hand running around a bunch of slower runners in waves that went off earlier was a bit frustrating, and it meant that the course was always full of runners. The benefit for me was it allowed me to focus on my effort and not get sucked out into too fast of a pace. Plus I always had people to focus on and pick off. The course winds from the Capitol down to campus, along lake Mendota, and then returns to finish inside Camp Randall stadium where the badgers play football.

Having no real idea where I might finish (35-38 minutes I was guessing), I focused on a hard steady effort. My splits were pretty indicative of that, with the possibility that I had more to give with the last split…

7:05

7:05

7:21

7:22

6:40 (.97)

Overall 35:33, 606 out of 10,000, 21 out of 444 in 50-54 AG

I was really happy with the result, since my last race (Al’s Run) was frustrating with the ankle turn. My training has focused on just getting out there 5-6 days a week, 5-6 miles a day. No special runs or speed workouts, and I am running a half marathon next Sunday so I didn’t want to hurt my recovery. I’m running the half with my daughter most likely, so my time will be slower. At 51 I do recover more slowly from workouts in general, and I’m careful about my balky right knee, so I plan continuing with the steady runs an will try to add a bit more mileage as the warmer weather comes.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

First, I should point out that I’m the last team member to write about the race. Nikki, Josh and Jerry have already written on their perspectives. To be honest, the weekend got hectic for me and I haven’t read through all of those yet so I hope they were positive reviews. I did see enough, though, to say Nikki’s has the most entertaining visuals if that’s what you’re looking for.

Back in I believe October, Josh emailed me asking if I would be interested in getting a team together to run the Icebreaker relay. I don’t think it took a lot of arm twisting for him to convince me to give it a shot. I sent out some feelers and seemed to have enough interest. After letting the dust settle, we had 3 people (Josh, Jerry and myself) definitely interested and enough interest to convince me it wouldn’t be hard to find a fourth so I registered Team HillRunner.com for the relay with 3 members at the time.

It was more work to get that fourth than I thought but, after a couple starts and stops, we added Nikki, a great add to the team, perfectly fitting in with the rest of us both in personality and competitiveness.

Once the team was set, we discussed relay strategies some. This relay is at the Pettit Center. For those of you not familiar with the Milwaukee area, the Pettit Center is an indoor ice skating facility with an Olympic size long track speedskating oval. They have a 3 lane, 443 meter running track around the perimiter of the ice.

There are a few things to note about this setup:

– For obvious reasons, it’s pretty chilly. It’s been stated that the temperature in there is about 50 degrees. To me, it feels more like the 40s.

– It’s much better for running a marathon than spinning circles around your standard 200 meter indoor track. Plus the turns are more gentle than even a 400 meter outdoor track.

– The only rule as far as exchanges go for the relay is that the chip has to be on your ankle and has to cross over the chip mat the prescribed number of times. In other words, you can exchange as frequently or infrequently as you want. The catch is that you have to change the chip. It was on a velcro strap you would put around your ankle and the suggestion was that it wouldn’t take long if a third person switched the chip between the incoming runner and the outgoing runner.

I picked up Josh on my way in since his place is along the way. When we arrived at the Pettit, we found a parking space and headed inside. We found a place to put our bags, then I headed upstairs to pick up our team packet while Josh camped out watching for teammates. I saw Chris and Dana at packet pick-up and they had our team pegged as one of the favorites in the mixed division. I wasn’t so sure about that but, the competitive type I am, that got me a bit fired up. I went back down, found Josh, and after talking a bit we went to the other side of the track to see if we could find a better spot to camp out on. As we were trying to figure out where to go, Nikki appeared. We chatted for a while with Nikki and a friend of hers who was there to run on a different team. Her friend suggested we should find a spot on the rubber mat we were standing on so we wouldn’t end up on the cold concrete floor. Eventually, we decided to just drop our stuff where we were talking and claim that spot. Shortly after, Jerry arrived and our team was complete. Jerry brought a couple folding chairs, a very good idea, and set them up along the back wall where we had our things. Our team camp was now set and we relaxed some while watching the half marathon finish up.

After the half marathon completed, the track was open for relay runners to warm up. I did a bit of running with Nikki and it wasn’t hard to tell her competitiveness was every bit as strong as anyone else on the team. I had already figured out that, after the initial reservations and formalities present when meeting new people, she was a good fit personality wise with the rest of the team. Relaxed and fun loving, she’d be a good fit. After enough running to warm up, I stepped off and did some mobility drills to loosen up. Then it was time to get a bit of faster running on to stretch out the legs. Jerry was coming by so I jumped on the track with him and he was going a solid pace. Perfect to stretch out the legs. I ran with him a bit, then stepped off to make sure Nikki, or leadoff runner, had our chip. Then I went back to the track and did a lap at a pretty solid pace to really open up the legs and make sure I was ready to race. I did a couple strides well away from the starting area, then the race started.

Our virtually last minute plan was for everyone to run 12 legs of roughly 2 laps each. Nikki would lead off and take a little short of 2 laps, then Josh, Jerry, me. Then we’d repeat 2 laps for each runner until the last leg, when someone would be shorted a lap and I’d run 2 laps plus maybe 20 yards to the finish line. So Nikki took the opening leg and I could already see her competitiveness coming out. She was working it hard. As she came in, Jerry switched the chip from her to Josh seamlessly and Josh was off. He was also running aggressively and set up Jerry well. I was in charge of exchanging the chip between Josh and Jerry and, trying to rush too much, fumbled around for what seemed like forever before getting Jerry started. He was also running pretty aggressively so I knew what I had to do. No conservative start and building into it. I was going to be all in.

Nikki handled the exchange well and I was off. I went out aggressively for the first 100-200 meters, before reminding myself that this was the first of twelve 1/2+ mile repeats and settling in. There were a lot of people on the track I was passing but traffic didn’t seem to be too much of an issue. I cruised through my first pretty uneventful leg, then came into the exchange a little hot. I had to hit the brakes pretty hard in order to stop by Josh, who was handling the chip exchange.

For a while after that, things were pretty uneventful. We all settled into controlled but aggressive paces, exchanges went well. The only thing I noted was that my legs were tightening up between my runs. I settled into a routine of finish and head straight to our camp where I would roll out my legs with my Stick that I’m so glad now I brought. Then I’d come back and watch the exchange to Josh before stretching a bit, handling the exchange to Jerry before stretching a little more, then getting ready to run.

I wasn’t paying much attention to how fast I was running but I would occasionally check the finish line clock. Whenever I did, I was running about 1:31-1:32 per lap, a fair bit faster than I had planned but I felt like I was settling into a nice rhythm. I don’t know if I was always running those lap times or I was subconsciously pushing a little harder because I knew I was getting a split. Either way, I was moving well and so was the whole team. If I recall, at what I figured to be about the halfway point, I had a split that had us at about 2:45 pace. Very solid. I thought a 2:50 would be a very good day for us and we had some cushion on that.

Somewhere around the halfway point, we began paying more attention to our standings and the other teams. We were 12th overall and 2nd in the mixed division, with 1st on the same lap as us and 3rd a fair distance back. As I’m always thinking look ahead, not back, I said let’s stay as close as we can to that 1st place team. You never know what might happen in the second half. It was hard to pick out the team ahead of us, though, because it was a Marquette Running Club team and there were at least 3 different Marquette Running Club teams in the race. Jerry figured out it was team number 37 and we had our eye on them. They weren’t coming back to us but we were generally holding steady on them.

It wasn’t until late in the race that I got passed for the first time. I was running down the home straight with runners staggered through lanes 2 and 3 so I was in lane 1 (you were supposed to use lane 3 when not passing and only drop into the lower lanes to pass). Then someone blows by me on my right shoulder. I glanced at him and realized it was like my old college days. Matt Thull had just went by. For about 2 steps, I attempted to go with. Then I thought better of it and decided my goal was to just stay as close as I could. I thought I did a good job of that, only losing maybe 20-30 yards on him over the nearly 2 laps I was staring at his back.

Later in the race, I got passed by a member of the second place overall team. I immediately attached to him, thought about passing a couple times but didn’t, then finished my leg right on his shoulder. Those were the only two times I got passed all day so I’m going to call that a pretty successful day in that regard.

By my final 2 legs, I was telling myself throw all caution to the wind and just run my hardest. I don’t think that changed the pace I was running but it allowed me to maintain. In fact, in my last leg, I timed my first lap from finish line to finish line and it was again a 1:31. At that point, though, I knew we could go under 2:43. I crossed the finish line in the low 2:41:20s. Another 1:30 lap and we’re in under 2:43. What a great team run that would be. I got a little juiced when the announcer called out that HillRunner.com was on our last lap and tried to use that energy to run a little harder. I’m not sure I got going faster, though. I tried sprinting as hard as I could for the last 150, I know someone said nice kick, but again I don’t think I was actually going faster. I crossed the finish line in the 2:42:50s and Josh said he had my last two laps in 1:32, 1:31. So more of the same. No complaints, though. We all left it out on the track. I was amazed seeing my teammates coming in on their last legs how hard they were working.

Our final result was 12th overall, 2nd in the mixed division, with a 2:42:50 chip time. In my opinion, a great run and our team with an average age of 39 was only 3:14 behind the collegiate runners who won our division which is a very solid result.

I can’t thank Nikki, Josh and Jerry enough for running with me on Saturday. I’m very honored and proud to have had them representing HillRunner.com and it was a very fun experience.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

As those of you who have been reading my race reports for any time know, one of the things I’m very proud of is my streak of going under 17 minutes in a 5K every year since 1996. A little background. For me, going under 17 minutes was a big deal. My early years as a runner were pretty inauspicious. As I first started, a sub-17 5K would seem impossible. Doing it for 19 years in a row? Forget about it. What I did have was the ability physically and mentally to push hard in training and a body that responded to that training very well. Combined with the best coaching I could have asked for, I was able to go from not being able to break 4 minutes in a half mile to nearly breaking 5 minutes per mile for 2 miles before I graduated high school.

Still, as I graduated high school, I hadn’t run a sub-17 5K. My only 5K races to that date were on cross country courses. During my senior season in 1994, I got a best of 17:06 and that’s the PR I graduated high school with.

Then I moved on to college and the distance for cross country races moved up to 8K. Good for me competitively because I’ve always been better as the race distance went longer but that means I went the whole year of 1995 without ever racing a 5K.

Then came my freshman indoor track season in 1996. In my first indoor race, I believe I ran a 16:16 to smash my cross country best and run my first ever sub-17 5K. A week later, I ran 16:08, which would be my PR at the end of the season.

Fast forward to 2014 and I haven’t gone a single year since 1996 without running a timed 5K in under 17 minutes. For some runners, such as myself back in middle school or my freshman year of high school, that seems like a crazy good accomplishment. For others, that’s probably not a big deal. It means a lot to me, though. This year, though, the story has been close but not quite. In the spring, my planned 5K season essentially fell apart due to circumstances mostly out of my control but I did get one 5K in. However, I got caught in a tactical battle mid-race, then got led nearly off course which cost at least a few seconds and ended up finishing in 17:02. So close! Three weeks ago, I got caught in another tactical effort early and had to deal with a slightly challenging course. 17:05. So close again!

That leads to today. This was my last planned race of the year. I knew I was in shape to get a sub-17. Given the faster course, the fitness I’ve shown in earlier races this year and simply my confidence on this course to log fast times, I knew I was ready for sub-17. My training had gone very well and, on Friday, I was not stating anything publicly but I had in the back of my mind the idea that I could hit the 16:40s with a good race, maybe 16:40 or high 16:30s with a near perfect race.

Then Saturday morning happened. I got out of bed and hobbled. Something was up with my left foot. I checked the weather and the 0% chance of rain at race time that was being reported yesterday afternoon turned into an 80% chance of rain. I spent some time on the foam roller and with the stick before leaving home, then we loaded up the car and the whole family was off to the races.

On the drive over, the rain got downright hard at times. Man, it’s going to be fun running in this. A steady 43 degrees sounds great but with hard rain and enough breezy to be noticeable, that’s a different story.

I get to the race and I’m still very confident in my ability to break 17 but I’m less sure of the 16:40s. This might be a year where I slip in by the skin of my teeth.

As I warmed up, the rain let up some. Well, that’s good. It actually had pretty much stopped by start time and I decided to go minimal. No hat, no gloves. As for my foot, it only hurt when I was slowing down at times like at the end of a stride. As long as I was running fast and kept my pace going, it was fine. I figured good. I don’t want to slow down until the race is over. As long as I cross the finish line with the first two numbers being 1 and 6, I don’t care how I feel after the finish line.

At the start, I went straight into the lead as is usual at this race. I pushed up the one little incline on the course a couple hundred yards in as we run away from the river, then turned into the wind and up the long northbound stretch. I was thinking the wind was at least from the right direction. It would suck through here but I would then have it at my back when the going is getting really tough in the last mile. Through mile 1, I just focused on being quick but smooth. That took me through approximately mile 1 (I’m pretty sure it was a bit long) in 5:30. I panicked a bit because that seems way too close until I realized it was probably a bit long. I then cruised through some very good traffic control this year and into a figure 8 loop that covers the middle stretch of the course. Out of the headwind, I just kept telling myself work mile 2. Work it, work it, keep pushing and I’ll always be able to find a way to grind it out in the last mile.

Late in the figure 8 loop, I cruised through the again probably long 2 mile split in 11:00 even. Well, I’m skeptical of these splits but at least they are consistent. Two 5:30s. But, just in case they are accurate, it’s time to grind it out. I just sustain for the first 300-400 yards, then I turn onto the southbound stretch and backtrack toward the start/finish area. From here, I know it’s all about 100% effort. This is the stretch that I just give it everything I have and I know I’ll always have something for the end. I am just hammering here, grunting with effort, suffering but feeling in control. I’m sure I’m in the "ugly" stage now but I just keep it going. Late in this stretch, I start encountering walkers who are going on a different route but sharing part of the route with the runners. Apparently, the police decided the morning of the race to demand a change in course for the walkers that left them walking up the same sidewalk I was returning on. I left the sidewalk at one point to get around a few walkers and nearly twisted my right ankle. Then I jumped out on the road. I’m not going to keep fighting the packs of walkers. So I got past all the walkers out there, then got back on the sidewalk. Still hammering, still bringing all I had.

With I’d guess a little over 1/4 mile to go, I turn off this stretch, do a slight downhill, a couple more turns, then I’m looping around a park and into the finish. I bring all I have into that downhill, have to slow down for one turn, then just bring it with all I can. As I’m coming around the park, I’m thinking what am I going to see on the clock as I come around the last turn? 16:50-something? Hopefully high 16:40s?

As I make that final turn, I quickly scan for the clock. 16-what? 16:20-something? No freaking way! I see the clock ticking toward 16:30. Whoa, I crossed with it at 16:30? Sure enough, I’m given an official time of 16:30. Well, I honestly didn’t rule out the possibility of 16:30 but I thought it would take absolute perfection to get it. This race was extremely close but not quite absolute perfection.

After crossing the finish, I first did one of those hands on the knees things. Then I had to take a knee. I tried getting up twice but got lightheaded and had to go back down both times. Yes, I definitely gave it everything I had and it worked out.

So there it is. Some may be impressed by it, some may think it’s no big deal. To me, though, 19 straight years and counting with a sub-17 5K means a lot. I can’t wait to go for number 20 next year.

On a side note, 16:30 is the fastest I’ve gone in a while. I’m not quite sure how long but I’m going to guess at least 5 years. This year has been very good for me. I’m very proud and happy with how it went. It’s been a good year. Now, it’s time to rest up and get ready for year number 20.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I’m always nervous about inaugural events but this is a fundraiser for the scholarship program at my daughter’s school district. She will possibly benefit from this program in the future so I kind of felt obliged to make a showing.

Of course, any time I toe the line at a 5K, I’m thinking about breaking 17 minutes. Given that this was an inaugural event and that this is in a town where "flat" is a relative term, though, I was a bit skeptical. As it turned out, the course was about as flat as you can make it here but that’s not necessarily saying much.

The course started at the high school, at the gated entry to the track and football field. It then hit town roads, went up a long, gradual incline to the middle school, then looped back around to the high school, finishing with about 3/4 of a lap on the track and a U-turn into a 50 yard line finish on the football field.

I warmed up over the last 3/4 mile of the road portion of the course. I was feeling good but not great. Still, I expected to at least be in contention for the win and I expected myself to at least be in the low 17s.

At the start, I ran what I was told was the route and a few others seemed to be cutting some turns a bit short. Not a big deal but one of those guys was pretty persistent. Right on my shoulder the whole time. This was not going to be one of those inaugural events where you show up and win by 3 minutes. I had some formidable competition on my hands. That’s fine. There’s a time and place for time trial-style races but I’m always a fan of good, head to head competition.

We made a few turns then, probably before the half mile, started the long climb that would take up more than the next half mile. By this point, the guy who had been running behind me had already challenged me once or twice. At this point, between the coming long climb and a head to head battle, I knew this race wasn’t going to be a gun to tape time trial. I know I’m fit enough right now to run a real nice time but I’m not in the kind of race where I can just throw caution to the wind and go for it. The course is going to suck some life out of my legs and I don’t want to hammer the second mile and risk blowing up and getting passed in the last mile. So I hang tight up the hill, let this guy pass me a couple times but come back on him each time. Finally, as we reach near the top, he pulls away from me just a bit. I tell myself let him go and there’s a gradual decline where I can bring him back in as he’s sucking air from the effort on the incline.

I think it was on that decline where I saw the 2K mark. About 200 yards earlier, I was telling myself we had to be past the mile even though I saw no sign of it. It was a relief to know I was right. At the same time, I was back in the lead and I told myself the next 2K is make or break time for me. So I pushed but did so with just a touch of caution. Again, I wanted to make sure I had something left for the finish just in case. I knew I was pulling away a little but not much. Around a turn, not too far from what I estimated to be about a mile to go, and I see the 3K mark. OK, still on track and I’ve built up a bit of a lead. I round another turn and start the downhill stretch. By this time, my legs are worn down enough that I couldn’t really attack the downhill the way I wanted but I do think I opened up more of a gap there. Down at the bottom, I tried opening it up a little. I had some energy yet but my top speed just didn’t seem to be there.

I came into sight of the track with the clock on the scoreboard just over 15 minutes. I figured I had about 2 minutes to go but I figured I’d miss sub-17. I didn’t want to hammer until I was on the track so I picked it up a bit and got myself to the track. We do a near U-turn to enter the athletic fields and I see my lead is comfortable but not huge. I push a little harder but just don’t have that last gear. On to the track, I keep pushing and I watch the clock. Ticking toward 16:20. I figure I have about 200 meters or a little more to go as the clock hits 16:20. Can I run a 35 second 200? I doubt it but I try. Again, no last gear. I think the hill just took that speed out of my legs. I make the couple sharp turns to enter the football field and head toward the finish line. As I take the last turn, I see the clock ticking toward 17 flat. It isn’t happening. I have the win comfortably but I’m not going to kill myself for another second or so here.

I end up finishing in 17:05. Second was an assistant coach for the high school cross country team. A very good runner himself and obviously someone who knows a thing or two about running. Third was a young guy, probably not in high school, a few minutes back. He has a lot of potential.

All said, this was a very good race. Just not one you go to looking for a fast time. They have a few kinks they could work out but very solid for an inaugural effort. They also had very nice and unique awards for the top 3 overall finishers. I give them credit for standing out with their awards and for holding a quality event in their first attempt. I definitely think this can grow into a very nice race.

As for me, I feel good with this. Yes, I just missed sub-17 for the second time this year but I know, given a few sharp turns on the course and the long climb that drained my legs, I’m ready for it on the much faster course I’ll be at in 3 weeks.