Race With Grace 10k

Sal's running group had a great showing in the annual Thanksgiving Day Race with Grace 10k. The weather was miserable, 37 degrees with a NNE wind blowing at 15-20mph, rain soaked streets and rain for the entire race. Yuck! Despite this, more than 700 runners completed the race.

The course was basically a letter P, with the first 5k pretty much into wind. The newly built First Bible Baptist Church is an amazing facility and provided plenty of parking and indoor space for the runners. Race director Bob Dyjak (photo to the right), the Greece police and the volunteers deserve tremendous thanks for a first class race on a miserable day.

Due to the weather many of the times seemed slower than normal. I also think this course is slightly slower than the old RWG 10k course, since the last 1.7 miles are on Manitou road heading south, with an incline most of the way.

Jan finished 2nd in her age group, running a 51:59, an 8:22 pace. Lou was also 2nd in his age group. Patty P was 1st overall Masters, taking home big money ($150). Jan and I finished 3/25 in the husband-wife category, losing to two teams half our age. Lou and his daughter, Jennifer, finished 2/30 in the father-daughter category.

In the hotly contested Mike vs Mike race, I "won" by 4o seconds. Using Patty (all 98 pounds) and Mike and then Mike and the Merritt boys as pacers and wind blockers, I was shielded for much of the first 5k. Then I just hung on to the Merritt boys and refused to look back. The last .5 mile was just counting my strides and hoping Mike W. didn't catch me. Maybe Mike gave me the victory as a confidence builder for my marathon and a birthday present? It would have been preferable to lose and have both of us run the 2 minutes or so faster we thought we were capable of. However, I finished 8th and Mike 10th out of 56 in our age group, so I guess when compared to our peers we ran well.

On the positive side, Jan ran negative splits and I ran a very even 7:06 pace, which is a good strength workout for the marathon. I always write about how hard xc is, on Sunday I ran all out in a 5 mile xc race and finished 58/89 in the Masters division and at the RWG road race I finished 85/704. A good week for strength and speed workouts, now back to distance training with only 50+ days until WDW!

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 25, 2007 at 9:36 AM

    Will Mike W ever recover after getting beat by Lou in the marathon and Mike M at RWG?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 26, 2007 at 9:10 AM

    I..I mean he will not recover. In high school Mike W was voted most likely to hold a grudge and best class pouter. Congratulations to Mike M at RWG. He should be fully recovered from his Boston qualifying marathon by Running of the Green. Then, "vengence will me mine!" I mean his.

    signed,
    unanimous.

    ReplyDelete

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