This is the sixth year I have run this race. It's a nice race with a 5K and 5K walk option in addition to the 8K. It's point to point and real flat with a gun start and chip finish. The finish line is in downtown Bay City and, as the race ends, people are starting to congregate for the St. Pats parade that starts a little later.

My daughter, Sandy, came home to run the 5K option (and go shopping with her mother). The late registration and packet pickup takes place in a junior high gym by the starting line. With about 1800 people in all the races, the gym was full of people. After getting our numbers, we wandered around to see which of my running buddies we could find. We found quite a few, including GrayDave. Others that I've mentioned in other reports were Brian, Terry, Angie, and Leonard. Brian was particularly excited as he had talked his wife and several other relatives into coming with him and doing the walk.

I saw Sandy off at 11:40 and my race started at 12:00. The temp was in the mid 30s with just a little wind and the sun was shining, a nice day. I started out with Terry and Angie, not expecting to stay with them and thinking an 8:30 pace would be acceptable. As we progressed through the race, it looked like I was at or slightly ahead of that pace. About the third mile, Angie and Terry pulled ahead and stayed there for the rest of the race but were never very far ahead. During the last half mile or so, I passed a few people, including Len who I know from a number of races and who has beaten me every time except once, when he ran with a friend. Just short of the finish line, I heard Brian call my name and cheer me on. Sandy was at the finish line to see me finish. My GPS time was 41:33 for a pace of 8:21. I was pleased as this was about a minute and a half faster than last year and only 8 sec from my 8K PR. I ended up 196/332 OA and 5/9 in AG (60-64). Checking my splits later, my GPS had my pace for each (approximate) mile as 8:12, 8:16, 8:33, 8:26, and 8:17. Coming down the home stretch, while in a brain dead state, I saw the 3 mile mark for the 5K and hit the split button. I told myself that was sort of dumb, but it did show that my pace for the last tenth mile was 8:03 so I guess I had a mini kick.

Sandy finished in 32:27 which was almost 3 minutes better than the 5K she did with me last month and half a minute better than the one we did together in November. Better than her time improvement was the way she felt. Last month, she thought she was going to die and felt crappy the rest of the day. After this race, she didn't feel too bad and, upon getting back to our house, packed her stuff and took off for her place (hour and a half away) saying she felt fine. Her splits were 10:30, 10:36, and 11:20 for the last 1.1 miles (pace of 10:18 for that part so she had a kick at the end - in the last race, she just struggled to finish). Her overall pace was 10:28.

I was particlularly happy to see Brian after the race. He's only been running about a year. Last summer, he had the goal of breaking 30 minutes for a 5K. Since then, he has lost 50 pounds and, after a few months, his times started to drop quickly. In this race, he had his best at 23:28. I didn't see GrayDave during or after the race but a check of the results indicate he smoked me (congratulations, Dave). I'll be interested in hearing from him.

It was another good day at the races.

TomS