There's more to say about what happened before and after the race than there is to say about the race.  My wife, Ann, and I have done this race twice before, she as a walker and I as a runner.  One of those years, our daughter, Sandy,  walked with Ann.  this is a pretty course on a paved trail through woods and over a couple of wooden bridges around Genesys hospital and Genesys Health Club with the finish being almost a lap on  the indoor track at the Health Club. 

Early on there was talk of all three of us doing the race, this time Sandy as a runner. Since the the three of us and our son, Tom, jr, are planning on the Detroit half marathon, we all have training schedules to meet. A week or so ago, Sandy said she needed a long run this weekend and a 5K would mess up her schedule. Then, Ann started to talk the same way. As late as wednesday, I thought I might do the race even if I had to go alone (it's a little farther than I usually drive to races). I thought I could run 8 wednesday, 5 thursday, and take friday off. The alternative would be to run the 8 wednesday, take thursday off, run long friday, and forget the race. Thursday morning, I opted for cancelling the race and running long on friday. Thursday evening, Sandy called suggesting we go to the race and,after running it, doing the course 2 more times together so she could get in nine miles. I told her I'd already planned my own long run for friday so the race would be out and she'd be on her own for her long run at her place.

As reported in the daily, I did 14 on friday which is longer than usual. It was also faster than usual. As I thought more and more about it, I thought Sandy and I could go to Genesys and I could run with her rather than my own race and we could then do the extra two laps for 9 miles. She was still game, so that became the plan and we met there this morning. As already mentioned, this is farther than I usually go and it's in a direction I usually don't go so I didn't expect to see people I knew. We were surprised to see and visit with Terry before the race and saw Leonard at a distance. Since Sandy had run a 10:48 pace at the 8 mile Mackinac Island race three weeks ago and that was her longest run at that time, I suggested we aim for an 11:00 pace to compensate for the extra mile we planned. She thought we could do better. It was a pleasant morning, probably in the high 50s at the start, just a light wind, and clear. The first mile went pretty well at a 10:50 pace, the second was 10:45, and Sandy picked it up a bit to make the 3rd at 10:12. We crossed the finish line in 32:24 for a 10:26 pace which was great.

We got rid of our chips, grabbed some water, and headed out for the two more laps. We loped along, generally close to our pace during the race and did our two laps plus another mile for a total of 10, Sandy's distance PR by two miles. Our total time was 1:44:12 for a 10:25 pace. Sandy didn't start to feel bad until the last half mile and that wasn't real bad. She was excited to have done 10 miles.

When results were posted, we found she was 9/14 in her AG and we were 247 and 248/356 OA. Terry was first in her AG and Leonard 2nd in his. It was another good day at the races.

TomS