The Birth of the Challenge

In the beginning of June 2009, I was reviewing the website runeveryday.com which lists individuals who have run at least a mile per day for at least a year (over 40 years for some). Since I had just completed my second marathon and was running 6 days a week, I said "Why not?' and started my running streak. As I checked out the website further, I came across a list on the website that showed members who have ran the most counties in their state. It was at this time that I came up with my latest personal challenge of running a race in every county in Michigan. I did a little research to see if every county had a race and I found out that all 83 counties had a running race or triathlon. I will use this blog to update my progress throughout the state. I hope you enjoy reading about my exploits, struggles, and successes as much as I enjoy experiencing them.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

St Patrick's Race

Kelly, the kids, and I headed over to the west side of the state this weekend so I could run in the Blue Lake Township Fire Department St Patrick's Day 5K. We decided to spend the night with Kelly's brother, Casey, in Grand Rapids on Friday night to break the trip up into 2 parts. It turned out to be a great decision because of the snow we got in Michigan on the first day of spring. It would not have been fun to drive nearly 3 hrs 2 weeks in a row before 5Ks. We arrived at the race and I picked up my bib with about 15 minutes to spare. As we were waiting, I noticed a couple that I recognized from the Mt Pleasant Half Marathon a couple weeks ago. We laughed about the goat on the course and how it really lightened up the middle of the race. According to the local runners, the course was not a PR course with a few large hills. My goal was to just run a strong race and notch up another race in another county.

We started out and a large group of runners started on the downhill first half mile real quick. I settled into a relaxed pace and felt good. As we approached the 1st mile marker, I decided to accelerate and pass the group of 7 to 8 runners that was ahead of me. After I passed them, I set my sights on the young runner next ahead. After passing each other back and forth, I finally put him behind me for good on a long downhill. I then turned to the couple that I recognized from Mt Pleasant. For the rest of the race, I did my best to catch them. With about a half mile to go, we ventured off the road and onto a small trail by a lake. This is where we hit the toughest part of the course. We ran up a hill that killed any momentum I had chasing the couple and I ended up finishing 20 seconds behind them. I finished the race in 20:11 and could not have been happier. I did get a new 5K PR.

I headed into the fire hall and they had a literal buffet for the runners while we waited for the runners/walkers to finish and the award ceremony to start. They posted the results and I ended up with 6th overall out of 90 runners and 1st in the 35-39 age group. The Overall Winner had a finishing time of 18:35, so I was not too far off the winning pace. All of the participants got ribbons, award winners got medals, and the winners got some nice trophies. Next up is my home county of Genesee for the Flushing Township Half Marathon next Saturday.
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