friday morning, we loaded up our family mini-van and made our way to Frankenmuth, Michigan. we arrived in the evening and met my side of the family at Zehnders for a family style chicken dinner. after dinner, we walked across the covered bridge to the eastern side of town and waited for the fireworks. shortly after dusk, the show began which was a real thrill for most of the kids, although my 6 month old niece didn’t really dig the loud noise.
after the fireworks, we headed back to the hotel and got to bed at around midnight local time. i met my dad and brother-in-law in the hotel lobby the next morning at 6:30am and we piled into my dad’s car. i planned ahead for breakfast with an energy bar. they opted to stop at the McDonalds for an egg mcmuffin plus coffee & oj. (i’ll stick to the energy bar, thank you very much)
we arrived at the race about 45 minutes before the start and got ourselves registered. i headed out for a warm up run of about 15 minutes and felt really good. about ten minutes before the start, i found a hidden bathroom off the beaten path then made my way to the line as the national anthem was being played. after a prayer offered by the race announcer, a bugler played the traditional tune to call us to the line. shortly thereafter, we were off and running through a grass field then onto a gravel roadway until we made our way onto the paved road for a long uphill stretch.
i kept myself reined in with hopes of avoiding my nearly trademark habit of pulling a jackrabbit start. as we crested the long hill and turned into the rural countryside, my mentality gave way to being more assertive and i began to pick off runners who had put themselves out of breath too soon.
as we made our way out to the rural areas to the south of town, i began to consciously work to maintain higher knees versus my normal marathon shuffle. i kept telling myself to stride tall as i bounded along beside the corn fields.
passing the five kilometer mark, i took my first glance at my watch to find i was at 20:08. this was a very solid split considering my relative lack of training this year. knowing i needed to dig deep for the second half of the race, i bumped the volume up a bit on my ipod to minimize hearing my own huffing and puffing. as we made our way back into town, the course wound it’s way through the streets with residents outside their home clapping and offering a garden hose spray down for those who were overheated.
i carefully made my way over the slightly uneven surface of the covered bridge and wound my way up the last significant up hill. this left the last significant downhill to roll down on my way to the finish. by this time, my legs were a bit rubbery, but i leaned slightly forward to let gravity help me along. we then turned onto a gravel roadway which turned to a grass field to the finish line.
approaching the finish, i could already see the clock had rolled past forty minutes so i simply maintained my position and rolled across the finish line. the announcer was kind enough to call my name and where i was from as i finished. amazingly, he even pronounced Waukesha pretty well.
i caught my breath then slowly made my way back to the course and ran parallel to it, backwards, so i could meet up with my dad and brother-in-law. before long, i saw them up ahead running together and having a good time. i joined them and we made our way back over the bridge then up and down the last section of the course. nearing the finish, some runners from the local running store noticed my dad’s singlet reflecting their team’s name and called out “Go Hanson’s” – - which was a real kick.
the course was likely about a tenth of a mile long, which is fine by me. i was really most interested to see what sort of pace i could run and how my legs would react to the short distance.
there’s a great recap of the race on youtube. you can see me roll by about twenty seconds into the video on the left side of the screen. i’m sporting my usual Badgerland Striders singlet and hat. we’ll be back again, with the intent of collecting one of those steins.
