20M + 5K= fun?
i met up with ryan and dana over in wauwatosa at 6:15AM. i was fortunate to have made it on time as when the alarm went off this morning i turned it off and fell back asleep. luckily (perhaps) i woke up at 5:40 and quickly rushed out the door. we headed off down a bike path and headed south to west allis. we crossed over greenfield road and through greenfield park which led us to the new berlin recreation trail. we headed west along the trail until we had been out for sixty minutes, which also happened to be 7.5 miles.
we doubled back on our route and made it back to our cars in 58 minutes with 15 miles covered. we each grabbed $20 from our wallets and ran over to the athletic fields adjoining the parkway to sign up for a small 5K. after getting our numbers and t-shirts we ran back to our cars to drop off the t-shirts. we then headed back to the athletic fields and ran the remaining miles of our 20 mile warm up on the track.
we finished our warm up with 15 minutes to spare before the 5K race started. we stretched and rehydrated to a degree and made our way to the starting line. the race started and folks streamed downhill out of the athletic conference onto the parkway. the first mile was primarily downhill. ryan and dana headed out with the lead runners while i hung back with the mere mortals. i passed the first mile in a bit over 6 minutes and felt relatively okay.
just past the clubhouse of the golf course the route was coned off for a 180 degree turn. as i approached the turn, ryan and dana were headed back up the hill toward the athletic fields. both of their strides looked fluid but the look on each of their faces told the story that they were working hard. i gingerly swung around the turn and made my way up the hills that we had run down in that first mile.
grinding up one particularly nasty hill i noted my pace had slowed a bit but i still had decent turnover – all things considered. we snaked our way through the winding parkway until we reached the entrance to the athletic fields. after a short hill we ran past the baseball diamond and the long jump/high jump area then entered the track where we had to run a full lap before being diverted onto the football field to the finish. ryan and dana shouted some encouragement as i made my way to the finish but the look on my face told the story. i spotted the clock read a high 19 minute value and i picked up the pace with the fleeting hope of getting under 20 minutes. alas, i was given a 20:00 in the official results.
turns out that ryan ended up 3rd overall in 16:59, which was good for 1st in the 30-34 age group. dana ended up 5th overall in 17:39 which gave him 2nd in the 30-34 age group. my time garnered me 23rd overall and 2nd in the 35-39 age group. we all ended up with medals, which was a great way to wrap up the effort.