Volksläufe 10K
for the second year in a row, my family and i ventured to Frankenmuth, MI for the July 4th holiday. we had the chance to shop at the downtown stores, eat a family-style chicken dinner at Zehnders, watch the fireworks and spend some time at the nearby outlet mall.
after a short night of sleep (due to staying up to watch fireworks) i found myself standing at the starting line shortly before 8am listening to the national anthem being played by a local band. we were sent on our way with a shot from a cannon and wound our way through an athletic field onto the street. the first mile has a relatively long uphill so i took care not to get pulled out too quickly with folks opting to jackrabbit the start.
my mind must have been elsewhere as i completely missed the first mile mark. i decided not to look too closely at my watch until the 5K split to see if i had the pace dialed in for a shot at getting to the finish line in under 40 minutes. my focus was kept solely on maintaining good form, solid pace and remembering to lean slightly forward when the course was running downhill.
the mark for five thousand meters was painted plain as day on the road and my watch read 20:00 on the nose. geez…that’s good news. i picked up the pace a bit as i figured i’d really have to press if i was going to make a run to meet my goal. the real challenge is that the second half of the course really seems more difficult than the first. it wasn’t too much further along that the constant up-then-down hill sections began to wear on my pace and resolve.
winding our way through the small town, small pockets of spectators camped out in front of their houses shouting encouragement and clapping as we passed by. i especially enjoy the two neighbors who display large inflatable mascots for Michigan and Michigan State across the road from each other.
after carefully traversing the darkness of the covered bridge we rolled up a short section of uphill then made a left turn to roll down the hill we had climbed in the first mile. i didn’t need to look at my watch to know that my time goal was no longer attainable. instead, i focused simply on “racing” and what i needed to do to reel in anyone who was ahead of me.
i found myself gaining some speed and slowly gained on a guy who looked to be a few years older than me. as i neared him i surged a bit more just in case he had any fight and slowly pulled away. a few strides later, the hunter became the prey as i had not one but two other runners (who were about my age) swarming about me. i’d like to say i mustered the resolve to get to the finish before them but i don’t have the speed of my youth and simply followed them a few steps behind their finish.
a nice perk after finishing is that a volunteer will hand you a paper towel soaked in ice cold water. i grabbed one and buried my face in it for a moment between breaths as i began to recover from the finishing effort. next up was a bottle of water, which i drained in a few gulps as i had opted not to take any water during the race. admittedly a bit disgusted with my 41:29 finishing time, i walked around the finish line area looking for my dad and niece who were going to be running the 5K later that morning. my niece spotted me and i shared my disappointment with them as i didn’t feel i had run well at all.
instead of hanging around for the 5K race and the finish of the 20K race, i headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and get the mini-van packed for the eight hour trip back home. i got word from my sister that my brother-in-law had finished the 20K in under two hours, which was especially astonishing as he hadn’t trained for it – – at all. stunning. congrats sean.
about an hour later my dad, niece and brother-in-law arrived back at the hotel and they greeted me as i was loading our luggage in the mini-van. my niece finished her first ever 5K with a smile on her face and my dad was able to run his 200th race with his granddaughter.
we met up at a local restaurant and while we were waiting for our order to be ready i checked for race results on my smartphone. dialing up the 10K and filtering just on the men’s 35-39 age group i was stunned to see my name at the top of the list. i blurted out a bewildered “i won my age group” to my family and simply stared at the screen a bit longer as it began to sink in.
my daughters and nieces let out a squeal as my dad arrived at the restaurant after getting cleaned up from his race. once he had the chance to say hello to them, i shared the news with him with a wide grin. he said that i should head back down to the race and pick up the award before leaving town. i finished my lunch and my eldest daughter accompanied me for the ten minute ride back to the park.
we arrived late into the awards ceremony and the 10K awards had already been announced and handed out. opting to be polite, we sat and politely clapped as awards were handed out for the 5K run and 5K walk. after the program was done i approached the announcer to apologize for not being present and that i had placed first in my age group. he teased me a bit but he then handed me my award – – a ceramic beer stein.
honestly, i was thrilled. i had first seen rows of these steins back in 1995 when i had run the 20K event. i remember saying to my dad that i’d really like to earn one simply because they were distinctive versus some of the more generic awards given at other races. admittedly, i wish that my finishing time would have been better when earning the stein but perhaps i’ll have to add that to the to-do list for future Volksläufe efforts. regardless, i look forward to filling (and emptying) my award.
chip time: 41:29
overall: 48th of 697
M35-39: 1st of 26
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