Date: Saturday June 19th, 2004.
Where: Downtown Racine, WI.
What: 10 mile and 4 mile race.
Begin Report: This is the 26th annual Light House Run,
which is held in Racine, WI on the same weekend of the
annual Harbor Fest. I elected to do the 4 mile, eager to
show off the results of harder training of the past couple
weeks. After I received my packet I went back to my car to
organize myself and then I put on my flats and I began
warming up. It was actually windy and cooler by the harbor,
which I didn't expect.
The 10 mile started with about 500 participants. The
winning time was
50:53.
The 4 mile started ten minutes after and I was trying to
stay focused on not going out at a fast pace into this wind.
Before the race, I set a goal time of 23 minutes an an
optimistic time of 22:45. As we took off into the wind, I
found myself looking for biggest runner to draft behind. The
first mile went up and down several gradial inclines. It
seemed like a lot of runners were feeling out the race in
the beginning. My first mile split was 5:35.
The second mile was much like the first mile, although with
more turns. The faster 4 mile runners began meeting some of
the 10 mile runners. My second mile split was slower than
the first (5:56) but I wanted to conserve energy going into
the wind and try to get people on the way back.
The third mile began and I started working harder as I tried
to move up. Soon, we made two right turns and we are now
headed south with the wind at our back. It didn't play out
to be as much as an advantage as I thought it would be.
Third mile split is 5:45.
As I began the fourth mile, I notice that for the first
three miles I had run a 17:16, and I tried to figure out
what kind of 5K pace that that would put me on. While trying
to do mental math, I forgot about the task at hand, and let
the runner that had been next to me pull away. Whoops. I was
comfortably working hard as I made my final push to the
finish line, 27th overall, with a time of 22:56 (5:44 pace).
I finished 11th in my age group. For the record, there was
about 700 participants in the 4 mile. The winning time was
19:08, a crisp 4:47 pace.
At the finish line there was bottled water, cookies,
oranges, and banannas. Runners were also invited to
Haborfest for more post race fun.
Overall, a positive race for me, showed a lot of improvement
since a some dissappointing 5K's that I had run earlier this
year. I am doing another race on Wednesday night and
Saturday morning, and those are both 5K's, so I am anxious
to see how I will do.
-Aaron TheYAM.net