Category Archives: 5K

Race Review: Karate Kickin’ Cancer 5K

Low key races can be a lot of fun. I have run some low-key races before but this was definitely the most low key. Actually, unwittingly I raced in the t-shirt from the CdLS race linked above!

I received an e-mail mid-week inviting me to run a 13-14 mile loop with some of the guys that would be followed by this 5K. The 5K was in memory of one of Mark’s Uncle who passed away earlier this year due to brain cancer. The training schedule called for 5 miles on Saturday and 11 on Sunday so I knew that either way the early morning run was out of the question, but with nothing better to do on a Saturday morning while my wife recovered from pulling a double at work I opted to go to North St Paul and do the Karate Kickin’ Cancer 5K.

I arrived really early on accident and took a leisurely stroll along the Gateway Trail where the race would be held. The race was sponsored by the Unified Martial Arts Academy. Owner Cory is the son of Roger who passed away on April 20. This was the third annual event with previous years being more of a fun event for the kids and families of the Academy. This year’s focus was on remembering Roger and raising money for cancer research (we now have mesothelioma explained thanks to the same kind of research done). They did that part exceptionally well raising $9,640 for the HealthEast Foundation in Saint Paul.

It was an interesting approach with no set entry fee, t-shirts only if you pre-registered, no race numbers, no official timing, but water available at the turn around and finish line. The course left the Academy parking lot and went to the Gateway Trail then proceeded out about 1.5 miles before turning around and coming back to the parking lot. The start/finish lines were in the same place.

The first mile had some turns and narrow pathways at the beginning. There were a lot of kids at the start doing their all out sprint and then petering out. They quickly faded after we hit the trail in the first tenth of a mile or so. The walkers were allowed to start walking any time that they wanted so there were already a lot of walkers on the course when we started and we had to wind our way through them. We had two road crossings in the first 1/4 or so without anyone stopping traffic, luckily it wasn’t a problem for me. The pack quickly split apart with a group of 3 then another guy and then me. It pretty much stayed this way the whole race! I came through the mile in a comfortable 6:29.

The trail is pretty flat but there was one bridge in this part that had a pretty noticeable hill but then had a downhill which is nice too! The first half of this mile was downhill to the turn around. The turn around was a water stop and a clown standing in the middle of the road. The guy in front of me took water, so I opted not to – gaining a few seconds on him! So the second half mile was uphill but it was pretty gradual, except for the bridge crossing. I slowed down, despite trying to catch the guy in front of me, running a 6:47 mile.

The last mile was nothing exceptional. I still managed to get by both road crossings without having to stop for traffic. At some point I started hearing footsteps behind me and was pretty determined not to get passed at this point in the race. I tried to keep picking up the pace and slowly drew the other guy in. When we got off the trail the guy in front of me decided to take some shortcuts through a parking lot back to Frontage Rd. I made the quick decision to follow him, I was more eager to beat him instead of getting the “accurate” course. I did catch him as we leaped a gravel median and sprinted to the finish. My GPS said it was 0.91 miles in 5:54 which is 6:28 pace.

So my total run of 2.91 was in 19:11. This was slower than last week but it wasn’t a track and I still trained hard all week!

Overall this was fun. I got 4th place overall, but there aren’t any awards or anything. There was a picture taker at the finish line so we’ll see if I can find the pictures later!

[tags] 5K, Race Review, Karate, Cancer [/tags]

Race Review: USATF-MN 5000m Championships

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This Sunday race is part of the USATF-MN Team Circuit and was also part of a bigger USATF-MN Championship track meet. This would be the first time I’ve raced on a track since I graduated from college in 2003. It brought back a flood of memories from the tons of track meets that I competed in during junior high, high school, and college. It was in the low 60’s but with pretty high humidity the weather wasn’t exactly perfect for a race. The race was held at Hamline University’s Klas Field. The 9-lane mondo track was well used the weekend as the MSHSL Championships (Minnesota State High School League) were held there over the weekend.

We did a warm-up and then sat around and waited. The officials weren’t really in too much of a hurry and the meet was behind schedule pretty much from the beginning. It opened with a 5K race walk with 2 competitors before the women’s 5K and then the Men’s Master’s 5k. The Men’s Open 5K was next followed by a 3 person heat of the 100m hurdles and then the 1500.

One highlight of the meet was that Carrie Tollefson competed in the 1500 trying to get her Olympic “A” standard. She need a 4:10 but ran a 4:19 – still an impressive showing. She had a rabbit pull her through 800 meters and then was left to finish by herself. There was a slight headwind on the homestretch. It was fun to watch her run and then to see her wait around to congratulate the rest of the runners! A couple of her Team USA – Minnesota teammates were there to cheer her on.

Back to my race! I went in with no expectations having done no speed work in a long time and having done a 10-miler the day before. I knew I was going to get lapped several times since my PR is 18 and change. But my team needed me to compete so that we could score – so I took one for the team!

I did some math and decided that I would try and run 90 second quarters which is a 6:02 pace and would translate to a 18:44 5K. So I thought I would try that and hopefully break 19 minutes. Sadly that didn’t happen. I was proud of myself for showing great restraint and not pushing the first quarter too hard. I was pretty much on pace through the first half of the race so that was good. A runner from the Slab City racing team came by and asked what I was hoping to run and said that is what he was planning. He offered to trade laps which sounded good with the slight headwind. It was 2 laps in when he went by so I sat behind him for 2 laps and then went around him, but he came back by after another lap and pulled away. I had started to drop the pace slightly by that point but only a second or two a lap!

Here are my 400 splits:

1:23
1:31
1:31
1:32 – 5:58 mile
1:32
1:34
1:39
1:42 – 12:27 through 2 miles (6:29 mile)
1:39
1:42
1:42
1:35 – 19:08 through 3 miles (6:38 mile)
0:43 – last 200

If you aren’t familiar with a 5K on the track you start at the 200 meter mark and then run 12.5 laps. Each person/team or coach does the counting differently. Some people take the 200 off the beginning so that each mile is calculated at the finish line, while others do it the way I did and count it at the end. It was a little easier that way since they were calling out the time at the 200 mark.

Not a lot to report since it was round and round ya go! They didn’t have any water available which didn’t surprise me too much. It was an $8 entry and all I have to show for it is a plain bib! Some of the other guys got awards and some of the women’s team did too.

It was a good day all in all. Don’t think I would do it again unless I had done more specific training.

[tags] USATF-MN, 5000m Championships, Hamline [/tags]

Greenwood 5K in the News

Race Review: Pop Weaver 5K

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This race also known as the 2007 Weaver Popcorn Kernal Klassic is run on a loop course in the countryside surrounding little Van Buren, IN. It is famous for its free post-race popcorn and being part of the annual Popcorn Festival. Hosted by Pop Weaver Popcorn it is a relatively cheap race with bags upon bags of popcorn given away to age group winners.

Each participant, presumably, received a post race e-mail with stats about their race. Here is what my e-mail said:

Congratulations on finishing the 2007 Weaver Popcorn Kernal Klassic on August 11, 2007. For your records, the weather that day was Sunny, Nice & Cool.
There were 5 finishers in the Men 25 to 29 age group and
106 finishers in the race.
Your overall finish place was 17 and your age group finish place
was 2. Your overall finish percentile was 16 while your age group percentile was 40. Your time of 19:30 gave you a 6:17 pace per mile.

It was definitely cooler than the preceding days but still warm! I am okay with my overall time of 19:30, but ran 9 seconds faster last year and over a minute faster in 2005, so that is frustrating. My splits were 5:59, 6:50, and 6:40 for the last 1.1 (which actually breaks down to 6:03 pace). My GPS-enabled friends agreed that the overall course was accurate but that the specific mile markers may have been a little off.

The race pretty much started on time and quickly leaves the town for some country roads. There is shade for the first and final stretches, but most of the race is run on rural, corn-field lined roads, without any shade. The 8:30 start made for decent weather on this specific day, but the sun was definitely out in full force. The course featured 3 water stops, but only one actually had people passing out water. The course is easy to follow because you are basically making a square! This is also a popular race for local high school teams to participate in and they have their own chute since they can’t win prizes or actually pay to participate (I believe).

After the finish they had plenty of ice-cold water and fruit available for all participants. This years awards ceremony was a little confusing. Someone the overall walkers won in amazing times of 7 something for the guys and 14 something for the females. The walk was a 5K. I think they mistook the fun run sheet for the walkers results. Sadly, this was never really corrected and the walkers where never publicly recognized, they made a passing comment at the end about walkers coming up to get popcorn.

Now for the fun of the whole event. Overall 1st place winners received a gift certificate and a bag of popcorn. Let me explain abut these bags of popcorn! Large, color-coordinated, paper bags are filled with boxes of various Pop Weaver brand popcorn. First place is blue, second is red, and third is white and supposedly each bag has a little less popcorn than the preceding. This year I brought home like 26 bags of microwave popcorn in my 2nd place bag. We traded around to get rid of the kettle corn (my wife doesn’t like it and we still have a half-eaten box from last year!) and took a few extra boxes at the end of the awards. So that provides a little more of a festive environment for post-race activities.

Overall a good race. All results are posted here.

Technorati tags: 5K, Pop Weaver, popcorn, race review

Race Review: Lapel CdLS 5K

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This race is probably the definition of low-key events. With a 7:30am start, you are able to beat most of the heat typical of mid-July weekends. This year it was almost chilly at the start due to weird weather patterns. I feel this event is so low-key that I actually rode my bike the 10 miles from Anderson, raced, then rode my bike back.

All proceeds from this event benefit the CdLS Foundation, which provides support to families who have a child with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome. The foundation is located in Connecticut, but this is a personal issue for the race organizers as they have a child with CdLS. They have done everything possible to maximize “profits” than can be sent back to the foundation.

The course is exceptionally flat, and would be a good PR course if it weren’t for the 180 degree turns. This year there were only 2, but that was because the leaders missed a turn (no one told them where to go, although a map was available at the registration area), the field followed and we all set some amazing times, I passed the mile mark at 3:41. Typically there are 3 180 degree turns, one water stop and a loop around a little park to make the 5K distance, this year’s distance was approximately 2.7 (various GPS watches gave slightly different distances).

Ample water, grapes, and bananas were available at the finish. An important note is that this race is not scored in the traditional sense. They give out overall and age group awards but it is based solely on your bib # and finish order. A clock is viewable to get your finish time, but they do not track finish times. This year’s age group awards where blue, red, and yellow (I think) key lanyards. One older runner asked, “Where’s my whistle?!?”

To add to the fun flavor of the event, random awards were given to the 8th place (8th year of the event), 17th place (Conrad’s, the young man with CdLS, age), and 21st place (21st year of the Lapel Village Fair) of each division (men, women, walkers).

This event is a part of the Anderson Road Runner’s Road Race Series, which is where many of the participants come from.

My time was 17:09 overall with 3:41 (.6miles) 6:25, 7:02 (1.1 miles), which is a 6:22 pace, which got me 4th place overall.

CHESTERFIELD RACE RESULTS POSTED

5K 10K

Did you race somewhere this weekend? Tell us all about your experience in the comments section.

Technorati tags: race review, 5K, CDLS, weekend

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