Tag Archives: 5M

Road Ends 5 Mile – 2009 Running

Posted on by

Every year the local Running Fit stores hold what is called “The Road Ends 5 Mile Trail Race” also billed as “No Wimps Allowed!” race in Pinckney Michigan. This is the short version of the Trail Marathon and half marathon held the following day at the same location.

The Team Toe-Jammer Bib #145.

The start line before and after!

    • Some stats for the race:
    • a) 5 Miles, not a 5K
    • b) finished 325 out of 467
    • c) finished eight out of eleven in my age group.
    • d) finished 194 out of 238 men.
    • e) had a 11:16 pace (56:21) compared to (55:44 last year)
    g) had a great time – which is always the goal right?… Right! ….er, of course it is.

The course is at the State Park in Pinckney Michigan. The area is relatively hilly, and the course takes great advantage of that. There are a couple gentle hills to sort of warm up on, and then a couple monster “never ending grades” that make the thighs burn and the lungs ache!

Until the final hill is conquered,
George

New Toy for Tracking Running Stats – Part 2

Posted on by

A really cool new toy! Part Two
Where upon having purchased a new Garmin 305 I put it to use.

During the initial run I bruised my wrist really bad (hard plastic back, flat, and relatively heavy for a “watch”) so I bought some wrist sweat bands and now wear one with the watch strapped tightly on over it. So far I am really enjoying it. Not having a stop watch hanging from a dog leash around my neck is quite nice. I used to have to let it hang under the shirt to keep it from swinging all over, then try to drag it out to stop it without strangling myself, and getting it stopped without adding minutes (it seemed like) to the end of a run. Plus I can now actually see the information while I am running, including elapsed time, heart rate, pace and distance (or other information depending on how you configure it.Continue reading→

Mackinaw Bridge 5 Mile Run

Posted on by

Saturday May 24th, at a bright and early 5 am was the Mackinaw bridge 5 mile race.

Mackinaw Bridge Run 2008

Bright and early and 38 degrees out made for a quick race – because I just wanted to get back into a warm bed
and sleep! See some photos of me trying to get to the end and back to bed!

Some stats for the race:

  • a) Start time: 5:38 am
  • b) Start temperature 38 degrees Farenheit
  • c) a 5 mile run
  • d) finished 248 out of 345 male entrants (72% finished ahead of me)
  • e) finished 31 out of 40 in my age group (77.5% finished ahead of me)
  • f) finished 370 out of 611 total finishers. (finished in the top 60% overall)
  • g) had a 9:38 pace (48:12 total time)
  • h) had a great time, and chalked up another new PR for a 5 mile! Hey, five races, five new personal records, what’s so hard about this? ?????? ??????

Some general observations. Based on the numbers above you can tell this is a
community of older people… and apparently fairly fit. The participation in the
older age groups is very high compared to Ann Arbor races. Realizing I am
certainly not the faster runner, I still fared much worse, especially in my age
group, than in prior races! With almost 78% of the men in my division finishing
ahead of me, this may be the lowest finishing place yet! Compare this to the overall
finish where I finished in the top 60% and you can see the difference.

The race was fun, a great workout for the legs and lungs! That long grade to
the crest really made the thighs work.

This was followed by three days of sight seeing in the area where we had a
great time.

Note that within hours of finishing this 5 mile race we were on Mackinaw
Island where we rented bikes and rode around the island, and into the interior
to see some others sites, such as Sugar Loaf mountain hill rock pile, we did not get to see on the carriage ride. So we
figured we rode at least 14 miles, then we also walked for hours around town, up to and through fort, and to various ice cream shops, etc.

Now into “training” for the second part of the “Serious Series” 10K (6.2 mile)
trail run June 14th.!

Until the Mackinaw Bridge comes falling down,

Road Ends 5 Miler

Posted on by

Every year the local Running Fit stores hold what is called “The Road Ends 5 Mile Trail Race” also billed as “No Wimps Allowed!” race in Pinckney Michigan. This is the short version of the Trail Marathon and half marathon held the following day at the same location.


Just to prove I was really registered for the race... although I could have grabbed this out of the recycle barrel after the race.

Added a nice new T-Shirt to the small, but growing, collection.
The official Road Ends participant T-Shirt art work.

    Some stats for the race:
    a) 5 Miles, not a 5K
    b) finished 276 out of 355
    c) finished fifth out of five in my age group…. later adjusted to sixth out of six.
    d) won my first “award” for the fifth place, but later seems I should not have after results were adjusted…. oh well.
    e) took a great tumble skinning up a knee and (can this be done?) spraining a foot, not an ankle.
    f) learned to make sure I remove glasses before I take off on a run! (The bifocals make seeing your feet difficult without looking down, thus losing the ability to see where you are going.)
    g) had a 11:09 pace (55:44 total time)
    h) had a great time in spite of e above, and since it was the first 5 mile I have run another new PR! Hey, three races, three new personal records, what’s so hard about this?

The course is at the State Park in Pinckney Michigan. The area is relatively hilly, and the course takes great advantage of that. There are a couple gentle hills to sort of warm up on, and then a couple monster “never ending grades” that will make the thighs burn, and these come after the 3 mile marker, so you are I am already running on shaky legs! Yeah, I walked part of them, I am sure this contributed to the slower overall pace since I have been keeping it to around 10 minutes on flatter courses. This shows a need to get more hill work in, maybe need to find a stadium with steps to run up… or maybe even enter the annual climb at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center.

    Full Climb 70 Floors – 1035 Steps
    Half Climb 40 Floors – 585 Steps
    Yeah, right . . . . Oh, I would have, but already missed it for this year, darn. (It was Sunday, February 24, 2008)

I also cannot figure out how the course can gain over 1,000 feet in total altitude, but never descends more that 50 feet total through the course. . . or at least it seems that way.

Update May 1, 2008: I was kidding about the elevation above, but I just got the weekly email from the sponsors “Running Fit” and they had this to say about the race:

“As usual, the weather was spectacular and everyone set a P.R.! (Seriously, we just checked out the vertical climb in each loop of the half marathon and it was over 7,000 ft! For those of you who ran the 5, a very serious 5, it had over 3,000 ft of climb!”.

Now this to me seems like a serious amount of climbing to me! No wonder the legs grew weary!

I did have the old Peugeot 10 speed out awhile back. The tires still held air, and I did a couple miles around the neighbourhood to see if I could still stay upright. Seemed to provide pretty good thigh exercise also, maybe need to get out on it more often. . . or maybe even squats (?) to build them up.

Well, nursing the foot now, resting it a couple of days, then have to get back on the path. Need to keep on track since I have the Toledo Zoo and Mackinaw Bridge races coming up in just a couple of weeks.

Until the final bruise heals,