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.

Added a nice new T-Shirt to the small, but growing, collection.

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,