Kensington 15K – Ann Arbor Track Club – AATC

Posted on September 28, 2008May 7, 2022 by GeorgeK

A first for me, a 15K or 9.2 mile race. Longest race to date! Having done a few training runs of 10-12 miles I decided I could tackle this race. I am happy to say the ambulance did not carry me off, and while I would have liked to finish higher in my age group, overall I am in the top 50% (48% actually). Again this shows the fitness level of 55-59 year olds that I am up against! In that group I was 17 out of 20 which puts me in the bottom 15%! A big difference.

Kensington Metro Park is one of the larger, if the not largest in the area. It encompasses the large lake and is quite a nice setting. Lots of activites we may try some time, horseback riding, biking and maybe even some walking. You can see the pictures of the park and the race Since the path loops the lake there are not so many of the actual race.

By the numbers:

a) 15 Kilometers = 9.2 miles.

b) ran at a 10:02 per mile pace, 1:33:24 total time.

c) finished 229 out of 473 overall, so finished in the top 48% of all runners.

d) finished 17 out of 20 in my age group.

e) had a great time, which was the real race goal!

The race went great, a new PR for me, and a pretty good pace.

From Last Post:

You know, I am sorta getting an urge to try a half marathon… but trying to resist until next year. Just barely doing the 5 mile thing right now. Maybe I will try a 10 miler before I make the jump. There should be some coming up yet this year. We’ll see.

Okay, that’s done, now do I go and try the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon in October?

The race is in it’s 25th year and is presented by the Ann Arbor Track Club. https://www.aatrackclub.org/

Until the final winding path is run and the hills are all level,

George

Northville Road Runners 8K. . . er. . .8K?

Posted on July 29, 2008May 3, 2022 by GeorgeK

The 2008 Northville Road Runner Classic is now in the books. (For information on next years race, go to https://www.northvilleroadrunners.org/nrr/index.html )

The race was a combination of trail and pavement, maybe 3 miles asphalt and 2 miles trail with an official total of 4.8 miles. (thats what 8K is, right.)

While the hills were nothing like the Road Ends trail race, they were still long and steep enough to get the thighs burning. More hill work on the training schedule!!

By the numbers:

a) 8K, or 4.8 miles.

b) ran at a 10:03 per mile pace, 49:43 total time (0:45:00 total time pre-race guess)

c) finished 126 out of 165 overall, so finished in the top 76% of all runners. . .

d) finished 5 out of 5 in my age group. It’s tough when the #3 overall finisher is in your age group! Definitely something to aspire to!

e) had a great time, which was the real race goal!

There are a few pictures available which I will get posted sometime.

Until the final hill is conquered,

George

New Toy for Tracking Running Stats – Part 2

Posted on May 29, 2008September 1, 2022 by GeorgeK

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 May 27, 2008May 8, 2022 by GeorgeK

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

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,

Martian Marathon – 10K in the books.

Posted on April 7, 2008May 3, 2022 by GeorgeK

This morning I did the Martian Marathon – 10K race portion. I had a good time for sure. Having never gone 6.2 miles before except once in training, did not know for sure how it would work out. I did not finish first… come on only been three months since I could even go 3 miles at a time…. but I was pleased with my stats.

There were 617 total finishers (do not know how many entrants)
I ended up 426th out of that 617
In my age group there were 43 runners
I ended up 30th out of that 43.
The official time was 1:03:01
That makes the pace 10:09, not burning up the pavement, but better than the 5K pace (10:30) just a month ago, and twice the distance!
Then of all the runners, 69% finished ahead of me, while in the Shamrocks & Shenanigans 5K a full 77% finished ahead of me.

The numbers here confuse me a little, they are just slightly different than the spreadsheet data on the Gault Race Management web site. But the spreadsheet looks to be more correct to me.

If I hang in there it will be interesting to see what happens at the same races next year.

~~Will get~~ I now have some photos posted, ~~but~~ finally got the main system ~~is down for an upgrade right now~~ running enough to get this done.

Until the Martians make face to face contact,

Martian Marathon Invaded by Kazology Running Team!

Posted on March 23, 2008May 8, 2022 by GeorgeK

The count down has begun to the Martian Marathon, well in my case the Martian 10K, which is pretty much a marathon for me!

The race is less than two weeks away on Saturday April 5, 2008. ???? like ????? I think I can go the distance, probably not non-stop, but a short enough “breather” to still keep the time pretty reasonable. ???? ????? ???? 777 ???? ?????

Should be a fun race! I am hoping the weather does not decide to dump more snow the night before – or during the race! ????? ?? ?????? After the latest round on Friday the 21st, Ann Arbor broke all annual snowfall records that went back to 1880 when the first records were kept, so it would not surprise me since we sometimes get snow that late! Better get out and buy those YakTraxs to have on ~~hand~~ ~~foot~~ feet!

Until the last alien abduction is solved,