The Winners Prize ! A beautiful handcrafted mug, perfect to help me start my day each morning.

Even though it’s mid-August it felt like the re-scheduled Dexter / Ann Arbor 10K was the beginning of the fall racing season here in Michigan. Since the return of local races in our area in recent weeks, many runners have been aiming for the return of some of our favorite races such as the Dexter/Ann Arbor races. Over a year ago I selected the 10K event and now it represents a “tune-up” race for me to allow me to judge how my summer training thus far. My major races are The Crim 10 Mile in two weeks, followed by The Brooksie Way at the end of September, and the Detroit Half Marathon in mid-October. My goal is to finish near the top of my five year age group in each of these races with the peak race being Detroit.

My training this summer has been going well. I have been able to juggle my schedule to allow me to train close to the targeted workouts and “knock on wood” I have been healthy throughout too! Despite this I had no clue as to what to expect for this 10K this morning. I judging from my training and 10K performances from prior years I told myself I would be happy if I could run a 55 minute 10K today. With a bit of luck that may also place me on the podium as an age group winner too! Although the age group competition was not that important to me today. This was to be truly a trial race, or think of it as a pre-season exhibition race, the “real” races begin as always in previous years with the Crim 10 Mile!

Still running strong mile 4 along Huron River Drive

The race conditions were near perfect this morning. Temps were in the low 60’s, sunshine, and no wind. I even felt a bit of a chill while walking to the starting area. Chatted with some ole running buds prior to the start and did a minimal warm-up jog, got my heart rate up at least. Before I knew it I was racing!

The speedy runners were separated into the first wave. After all these years I learned to let them go and run my own race. 90 seconds later I joined the second wave on our way downhill for most of the first mile. This is a challenging course because it’s an out and back route that starts downhill. Running downhill may sound nice but actually it can cause most runners to start out too fast resulting in loss of too much energy too soon in the race. Since we started downhill, we had to end up that same hill! I guarantee that each and every runner will attest that the uphill is actually steeper than the same downhill.

I let many of the runners in my wave pass me by as we ran downhill and at about the 3 /4 mile mark I checked to see that while I felt like I was running slow I was at a 8:10 pace, much too fast. Nonetheless, I decided to hold the pace as we rounded a corner onto the scenic, shady, and mostly flat, Huron River Drive for the next 4 miles.

Much to my surprise while I felt like I was holding my pace, I was actually running a bit faster! Running now at a 7:45 clip I still felt relatively good for running this pace, so let’s keep it up and see what happens here? Knowing that mile 5 in this race is actually the toughest mile, mostly mentally tough for me, I downed an energy gel at the aid station and told myself to get ready to gut out a strong finish up that nasty final hill!

As I turned the corner from Huron River Drive there were two 501 Running Club buds, Dave and Mike, there volunteering as course marshals to cheer me on. I greatly appreciated their support and told myself not to let them down. The final mile with that hill at the finish did not disappoint. The field of runners at this point had thinned out and there was not a realistic chance of me catching anyone ahead of me but I did not know who was behind me. I remembered to my old high school cross country coach preaching “never let anyone pass you on a hill” I could not let Coach Stallcup down now.

Only two more traffic lights ahead I told myself. Funny how they seemed to take forever to get to me. The worse of the incline was finally over and while still managing to hold this pace I finally passed the second traffic light, saw the finish line time clock tick off at 50 minutes and I managed a short but futile burst to break the 50 minute mark! I was only after I crossed the finish line did it occur to me that the finish line clock was timing the first wave, I had actually somehow just broke the 50 minute mark!

I was very satisfied that I ran the best I could for this day. I was beat but managed to get thru the post-race goodie line still breathing hard and trying to catch my breath. I did find a spot to sit and quickly recoup my breath and energy. Got cleaned up a bit and returned to the goodie line to grab my pizza which I could not stomach to eat 20 minutes earlier. I felt confident that I likely finished in the top 3 in my age group but no clue whatsoever. I saw other runners lining up at the awards tent and receiving a beautifully hand crafted coffee mug as a prize. So, without actually knowing where I placed, I lined up, the lady behind the counter asked my age, then she asked Lee? Yes? Congratulations Lee you finished first! WOW! I did? Then I asked what was the time of the finisher behind me? He was nearly 7 minutes or another words was at least 3/4 of a mile behind me!

My final time of 49:19 represented a 7:57 average pace, was more than 5 minutes faster than I would have settled for before the race, and was my fastest time in over the past five years of racing!

Today was better than I could have ever expected to start my fall racing season. While I may have ran well today I have no dreams of repeating this performance in the coming races. The competition will be much stronger, the distances much longer, and as difficult as this route was today, each of the next three races will be even more challenging. So enough about reporting on today’s Dexter / Ann Arbor 10K and back to my training routines.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and check by soon for reports on my next races.

Coach Lee