Running Down a Dream

When I started this blog, I wanted to keep track of my running times in the hope that I would see some improvements each race. Much like someone trying to lose weight, I feel it's important to keep track of one's progress.

Alas, I have only written about 1 of my races. The Schmohz 5K. The run that won be some beer. Which is probably why it's the only one I've written about.

So, I'm going to do a little update on my runs to date this year.

On Saturday morning, Andy and I ran the Brian Diemer Amerikam 5K Race. Everything about the events before the race suggested it would be a bad day:

• My car died picking up the race packets on Friday night.


• That thing with the Red Wings (that I really don't want to talk about) happened on Friday night.


• I woke up to rain showers and cloudy skies

However, this race proved to be a great one. We had heard that it was a flat course and that gave the opportunity for some new PR's. Andy wanted to hit a sub 20 and I was hoping for a sub 21. We both came 19 seconds short in our endeavour, but still accomplished new PR's - Andy finished in 20:19 and I in 21:19. Here are some pics from the race website - we're easy to spot because Andy's corporate team supplied us with hideous team shirts in fashionable highlighter yellow. I shouldn't complain though, since they pay for our race entry fees.

The start:

Andy's torso:

Me (on the far left):

So, my stats for this race and all races for the year are:

Brian Diemer 5K
Clock Time 21:28
Chip Time 21:19
Overall Place 250 / 1438
Gender Place 35 / 702
Division Place 8 / 118
Total Pace 6:53/M

Fifth Third Riverbank Run 25K
Chip Time 2:06:07
Overall Place 1269 / 4600
Gender Place 248 / 1995
Division Place 60 / 378
Total Pace 8:08/M
Split Rank 1241
Split Time 1:00:04
Split Pace 7:54/M
Finish Rank 1269
Finish Pace 8:22/M

Schmohz 5K

Chip Time 21:49
Overall Place 19 / 252
Gender Place 2 / 111
Division Place 1 / 31
Total Pace 7:02/M


Irish Jig 5K

Chip Time 22:00
Overall Place 416 / 3312
Gender Place 57 / 1647
Division Place 17 / 316
Total Pace 7:06/M

Thankfully, there has been an improvement. I have decided to run the Grand Rapids Half Marathon in mid-October, and hopefully can fit in a few 5K or 10K runs in before then. I'm not sure if I'll get a sub 21 5K, but I'm still going to try.