1LT Michael L Runyan 5k

Shocker of shockers, I am behind on the blog again.  W and I just did a 5k this weekend, but I still have to get to my report of the Michael L Runyan 5k in nearby Ashland.

This race was very well done in memoriam of Michael Runyan, who died serving the country in Afghanistan.  His family has organized this race at Ashland University for the past seven years.  The words before the race were moving and served well to remind everyone of what Memorial Day means.  I can't think of a better tribute.

The race itself was challenging and surprising.  The temperature was higher than the recent Heartland 5k.  I felt great going in and knew I could run a decent time.

We started out with a half lap at the Ashland U track prior to hitting a long straightaway through a residential area.  I started with the lead pack of five or so runners.  This quickly spread out as the top two runners took off and the third place runner kept a good pace in front of me.  There was one small hill near the beginning but not many the rest of the way.  That's surprising in Ashland.  We headed north at the one mile mark for the lollipop portion of the course.  My first mile came in at about 6:15 (I don't have the exact splits).  Very fast and I was feeling more beat than the Heartland 5k.  We continued around another residential area and headed back toward the start.  I kept gaining on the third place runner only for him to speed up any time I got next to him.  He eventually sped up leaving me in fourth place.  The fifth place runner was still far behind me.  The second mile clocked in at 6:40.  I was thinking that I *might* be able to come in under 20:00.

The final mile was rough as the sun came out from behind some clouds.  This warmed things up quite a bit.  I just tried to hang on and hit the last hill prior to turning off toward the university.  A quick lap around the track and I had somehow managed another sub-20:00 5k.  My final time was 19:42, good enough for 4/119 overall and 1/5 in my age group.

I only had two sub-20:00 5ks EVER prior to this year.  Now I have them in back-to-back races.  More importantly, I've been enjoying running some 5ks this year.  Next up is a race with W.

Next race: Kingwood Center 5k- Mansfield, OH