Red Cross Charity Run

As Ben Dolezal has already written about, today was the date for a short(ish) fund-raising competitive run based in the stadium (sorry for the imprecise map location) used by Manhattan High School's football team. I've been training as a jogger for about the last year, and I'm finally at the point where I can do respectable distances (>= 5 km) without feeling like I've badly taxed myself. So I entered the 5 kilometer division—the first competitive athletic event I ever did. Well... not counting the B-team golf tournaments I played as a first-year high school student.

I ran the course in 21:03, which is significantly ahead of my earlier paces when I practiced the circuit. If my conversions to Imperial units are correct, this puts me at a 6 minute, 46 second rate per mile. That marks a personal best. But, oh man, I paid for it afterward. "Collapsing" would be a kind description of the minutes following the race. Next time I have the occasion to log a few kilometers for some charity event, I'll have to suppress the adrenaline a little bit.

Even though I was burning through my endurance too fast to have sustained the run any longer than the length of the course, it was nice to notice that I could maintain a good pace up the "back stretch" (a long, uphill section). That made good returns in my relative placing.

I don't have a photo at the moment, but one or two may be forthcoming. I imposed last-minute on Kari Wallentine (married to Todd Wallentine, a coworker of mine and fellow runner) to snap a shot at the finish line. In my stupor immediately after finishing, I didn't notice whether she managed to find me. Rumor has it that some kind of photo is also supposed to be deposited in my email inbox by the event organizers. I'll be sure to post some mug shots of me wearing one of those grand three-digit numeric signs if either of those sources lands a picture.

Other participants whom I know: Ben Dolezal, Todd Wallentine, Adam Dolezal (Ben's brother), Georg Jung, and Jeff (a buddy of Georg).