Jerry Cameron

Al’s Run

one great thing about Al’s Run (8K/4.97M) is that the race starts at 10:30AM, allowing folks to sleep in a bit and still count it as a morning constitutional. i opted to get a quick haircut first thing in the morning then headed to ryan’s house to carpool with him and dave. along the way we picked up dana at the petit center parking lot. turns out dana picked up a virus from his daughter and wasn’t looking too hot.

we found a place to park downtown and headed toward a courtyard just to the south of the starting line. ryan had an armful of race packets to distribute so we just camped out for awhile. gradually other team members arrived but we were still missing some runners we were counting on to score for us. dana began to look worse for wear and opted to skip the warm up run.

after arriving back at dave’s car and shortly after donning our race numbers/chips, dana walked up to tell the team that he wasn’t going to run – – which was fully supported by us. he looked lousy. regardless, his absence pushed my rolly-polly self into a scoring position for the team. i did have one thing going for me as i had dug out a pair of vintage racing flats from Asics that were circa mid-90’s. i’ve only wore them a few times before and they felt like i didn’t even have anything on my feet compared to my training shoes.

we ran around downtown for about ten minutes and arrived back at the courtyard near the starting line. i found an open area and did a few stride outs to help loosen up my legs. with about 5 minutes to the start, i made my way to the starting line and positioned myself a few rows back from the front.

the race started and we headed down wisconsin avenue which is a significant downhill. i did what i could to avoid a jackrabbit start in addition to cautiously dancing over potholes and a strip of cobblestone. i spotted dave to my left and gradually made my way over to run along side. we passed through the first mile in a few ticks less than six minutes. i kept looking for the group of bagpipers that are normally stationed at the first mile marker but some guitarist was strumming along in their place.

the route climbs and winds a bit in the second mile. dave pulled away during the first hill, which was part of his strategy, while i kept rolling along trying to avoid going anaerobic. i passed through the second mile in a few ticks more than twelve minutes and felt like i was running a solid effort.

the third mile has a couple of turns and a quick downhill section near the end of it. early in this mile i could hear bagpipes off in the distance. as i approached, they finished up the tune they were playing and were chatting about what to play next. admittedly, i wish they’d keep playing as i always seem to catch a pause in their effort. regardless, i focused on maintaining a quick turnover and running the tangents of the corners. shortly before i was out of earshot, the bagpipers launched into a new tune which was a nice jolt to the system.

as i ran down lafayette hill, i leaned forward slightly so i wouldn’t be slowing myself too much. my time through three miles was around 18:40 which let me know i had slowed a bit from my early pace.

the fourth mile is flat and runs along the roadway bordering lake michigan. i mentioned how it was nice to sleep in for this race, which also puts the event at risk for being subject to warmer temperatures. admittedly, i was feeling hot by this point. most of my training is in the wee hours of the morning which doesn’t provide much of an opportunity for heat acclimatization. i passed the fourth mile split in about 25:20 and did some quick calculations that i could still get myself to the finish line in under 32 minutes.

just past 4 miles running in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum

the last stretch of the race is flat and has a few 90 degree turns to navigate. i sized up the runners ahead of me and focused on reeling in a few of them. with less than a quarter mile to the finish i passed two runners and made the last left turn to the finish line. ryan, who had already finished, was at the corner yelling encouragement and that "every second counts." shortly thereafter a twenty-something-year-old punk came sprinting by me for the finish. admittedly, i don’t have much of a kick these days and i just let him go. i officially crossed the line in 31:27 which translates to about 6:20 per mile average pace.

100 meters to go and on my left is the "twenty-something year-old punk" who out sprinted me at the finish

after finishing, i grabbed some water and met up with dave. we chatted with a few other runners then began jogging back to his car which was parked at the starting line. ryan met up with us back at the car and we headed back to town. i called dana later that afternoon and he ended up with a pretty high temperature so it’s a good thing he didn’t run.

finishing effort with the young punk out of the frame

overall, the effort was a good tune up for the marathon i’m running in two weeks. my training is geared toward racing well in a marathon and a 5M/8K race really amounts to speedwork for me. the added bonus was that my effort counted for the team and we ended up winning the corporate division.

finish time: 31:27
avg pace: 6:20 per mile
overall place: 90 out of 3324
gender place: 76 out of 1879
M35-39 place: 5 out of 172

Article on JSOnline.com – – my name is listed twice

TEAM RESULTS – CORPORATE DIVISION

1. INSTEP/HILLRUNNER.COM
   27:33 27:52 30:30 31:28 32:13 = 2:29:36
   RYAN HILL, KYLE UDOVICH, DAVID DEHART,
   GERALD CAMERON, ROY PIRRUNG

2. EXTRACTORS
   27:59 30:55 33:05 33:50 34:26 = 2:40:15
   RYAN GILL, MARC CLAAS, TONY CLAAS,
   JEFFREY GRANT, JIM MUENZENBERGER

3. BELLWELL
   25:51 32:53 33:21 36:00 36:03 = 2:44:08
   JERALD HUSZ, DUANE PICKERING, LANCE
   RINGER, PETE ABRAHAM, JOHN HUSZ

21. September 2008 by Jerry Cameron
Categories: Running | Tags: friends, racing | Comments Off on Al’s Run