This was an 8K in Northville, MI in July. It was hot and hummid. Here's what I thought of it in 1997:
I went to visit Keith Downing and family at the University of
Michigan. It turned out to be a mini-running camp as many the people Keith knew
were former Bucknell runners. Two of the guy's had run in the Olympic Marathon
Trials and one had a marathon PR of 2:17. And one of the guy's wife was on the
US half marathon team and won the Grandma's half marathon in Minnesota.
The first running event was an 8K in Northville, MI. Northville was
just north of Ann Arbor. The race was held at 7:30pm. It was still 95F with a
105 heat index. There was a heat warning, but the race went off as scheduled,
at 7:00pm. But I said it was at 7:30pm. Yeah, that's what we thought until we
got there at 6:43pm and a guy told us we only had 17 minutes before the race.
After a quick warmup of running to the registration booth and spending $20
for the entry and a tanktop we started. Keith said he wasn't in great shape,
but I know he's faster than I am, his PR for the 10K is around 33:00. Doc (the
2:17 guy) had only been running 70 miles a week
and said he was going to run slow. The husband and wife team, Rich and Laurel,
were out to finish in the money.
Doc ran with me for the first 100 yard down hill before I told him not
to wait for me. Keith was just ahead and I couldn't find Rich or Laurel. Just
before the first mile the women joined up with the male runners, they had a separate start, and Laurel
was in command. Doc had vanished, but Keith was still in sight. The first
mile clicked off at 5:52. Not super fast, but at least I hadn't gone out at a
stupid pace. Maybe I could run a negative split.
Maybe not. I was so hot that everything was drenched before we hit two
miles. I ran through every sprinkler and through all the spray from hoses that
spectators had. At the water stops I poured more over my head than I drank.
All this made for a spectacular 6:12 second mile! Before the thoughts of how
much I sucked could make it all the way through my mind the rationalization
that it was just too damn hot comforted me.
That thought may have been too comfortable as I ran an even more
impressive 6:30 for the third mile. Now I did start to wonder at how much I
sucked and whether or not there was a number large enough to quantify my
suckiness. Maybe if you added the infinity of integers with the infinity of
irrational numbers between the integers you'd be close.
Keith was no where in sight and the thoughts of catching him like in
Boston had vanished as well. I figured he'd invited me up just to beat me to
get even for Boston. Whatever his plan, it was working. My forth mile was a
blistering 6:56! At least I hadn't gotten to the seven minute mark in a race.
Now it was impossible to quantify how much I sucked. But it was the last mile
and I knew that it is a long time until Chicago and it was hot and I hadn't
done any serious speed work and blah blah blah.
A woman name Bridget was runnin gjust behind me and was a local favorite. I heard
her name several times during the last mile. She wasn't overtaking me and only
one guy passed me in the last two miles. In fact not many people passed me
after the first mile when we all settled in. I had passed about a dozen people
since then and was picking off a few more, but they were getting fewer and
further between as the runners were really spread out. On the final turn for
the last 200 yards people were cheering for Bridget to catch me. Being the
competitive male jerk that I am, there was no way I was going to let a girl
beat me (of course there were three who did as some one yelled to Bridget that
she was the forth woman), so I kicked into a classic sprint. The last 100m was
probably a 9.71 but USATF wasn't there to verify it for a new world record.
It was just good to hold of Bridget.
The rest of the evening was spent drinking and eating whatever cold
food we could find and hanging out in airconditioning. My last 0.96 mile was
at a 6:40 pace, so I had run a little faster at the end. Over all my time was
31:53.59 for a 6:26 pace, 63/1190 and 7th in my age group. Doc ran
28-something and Keith ran a 30-something. Rich finished third and won $100
and Laurel won the women's race and won $400.
Back to the Running Vita of James B. Elliott