Hectic Week of Racing

The past week I ran two races that could not have been at further points opposite each other on the spectrum. On May 29 I was in Chicago to run the Soldier Field 10-miler. A stirring ceremony celebrating the sacrifice of so many outside of Chicago's Soldier Field had me on the verge of tears. We then took off on a 5 mile out and back trek that came back along Lake Michigan. With race temperatures in the middle to upper 70's and high humidity I was amazed how well I was able to do. I wiped myself out physically but the effort paid off in the form of a

finish time of 1:12:37. That was good for 364th overall out of over 8,300 participants. I never feel as though I am a very fast runner. I simply do the best I can, but when you see figures like that....even I have to be impressed with what I have been able to accomplish in terms of running.

The finish to the Soldier Field 10-miler is perhaps the most stunning of all the finish lines I've ever come across. After running back along the bike path next to the Lake, you loop to the backside of Soldier Field and enter the stadium underbelly coming out of the runway tunnel and onto the field. The finish line itself rests at the 50 yard line in the center of the field. My only regret was not heeding the advice of my dear friends John and Linda Flanagan who warned me that it is easy to forget to watch yourselfr cross the finish line on the jumbotron. Despite several hundred self-reminders in the final mile, guess what dear ol' Vin forgot to do? Yep, but it was still amazing to run on the field. I will watch my NFL Sunday Ticket this fall with a different perspective.

Yesterday after returning home from the Windy City earlier in the week I went down to Roxbury Park for the Grand Old Lady 5k. It was an event put on by the Johnstown YWCA. Even though it was on my race schedule all along, it still was weird because I hadn't registered for it. Normally I am a pre-registered runner. I like to plan. However, finding the registration form for this particular race was not very easy. As a result, I drove down and registered just before the race start. Being on familiar ground is always a bonus and after running a race with 8,300+ the week before in sunny and humid weather it was quite a change to be running with 33 other runners in what seemed to be a torrential downpour. But just before the race start the rains cleared and the sun came out. It was bright and also humid. This time, I came across the line in 2nd overall with a time of 20:02. A relatively tough course with a few challenging hills made it harder than it should be. I've also felt as though I may be running too much, so the next few weeks I will monitor my running and try to sneak in some more rest where I can.

Pictured (as has become a regular thing for me on this blog) are the race shirts, bibs and corresponding medals for each of the races.