First 10k of the Year!

Race season has hit Michigan.  At least for me it has.  I know there have been local races for a few weeks now but the Oak Apple Run in Royal Oak always seems to be the unofficial kick-off for me.  It’s a well-organized race on a nice flat course that is a mix of small downtown setting and tree-lined neighborhood streets. 

For most races I set a “must beat” pace and a “hope to beat” pace.  This year I ran right in the middle.  But I did it the hard way, starting slow and then doing negative splits every mile.  That’s the challenge of the first race – I don’t have the pacing down yet.

Another nice feature of the Oak Apple is the Public Team division they have in addition to the Corporate Team division.  I ran as part of the St. Paul Lutheran Church team made up of four runners just out for a fun morning.  We were all very surprised to learn that we actually earned the second place award in the division.  Looking at our times I think it’s safe to say that Emma, our youngest runner at age 15, carried us to that award. 

And even better than the award was the fact that a few of us that don’t often get the chance to talk actually got to talk running for a morning and maybe encourage each other to make this a great summer of running.