The First Race of the Season!

   Last Saturday was the 32nd Annual Oak Apple Run in Royal Oak, MI. For many years (about 32) it has been the first race I run each summer.  I’ve missed a few over the years since that first one but not many.  It’s a great, flat, interesting course and it’s close to home.

This year it fell on my 51st birthday so I set a maximum time of 51 minutes, knowing that I would blow that away.  I thought if I pushed I could get close to 48 minutes.  My best time in years was the 49:10 I ran last year so beating that was my real goal.

Race day was perfect weather – around 50 degrees and clear at the 7:30AM start.  I hit the first mile marker at 7:50 so I was right on pace.  Picking that pace up slightly the back half and a strong kick at the end gave me a 48:12 finish for 169 men out of 473 and 11th of the 25 in my age division. And a medal.  Not great but not bad for the first race of the year.