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Another WRM in the books. It wasn't without some bigtime efforts and a really bad weather forecast that turned out to be a fine running day! (with the exception of the late race snow flurries!) There are no posted race results for the 2 mile fun run/walk and hopefully I tapped most of the 10K race walkers, 10K runners, half marathon runners and those crazies that did the full marathon. Ok, so the rain and wind forecast didn't happen and the temp at the early start was 41 degrees with very little wind. It was well into the 50's and mostly sunny when our peeps finished later in the morning. FYI - I am going to forego our normal practice of not listing our women runner's last names. 10K Race Walk results Sabin Snow at age 65 wins again in 1:06 (ho hum!) Our John Erickson who was part of the Ragnar Relay Team finished 2nd in the men's division in 1:14!! Way to go John! 10K Runners Mike Zengel (Mr. Swift Feet himself!) finished in 46:10 - 15th overall and 3rd in his age group! Jason Miner returning from injury ran a 52:11. Great to see Jason back! Deborah Cowell from the Ragnar Relay Team ran a super 58:31! Dan Munsell also from the Ragnar Relay Team turned in a fine 58:38! Cloie Smith a club runner from our past ran 1:22 - way to go Cloie! Lastly, we were hoping to see Chris Bray run one of the WRM distances after seeing him run 6:00/per mile in the Ragnar Relays but he yielded to his wife Cylinda who must also be a really good runner as she clicked off a 53:37! Half Marathoners As expected, Ursula Hanna coming off the Boston marathon less than 3 weeks ago turned in a blistering 1:36 PR, 4th overall and 2nd in her age class. I somewhat harassed her to run the marathon because some of the top runners would not be there. She ran a 3:25 in Boston in bad weather. The overall WRM full marathon female winner's time was 4:02 this year. Ursula would have EASILY won the race. Emily Rolando, one of our newer members, while carrying a full college load, ran 1:55 as she keeps improving! EMILY WON HER AGE CLASS OF 9 RUNNERS, YEAH EMILY!! Kathy Dahl ran a PR of 2:27! 2ND OF 9 IN HER AGE CLASS!! WOOHOO! Nice to do a PR on this course - you know you are in shape when you do that. Great to see Kathy again - super job as always... Lastly, after the race, Greta Nowak spotted me and told me that she ran a 1:52, her first real race after her parachuting accident one year ago today. She looked great and has plans to go to Africa and run a marathon on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Marathoners First of all, I hope everyone saw the awesome article in Saturday's Courier about the race which basically featured Patrick Schutte! His picture was in the paper with multiple quotes and accomplishments! Patrick, one of the Ragnar Relay team members who I have mentioned in the past runs just under 4:00 hours EVERY year no matter what - finished in 3:59:59. I wish I could have been there for his finish as I'll bet he put on a late blitz to get under 4 hours. Patrick took my picture as we crossed paths somewhere after the 13.1 mile turnaround. He recognized that I was leading the race at that point which was cool! How can he run so fast and take pics along the way? Again, Patrick is THE MAN! Steve Orth suffering from a severe case of stomach cramps finished in 5:42. Steve has run 4:52 on this course and it was one of those days that we all hate to see or FEEL! He'll be back. Jeff Kathan from our sister club in Minneapolis, the Portland Lakers (and my running buddy) finished in 6:34. You must understand that he doesn't train at all and occasionally shows up for a race. He is a solid ultra-marathoner and vows to start working out! I (Ken Ekman) had a good day inspite of only a couple of 10 miles workouts and nothing past 14. Of the 20 early starters I jumped into the lead of the race before mile 1 and lead the race for 20 miles until the Mumford express and 2 valley runners (that all started an hour after me) ran me down. I did finish in 4:30, managing to stay ahead of the 20 early starters (a race within the race?) and never felt bad or really extended myself. It was a solid workout for the 24 hour race I have in Minn in 4 weeks. By the way, I was interviewed by CableOne local access TV channel and the camera was rolling again when I was first to the 10K turnaround! And one last congrats - that to Catherine and Daniel Burdette who flew in from the Dallas area to run the half marathon. Catherine and Daniel are the daughter and son-in-law of my next door neighbors, Al and Betty Bowers. Daniel ran a 2:00 half marathon and we hear that he doesn't train much so he obviously has some running talent and Catherine ran a few minutes slower but did really well on this extremely tough course of mountains and altitude. What a super nice couple! Another fantastic year for one of the hardest races in the country - often referred to as the toughest marathon in the USA behind only Pikes Peak! |
