Thursday, April 20, 2023

First running event of the year (summit city half)

This past Saturday (4/15) was our first official running event of the year. I am a big fan of the Summit City Half & Quarter Marathon (Epic racing events) for its simplicity. It's a one or two loop course mostly along a sidewalk/trail on the west side of Fort Wayne. There's no need to stop traffic, close streets, or have a team of volunteers directing runners. Just a few signs pointing the way and other than a couple spots where we wind through a subdivision there are no cars at all.

I believe 60-some did the quarter (6.55 miles) and almost 90 the half (13.1 miles). And, even though Jane didn't get to train much, she won her age group in the quarter! I was ecstatic to be able to do my usual 10-minute miles in the half and ended up winning my age group too!

I ran it in 2 hours 12 minutes. My fastest mile was 9:20 and slowest was 10:15 (pretty consistent). I wore my New Balance 880v12 black shoes and they felt good. After a number of years in Brooks Ghosts and Hoka, I think these have become my new favorite shoe.

The weather was also perfect this year (unlike the rain for last year's event). It was about 65f for the 8:45/9am start, with sun at the beginning and then clouds rolled in just as it began to heat up.

The below pic is when Jane was crossing the finish line and I was completing my first loop. I saw her up ahead when I got onto Illinois Road and busted as much tail as I could muster going uphill to finally catch her for the last quarter mile.

All told, it was a fun time and a great way to start off a Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to next year!


1 comment:

Unknown said...

It was a fun event even though I was disappointed with my effort. Nice to have you come and run in with me, though. Definitely helped. You did awesome!