Medved Lilac 5k and 10k

Almost 2,000 runners participated in the Lilac 5k and 10k races on Sunday, May 17. A co-worker just told me only in Rochester is lilac pronounced lielock. Most of the country says lielack. The rest of the country has it wrong, and we should know as Rochester is the Queen of lilacs.

It was a beautiful morning. The 10k race went off without a hitch. Jan and I both decided to run since it would give us one more mark towards completing the Rochester Runner of the Year series. I learned ten facts during the race;

1. When you are sweating while walking to the race you may have an issue while running.
2. Everyone is different. I heard runners around me saying how nice and cool it was while we were running the first mile. I was sweating profusely. I wasn't cool and already knew the last couple of miles could be troublesome.
3. My feet do come off the ground when I run, kind of anyhow. This photograph is near three miles. Am I race walking or running? I am the anti-good-form role model of running. Maybe I'm just super-efficient?

 

4.  At three miles I still felt pretty good. I could have run much faster which is a good sign for a RROY 5k race coming up on June 21.

5. At four miles, after already stopping for water twice which I never do in a short race, I think I mentally decided to finish as strong as possible that day but not put myself into one of those deep, dark holes of pain that can take days to recover from. There will be other races I will feel better in. This was a mature step for me. 

6. At five miles the race turns and begins the long 1.2 mile incline/hill to the finish. I was struggling and my form shows this;

 

Nice heel strike. At times I wonder how I run at all. I'm also leaning forward more and swinging my arms to try and keep moving ahead. 

7. I don't like running a 50:58 for a 10k. Even after 30+ years I'm a better runner than that. There is much work to be done. Ten kilometers used to be my favorite race distance. Jan felt the same about her race and we are both committed to making significant improvements over the next 6 months. 

8.  Running only two days while traveling 3,000 miles in our pick-up truck a few days before Lilac probably didn't help Jan or I. 

9. During my long run back to the finish I decided that I need to do a one mile track race coming up on June 12, which is also a RROY race. Amazingly Jan thought the same thing during her race. It's not easy to hide on a track if you are having a bad day or are pathetically slower than the other people in your heat. I think those are the main reasons a lot of people don't race the mile, at least those are excuses I've used in the past. Jan and I are planning on running it. If we don't push ourselves we won't ever be competitive again. The mile hurts but is over quick.

10. The Lilock 10k is a nice race, most of the course is beautiful and though Jan and I haven't run all 37 years of this race we have done a large number of them. I remember one year running to the local Wegman's before the race because we forgot diapers for our infant daughter. Now that daughter has a daughter.