Sunday, May 18, 2008

North by Northwest


We (a few hundred runners and I) ventured into uncharted territory on the CARA Circuit, running the Healthbridge 5K "up north" in northwest suburban Crystal Lake. It was a nice, fair course that included some wide roads and a narrow bike path. I was able to do some decent pacing, didn't blow up early and came in strong with an OK kick for a change, even though it was into the wind. The time of 20:41.7 is still too slow as far as I'm concerned, but it was a confidence-booster for sure. My Elmhurst Running Club (photo) mates did well (Doug Pearson--1st M40-44, Julie Bruns--1st F35-39, John O'Blanis and Mark Robinson (not pictured)--both strong showings) and so did my Fossil Velocity MC200 Relay mates (Keith Burns--1st M50-54 and Charlie Shabazian--3rd M50-54. Hats off also to runner/photographer Eileen Skisak, who joined me last week in the Wheaton-Villa Park double. She ruled women's 45-49 at Crystal Lake with a snappy 21:57. The heavy hitters this week were familiar names. Dave Wilson of Brookfield, the hottest runner on the CARA Circuit, was the men's winner in 15:48, and Cari Setzler of Wonder Lake was the women's medalist in 19:11. Nice job by Healthbridge Fitness Center in ramping up for its first year on the Circuit. NOTE: I've heard more than one report that police were stopping runners to let traffic through on Main Street. That's a no-no! Anyone have a first-hand account??

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'll witness the traffic stoppage, but it wasn't near the end, it was about 1.3 miles into the beginning,that major artery we had to cross that the police were manning. I wasn't part of the group that got stopped, but I looked down the road and noted that the police were standing in front of a group of runners on the course, they were motioning cars through, then they let the runners go. I went though the first mile marker at 7:53, so I'm assuming the group that got stopped were running at a 7:30-7:45 pace. I also wrote CARA about the trail section. I was in that section when the front of the race came back the other way, and it was impossible to pass without being creating a problem for either the oncoming traffic or the slower folks being passed. A group of about 4-5 of us had to run single file for awhile, and kudos to everyone in that group for biding their time. The extreme right side of that path contained more than a little uneven footing. Were the mile markers off? We all had some amazingly fast first miles, followed by comparatively slow second miles