Pilgrim Pacer to Santino, Bingham

I ventured to La Grange today for my first-ever run at the 10th annual Pilgrim Pacer 5K. This one belonged to the young as Patrick Santino, 16, of Chicago, won in 16:22, while Kala Bingham, 20, of La Grange, was the female winner in 19:19. Male runner-up was Jack Keelan, 15, of La Grange Park, in 16:23 (one-second loss), and third went to Nick Peney, 20, of Crystal Lake, in 16:33. Second-place woman was Lisa Menninger, a good friend and the female course-record holder, in 19:43. Third was taken by Haley Prokaski, 15, of La Grange Park, in 20:17. There were 595 finishers. As part of The Runner's Soul team, it was fun to see new customers from the new store located less than a mile away in this excellent community event put on by the local Rotary Club. As I said, this was the first time I've run the Pilgrim Pacer, and I must say it's a good race on a nice course through beautiful neighborhoods. It was also great to see people I knew from the CARA circuit sprinkled in the crowd in a lower-key non-circuit environment.