Michigan: Shanty to Shorts 2014

Mr. Shoe and I officially checked Michigan off of our list last Saturday with the Shanty to Shorts 5k.  It turned out to be an amazing day for everyone that we ran with and we enjoyed the post race celebration at Short's.

The race did not start until 10:00 AM so that left us with plenty of time to sleep in, drop a car off at the finish of the point-to-point race, and pick up our packets.  Actually Mr. Shoe and his father took care of the car and packets while I leisurely ate breakfast.  I am spoiled.

Tech shirts were new for 2014!

We got to the start of the race with plenty of time to spare.  I did an easy run for a few minutes then a couple of short sprints to get my legs warmed up.  After a bit of stretching it was time to line up.  The race director made a few announcements about the course and let us know that we were two minutes away from starting.  The next thing I knew the race had started and I was scrambling to get my watch going!

I started towards the front of the line up, but during the first mile I watched a dozen or people pull away from me.  I completely lost sight of our friend, Justin.  He was flying down the course! The first mile felt pretty easy and my time was around 6:30, a bit faster than my goal.  I tried to just settle into that pace and focus on not letting the runners around me get too far away from me.

Mr. Shoe, me, Devon, Justin

Around the 2-mile point the course had leveled out and two women caught up to me.  I knew I wasn't leading the race, but I didn't want any more women to get ahead of me!  I was quite relieved that when I saw their red bibs and realized they were running the 10k! I managed to keep up with them until the 10k course split from the 5k.

The last half mile was a bit rough.  The course turned to the left and into a head wind.  I could see the finish line and was trying to make out the clock, but I couldn't.  I completely failed to realize that I was wearing a watch. I just tried to push as hard as I could; I don't think my final kick was all that strong though.  I crossed the line at 22:13, just a bit off my goal of 22 minutes. It's a solid new PR though, so no complaints here!

Celebrating our finish with Short's Anniversary Ale

I met up with Justin who had also set a new PR! We didn't have much time to celebrate because it turned out that Mr. Shoe was basically right behind me!  He was the third PR of the day at 23:17, taking 5 full minutes off of his previous best!  I am so proud of him!  We had a few minutes to stretch and grab some bagels before we started looking for Devon, who was running his first 5k.  It's a good thing we started looking when we did because he surprised us all by finishing in under 28 minutes which was, of course, yet another PR for our group.  Four runners and four PRs, you can't beat that!

And then it turned out that we could beat that!  Justin was the second person to finish the race and, since the first finisher was actually in the master's class, he was the first "normal" finisher! He also told me that I was the first woman to finish, but I didn't believe him. I continued not believing him right up until I saw the results posted.  Yep, I was the top women's finisher! I could not believe it!

Up-cycled running shoe trophies for the top finishers

I think it is safe to say the Mr. Shoe and I will definitely be back at this race next year! Who knows, maybe we'll even be able to both set PRs for the third consecutive year on this course!