Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Children With Hope 10K

Children With Hope 10K Race Report, Grand Junction, Colorado
Submitted by Dennis Young

Dennis and Mary Young: 1st Place Mens and Womens  60+


Both really felt good today. Temperature was in the 80s under bright sunshine. We gained about 360 feet in first half of the 10K but kept the pace up pretty good, watching the average so I didn't stray much from a 10 minute-mile.  There was that one "older guy" who passed us early on and got my adrenalin flowing as usual. He stretched his lead out to over a minute and I thought he was a gone.  But on the downhill return he stayed steady and I pumped it up watching my pace get under 10!  I was finally on his heels in the last mile doing mostly sub 9. Made my move at a half mile and finished doing 6:19 pace with less than 200 HR! 
After he was behind me and I came around the uphill turn to finish, I realized I could beat 60 minutes and churned on in through the crowd at the chip-timer pad for an official 59:47 (Garmin 59:50).  Turned out the "older guy" wasn't even in my division; he is 56 years old and won in the 50-59 group.  

Mary came in under 6 minutes later doing wonderful on the last mile push. She really pulled out on the downhill as usual and finished in the push to the line doing an 8:40 pace at the clock!  She got a 1:06:27 official time. A great ave HR of 164 while mine was in the mid 170s ave.

Neither one of us at PRs but very encouraged by the initial 'up-slope' pace we held and most important, no pain or injury. We were the oldest in the 10K. The only two in 60+, so would have been first place had we crawled in! 
Our 1st Place (60+) prizes!
Marty Wacker won the 10K at 35:24.  Hey, only 24 minutes ahead of me!

Daniel Kirwa, born in Kenya, was a guest runner and ran about a 15-minute 5K, his specialty where he has a PR in the 14s (world record around 12+ I believe). He is from the town where the orphanage the race supported is located.  He is an All-American runner at Harding University in Arkansas.  He signed Moms shirt. Runs like he is floating and the ground is non-existent. 

There was one 81 year old in the 5K event.  Looked wiry and strong but he had too many young 60-somethings in his division because they didn't break it down more than that. He did a 9:06 pace in 5K and finished 4th in the group.  Another inspiration for us, but we will be 20 years older than that when we stop running.

It was a fun day.  Mountain climbing next week (height depends on snow but in this temperature can it survive even at 14,000 feet?) and then Provo, UT 10K later in month, followed by a Monument 5K downhill here at the end of the month.  That's July!


DCraig: Thanks for the Race Report! Here's to the captains of the Young Mountain Runners! And Happy 48th Anniversary!  That's keeping it going...

4 comments:

  1. Happy 48th! Impressive on all accounts-wow indeed!

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  2. Happy 48th and enjoy the trails around Leadville this weekend!

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  3. You're racing like it's your 48th birthday! I'll keep looking behind me for those two from Colorado; you've convinced me to stay away from the 10Ks, too much pressure.

    Love you. IWWD

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  4. Thanks for posting our report Craig and thanks to all for the greetings! A special thanks to you guys for the inspiration to round out our routine and add running to our mountain and canyon treks that we have now been doing for 22 years. We aren't running at 14,000 ft but the conditioning in the whole body that running has brought is a giant plus.

    Mom says there seems to be a slight modification needed these days to our IWWD logo; IWWDD. "It's What We DON'T Do"; as in, watch TV, wash windows, sleep late, etc. etc.

    Thanks for adding this new 'chore' to our lives and is it time to start planning our team ascent of Mt Whitney on our 50th?

    Mom and Dad

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