Post by brucedenton on May 30, 2010 22:15:04 GMT -5
It's weird to call it the Ogden 20K, it will always be the Elby's 20K to me. It seemed appropriate for my first race as a masters runner to be back in my college town, on the course that I pounded out so many miles with the boys all those days nearly 20 years ago. We rolled in to town Friday night and ate dinner with my old teammate Joe and our coach...it was a little tough to watch them enjoying a few cold ones while I was drinking my water, but I knew it would be a hot one yesterday, and it was. The sun started blazing down about two miles into the race and I was wishing I had gone with the shades. I didn't position myself very well at the start, was about 10 rows deep, so I wasted a little energy and took a while to get comfortable in the early running. A lot of people went out too fast, and I went through the first mile in 6:18 or so. I had forgotten just how hard 29th Street Hill is. It is about 1.5 miles long, and about as steep as Washington Street or Baltimore Street. There are a couple twists and turns that give the illusion that it is coming to an end when in fact it is far from over. I dragged myself to the top and then hammered down the quad-killing back side into Elm Grove and hit 10K in 41:36. By then I had passed most of the walkers (who started 30 minutes earlier) and wound up running alone for the next 8K. I passed Don Slusser (20K walk winner) around 14.5K and he told me I was in 22nd place, which was great, I figured more like 30-50. I was slowly gaining on a guy, and I passed my old coach at 15K, that and the crowds helped propel me along to a negative split (the course is probably designed for a negative split though). The second half of the course has three hills, the last of which is Wheeling Hill, another big one about a half mile long and steep. Here I heard footsteps and was passed by a guy with some gray in his hair, and I figured he was in my age group so I tried to hang on to him as we crested the hill. He caught the guy in front of us and I started reeling them in coming down the other side. With a half mile to go, I went around them and cut it loose and pulled away to finish 21st overall in 1:21:55. I ran back out to meet MJ and she came through in 1:45. I was the 5th master, but when they took out the top 3 for prize money and the one guy who was 51, I wound up getting 'first' in the 40-44 age group.
It was great to return to Wheeling, as always. I feel like I'm back in college whenever I go there, and there was some reminiscing of all the miles run on the second half of the course over the years. The race is not what it used to be though. I ran it a couple times in college and barely cracked the Top 50 when I was a good deal faster than I am now. It used to attract in excess of 1000 runners, this year was not quite 500 finishers (but did have over 1000 total when you include the 20K walk and the 5K run/walk). The aid stations were excellent and the crowds out on the streets were good. The elite field was smaller than it used to be, and the awards ceremony was not good. The band and food were excellent, but the RD gave out numerous special awards, some of which were really cool, like the 15 dudes who have run all 34 editions of the 20K (Iron Men). But after a while the special awards and the speeches that went with them got tiresome. Then the award winners were just read out by someone else, name by name, with no times given, one after another with no recognition or presentations. A couple of the elites started up to the podium when their names were called, then stopped halfway there, unsure what to do as they just kept reading through the age groups and so forth. The guy even made the comment that 'these names are ridiculous' (!) when he couldn't pronounce them, and didn't understand why the top three masters winners were not also eligible for age group awards. By the end of the awards, there were only about 30 people left there. I'm not complaining that I didn't get my moment of glory for an AG award, but I think at least the elite runners should have gotten to come up and be recognized. This used to be a big-time race and the word is that they are going to move it to a half marathon next year as part of an effort to restore its prominence. Hopefully that will happen. All in all, it was still a great day, topped off by a friend's wedding that afternoon.
It was great to return to Wheeling, as always. I feel like I'm back in college whenever I go there, and there was some reminiscing of all the miles run on the second half of the course over the years. The race is not what it used to be though. I ran it a couple times in college and barely cracked the Top 50 when I was a good deal faster than I am now. It used to attract in excess of 1000 runners, this year was not quite 500 finishers (but did have over 1000 total when you include the 20K walk and the 5K run/walk). The aid stations were excellent and the crowds out on the streets were good. The elite field was smaller than it used to be, and the awards ceremony was not good. The band and food were excellent, but the RD gave out numerous special awards, some of which were really cool, like the 15 dudes who have run all 34 editions of the 20K (Iron Men). But after a while the special awards and the speeches that went with them got tiresome. Then the award winners were just read out by someone else, name by name, with no times given, one after another with no recognition or presentations. A couple of the elites started up to the podium when their names were called, then stopped halfway there, unsure what to do as they just kept reading through the age groups and so forth. The guy even made the comment that 'these names are ridiculous' (!) when he couldn't pronounce them, and didn't understand why the top three masters winners were not also eligible for age group awards. By the end of the awards, there were only about 30 people left there. I'm not complaining that I didn't get my moment of glory for an AG award, but I think at least the elite runners should have gotten to come up and be recognized. This used to be a big-time race and the word is that they are going to move it to a half marathon next year as part of an effort to restore its prominence. Hopefully that will happen. All in all, it was still a great day, topped off by a friend's wedding that afternoon.
