River City Fourth Fest 5K

I ran a 5K on the 4th of July, but not before Paul and I ran and easy 10 milers on Friday morning. We headed to the trail starting at the Old Penny Bar and went to Waterford and back. We kept it easy and ended up running just faster than 8:30 pace. Paul said he was going to run the 5K the next day but he ended up not showing.

The evening of the 3rd, we went to Muskego Beach for their annual Waterbugs Water ski Show and Firework Display. The picture is on their final pyramid of the show and is almost completed when I took this picture. The fireworks were very well done and the late afternoon and evening was very fun. The beach was full of people and the atmosphere was festive. They even pointed out that Chelsie Memmel was in the crowd. She was one of the Olympic Gymnasts in Beijing and lives not too far away from Muskego.


I got up a little after 6 on the 4th of July to head out to Waterford for the River City Fourth Fest 5K. My goal was still to break 20 minutes. The weather was overcast and mid 70's. It was humid but not too bad for racing. I found Mike and Chaz for a good 2 mile warm up. We also found Chris but he ran 7 miles from home for his warm up. The race starts and off we go. There are about 300 or so in the race so the start is crowded and as always, lots go out too fast. I go out at what I feel is a good pace but as I find out at the 1 mile mark, I am too slow.

Mile 1 - 6:45, 18 seconds slower than I need to average. Now it is going to be hard to make tat up but I try to pick up the pace and begin to pass many runners. Mile 2 - 6:34, still not fast enough and now I feel like I don't have a shot at sub 20 and now it is racing to pass who is in front of me and get the best time I still can. I do pick up the pace a little though Mile 3 - 6: 29, only 3 seconds off the pace I needed to be running from the start. I pass 1 more person down the stretch and cross the line in 20:38. Could I have run faster? Yes, I think so. The first mile killed me though. 10 miles on Friday probably didn't help either but I am OK with the time.

Usually I end up placing in the top 5 in my age group in this race and get a small plaque, but this year I was 6th so nothing. I was 23 seconds out of the awards. Mike, Chaz, and another guy names Bill run 4 1/2 miles for a cool down so I got in an additional 9.5 miles for the day and I think that put me at 42.5 miles for the week.

This next week will be an easier one for me. I am off from work all week and I plan on taking the family camping on Thursday and Friday nights. And tomorrow, i am taking Melissa (my 7 y/o) to 6 Flags Great America. She absolutely loves roller coasters so I am treating her to a day of fun. One problem is that she is 53.25 inches tall in her shoes and you must be 54 inches tall to ride the biggest coasters so today we went and bought some new shoes that when she wears them and stands up really straight, is exactly 54 inches tall. I hope it works as she would be disappointed if she couldn't ride all the coasters. This is my princess who on her 4th birthday while we were at Disney World, rode the Tower of Terror 13 times.

I hope you all had a great Independence Day and your summer is off to a wonderful start.