Race Report: Havelock Charity Run 10k on 6/7/14

Wet And Wild Havelock 10k 

When I woke up Saturday morning there was HEAVY rain. Flood-the-roads type of rain. So things didn't look promising.
I got out of bed and got myself (and my 9 year old Gavin) up to the Havelock area of town anyway, about a 25 minute drive. My son and I warmed up for about 10 minutes and got completely soaked. Luckily, the rain let up from heavy to what I would call moderate or steady by the time the 7:30 race time came around. No lightning and just a steady rain meant no delays or cancellations---i.e. the race would start as planned.

Before the race it was fun to meet Lincoln native/local running hero Mike Morgan (who runs professionally for the Brooks Hanson's group in Michigan) but was back in town for the weekend. I lined up right behind Morgan at the starting line figuring he would get away quick and I could follow his line the first few blocks.

Starting line as the wheelchair athlete starts just a few minutes before the 10k start.

That's me on the right in the orange hat lined up behind Morgan.

I went into this race just looking for a nice workout/tune-up two weeks out from Grandma's Marathon. I was hoping to get out smart and see if I could run the second half of the race faster than the first (negative split). I was also excited to see how our LRC Racing team would do in the 10k team competition, and see if I could help the cause. This turned out to be a non-issue as there weren't many Team Nebraska jerseys (our chief rival) at the start line. I'm not even sure if they fielded a full team. The 10k field of individual runners, however, was very strong.

The Lincoln Track Club race staff did a nice job of getting the race started very close to on time considering the wet conditions that really slowed down their setup.

When the gun went off I quickly settled in at about 9th or 10th place and found a few other runners to pass those first couple miles with. I found out later that a couple of them were runners at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln). 

I hit the mile in 5:27 and was feeling pretty good that I was able to find a line on Havelock Ave that didn't have too many puddles, despite the raging river on the south side of the road as we approached 84th street. A nasty surprise when we turned south onto 84th street about 1.5 miles into the race was about 4 to 6 inches of standing water that filled that intersection. No way to avoid it.

I felt like the Scott Eride AF Trainers I was wearing did a nice job of draining the water, though. I've been wearing these light trainers for speedier workouts the last few weeks and I really like them. I'm likely to wear them at Grandma's Marathon in two weeks. They are more substantial and offer more cushion than the Skechers GoMeb Speed 2 shoes that I wore for the Lincoln Marathon in early May. I came out of that marathon feeling more beat up than I would have liked and I'm sure that wearing too light of shoes was a big part of that.

Back to the race......When we went south on 84th they had the right lane of traffic closed for runners. Unfortunately, that lane was about 3/4 filled with water so there wasn't much room to run. But we pressed on and hit the second mile in 5:33. 

Mile 3 is mostly uphill. I ran a 5:40 without using too much energy. I hit the 5k mark in 17:15 and started to use a downhill portion of the course to pass a runner or two. I got back down to about 5:20 for mile 4, but forgot to grab the split on my watch. 

Mile 5 was a turnaround loop in Mahoney park which included a few rolling hills. I was losing focus and started to struggle a bit. I was passed by a teammate just before the turnaround but was able to catch back up to him at mile marker 5 and he ran with me and encouraged me through the last mile. I was able to pass a runner wearing a Nebraska Wesleyan singlet in the last mile and also hold off a Team Nebraska runner who was closing very strong in the last 400 meters. 

This is me about 100 meters from the finish line.

I finished in 34:19 and was 10th place. I had reached my goal of going faster in the second half than I had in the first. I went 17:04 in the second 5k to 17:15 in my first 5k. I can't remember negative-splitting a 10k in a very long time so that was encouraging. 

Here are a few other pics my wife took of the top finishers Saturday:

Mike Morgan was first in 31:42. 

Trevor Vidlak was 2nd in 32:04.

Mike Rathje was 4th in 33:12.

This is my son Gavin (2393) at the 3k start. 

Congrats to my son Gavin! He was 28th overall and 2nd in his age group in the 3k race. This was more of a tempo run for him as he prepares for track meets later this summer. 

With nearly 800 finishers between the two races, this was a good-sized race. Kudos to Nebraskans for coming out to run in the wet conditions.

And Kudos once again to the Lincoln Track Club on a well-run event. They had ample donuts, Pepsi and other snacks available at the finish. The rain ended shortly after the race did, so it was a great time to catch up with teammates and rivals. 

And it was a great day to be under an orange hat. Hey, it keeps the rain out of your eyes.

Also a great day to be wearing blue and gold! Congrats to my LRC Race team on winning the 10k and 3k team titles on the men's side. And congrats to our women for winning the 10k team title in impressive fashion. 

Now on to the cooler climate of Duluth, Minnesota for Grandma's Marathon in just two weeks! 

Thanks for reading.

LINKS

See the LRC Racing team report here.

See the full Havelock Charity Run race results here.

See all the pictures my wife took Saturday here. Please give photo credits to my website if you want to use any of the pics.