Aside from the true meaning of Memorial Day (never forget), three other great events also happened yesterday. First, a re-cap of the Medford Lakes Memorial Day 5K. Although this is a very old race, it has only become USATF-certified a few years ago. This, along with the beautiful course through the lakes and forests of this little boro in South Jersey, attracts a very fast class of runner. Of the 146 who participated, I’d estimate that better than 80% of them finished in the 20’s. The returning #1 male winner regularly completes in the mid-teens.
But the real thrill yesterday was three-fold: Two of my sons ran. This was the first race for my eldest. He and a friend completed in 32. They are training for a 25-mile, 3-day hike of Devil’s Pass next month. My youngest also ran it in 26. I hope one day he’ll realize what a runner he could become with practice and coaching. The other highlight was just the overall experience of the race directed by my wife. She makes it look easy. Maybe 146 runners sounds light. But she also directs a race in November that attracts nearly 1000 runners. Finally, a good friend and professional sports photographer Bob Mulholland contacted us at the last minute that he would be in town and wanted to shoot our race. We were delighted to have him on the course and awards ceremony. And it's always great to have South Jersey Race Timing on board.
The second cool thing about yesterday was the OCR crowd on Facebook. I see so many men and women running the Murph. That was a great honor to a fallen hero. Some folks did it at body weight while others wore a weighted vest from 10 to 40 pounds. I saw times as hot as 38-minutes and none over an hour. What fantastic effort. I also saw some folks building backyard obstacles. This is the caliber of athlete that we see more and more out on the course. This sport is real and I love being a part of this gang.
The last thing was for me a huge deviation in training. I got on my bicycle again after about three years off as I dove into OCR full time. I switched from thousands of road miles a season to hundreds of trail miles. But a minor injury has running to the sideline. So why not pick up the bike to keep the cardio going? Spartan Tuxedo is this weekend so riding the hills was the next best thing to running.
I hope you all enjoyed your extended weekend, trained hard, remembered in tears, thanked your local vets, and hugged a Gold Star mom. Stay strong, brave, and humble.
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