R and J in the USA

July 24, 2024

They like their dogs clean at the Dirty Dog 5K. Race organizers ran a dog wash before, during, and after this Wednesday evening race in Avon Lake, OH, about 20 miles west of Cleveland. They like them racing as well. In addition to the human race, there were dogs running the flat course through residential streets of this Lake Erie town.

The race was relatively small, with 60 solo humans and 7 dog-human tandems, but there were some legitimate times. The top three finishers came in under 18:00 and the top four finishers averaged less than 6:00 per mile. The quadrupeds posted some nice times as well, with the top dog coming in at 21:12 – a 6:51 per mile pace. That was fast enough to land that hot dog in the top ten of all runners.

The spry legs of youth ruled the race, as 12 of the top 15 finishers were teenagers – including the overall 1^st and 2^nd place finishers and the top female finisher. Julie finished 1^st in her age group and 20^th of 60 overall. Ryan finished 2^nd in his age group and 17^th overall.

Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds

Julie and Ryan both came into the Ohio race with equal parts R&R and amped stress. The R&R was gained by both in the few days prior to the race. Julie had entered the state of Ohio days before fairly exhausted going from the back to back push of hiking Mount Mansfield in Vermont, running a 5 mile 5K with huge hills at the Hurricane Hill race in Vermont (to learn how one runs a 5 mile 5K, check out our 5Ks section), then a long drive from Vermont to a quick overnight in the Adirondacks to a decent morning drive into Rochester for an absolute whirlwind 3 hours, including 5 stops to visit friends and family at home and drop off Ryan for his first home visit and then she hopped back in the car for another 3 hour drive. She cancelled two stops on her planned Ohio itinerary to stay in place for an extra day while she pulled herself back from the edge of exhaustion and recouped from such a pace. After a very restful and peacefully paced set of days solo in Ohio, Julie was feeling pretty rested. Ryan had the same. Coming into the trip, he had always planned to go home to visit his mother every 4-6 weeks (what a good son!) and enjoyed a few days with modern plumbing and a stationary home to give him some much needed rejuvenation from the prior days. So, we both had the benefits of a decent recovery through the week. That said, the actual day of the race was a race against the clock itself. Julie got her day started at 6AM to make the drive into Columbus from Hocking Hills State Park, hit the Ohio State Capitol, then continue the rest of a 3 hour drive up to meet Ryan at his rental car drop off at the Cleveland airport while Ryan was busily driving his rental car from Rochester the four hour drive to meet up with Julie. We both ran 30 minutes late and didn’t leave the airport until 5PM for a 30 minute drive to get to the race for a 6PM start. So, it was a fairly tiring, frantic and fast-paced day. Once we arrived at the very casual race scene though, we realized we were actually there in plenty of time to pick up our bibs, get changed and get race ready.

Before the race, Julie had approached the police officers there to help with the street crossings to ask if the parking lot across the street was okay for van parking for the night. Though the answer was a clear no, they had a great time and a great conversation about Julie and Ryan’s trip and their own travel aspirations. (Check it out in our People Along the Way section).

For a detailed race report, this particular one is taking a long time to get to the actual race. But, just as Julie and Ryan took a while to get to the starting line, here we are.

It was a fairly flat course and the weather was ripe for running. Julie decided to run it strong, but not to push herself too hard. She decided, if she could keep it at or below 8:30s, she’d be satisfied and her main goal was to keep that nice relaxed and recouped feeling she had. She kept an eye on her heart rate throughout the race and was happy to see an average of 144 with a heart rate max of 153. Back in business baby. One thing Julie was finding throughout the trip, since every state and every day was packed with so much, our travel priority being more about how much ground we could cover than taking it easy, any amount of recovery was ephemeral and could be quickly and easily spent. So, she was happy to see her recovery had gone to good effect, but was under no illusion that it was permanent or guaranteed the next day. She ran a fairly steady race, feeling a bit of the hurt throughout, but never so much hurt that she considered backing off. She considered turning the heat higher, but thought the prudent route was better and still producing some satisfying results. As she approached the final .5 mile she set some milestones for herself to manage her end of race ramp up, feeling there still plenty in the tank to draw upon for it. She identified a curve in the road to where she’d pick it up to 8:15s, a parked car a few hundred meters further ahead as the point she’d pick it up to 8’s and the corner into the final stretch where she would let ‘er rip, which she did, and clocked the home stretch in at 5:15s with a max pace of 5:00 minute mile in the last hundred meters – a decent kick. She finished quite satisfied with her race…UNTIL, post-race. Even though she got a 1st place age group doggie treat bucket the celebration was quick to come to a halt. Ryan and her reconnected with one of the police officers from earlier and he said, “Why didn’t you beat him?!” Referring to Ryan – “I had my money on you. The other guys said, ‘no way she can beat him’ and I defended you and said, ‘No, she’s got a fire in her eyes.’” Julie was both complemented by that officer’s vote of victory and faith in her, disappointed to have let him down and pissed as all get out that the other’s had doubted her (even though they had proved to be right – in THIS case). Julie got all up in arms (don’t worry, playfully so, no need to look for an article in the Ohio Observer about a crazed woman attacking an officer at an otherwise lovely evening race), “You tell your buddies that I CAN beat him and HAVE beat him many times and COULD HAVE beaten him if I wanted to!” They all laughed playfully, Julie too…and then made sure the officer knew, “No, for real, I can.”

BUT, despite that fire in Julie’s eyes clearly being well lit, the question of whether Julie can beat Ryan really did start to come into question in this race. She may well have been able to match him, but not beat him. Ryan ran this race at the pace of Julie’s PR for a 5K, holding a 7:59 average. Julie knew she could do that, but hadn’t in a while and, even her fastest pace on this trip was a mere average of 8:01s. Maybe, if Julie had been pushing, MAAAAYYYBE she could have gotten there, but also, maybe not. It turns out, this Ohio race is where the racing really started for Ryan. Here, at our 12th race, was the first time that Ryan really started racing. He is officially warmed up, the cobwebs are officially off, and Ryan Gallivan is back ladies and gentleman. His first mile was a respectable 8:57, mile 2, 8:07 and mile 3, Ryan felt juiced up and ready to go and he clocked in a 7:24. Ryan is now back in shape and most certainly, faster than Julie. With Julie’s fitness taking continuous hits from the pace of the trip and her less well-managed race strategies and Ryan’s restrained and smart race strategies, long history of running since college, calves that could cut diamonds (in Julie’s opinion) and inherent talent for running all paying off, it is beginning to look like the competition that isn’t a competition might now be pretty unevenly matched. Will Julie have any race wins over Ryan in our future? We shall see. For now, the tally is Julie 7 – Ryan 5 and it is starting to look like this might be close to the last time, at least for a while, that Julie sees the upper end of that see saw. Congratulations to Ryan for a well played strategy. But folks, let’s not give up on Julie quite yet. That fire in her eyes remains.