R and J in the USA

August 10, 2024

Many 5Ks are part of larger events. Our Michigan 5K, for example, was part of a weekend Ribfest. For our Wisconsin 5K, the larger event was the 67^th Annual Musky Jamboree, an event that also included live music, a car show, a flea market, an arts & crafts show, an airplane fly-in, a musky fishing workshop, and the featured event – a musky fishing tournament.

The Jamboree took place in the Musky Capital of the World – Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. Situated in the tree-carpeted, lake-dappled northeastern part of the state, Boulder Junction is within ten miles of 200 lakes, and is itself nearly 20% covered with lakes. This makes it a perfect place for a fishing tournament. And its home county’s 50+ miles of paved bike trails, hundreds of miles of hiking trails, and active population make it a great location for a running race.

This was a local race that drew a largely local field. It had the feeling of a tight-knit community event. The upbeat spirit of the runners, organizers, and spectators made the gray sky look a little brighter and the 50-degree air feel a little warmer. 190 people lined up for the race, many in long sleeves on a Saturday that felt more like an October evening than an August morning.

Beginning and ending at a small park on the edge of town that consisted of a baseball diamond, two tennis courts, a small playground, and a pavilion, the race followed a gently rolling road and trail loop course.

Having done over a dozen 5Ks on this trip so far, it’s common to see some kids aged 12 and younger in a race. Notable in this race is how many there were and how well they did. There were eighteen boys and girls of that age in the race. Twelve of them ran a pace of 10:00 per mile or better and finished in the top half of the field. And they looked like they knew how to run three miles. Instead of running hard in spurts then slowing down or walking, which is often what happens with kids that age, many of them ran steady the whole race.

I commented on this to someone with whom we struck up a conversation. He said, “This is an active area up here. People are outdoorsy. They are active. They walk. They hike. They bike. They cross country ski and snowshoe in the winter. They live a physical life style.”

This wasn’t the fastest of all the races we’ve run, but it still had some decent runners. The overall winner and clocked in at 18:41, a 6:01 per mile pace, and the top female finisher crossed the line in 22:15, a 7:10 pace. (Overall race results here.)

Julie and Ryan both finished 2^nd in their age group, with Ryan finishing 26^th of 190 overall and Julie finishing 39^th overall.

Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds

It had now been 2 wonderfully relaxing weeks in Michigan since our last race. This was the longest time between races that we’d had since the start of our 5Ks in 50 States (and one federal district) adventure had begun just 2 months prior. While we both did a bit of running, biking and swimming in the intervening weeks, we had what might look like a taper to anyone who had been training for an A race. Since our time before this 2 weeks was not exactly a skillful training run up, there was no sense what kind of shape we’d be in after a two week respite. We came into the race well-rested and ready to find out.

Julie and Ryan started out next to each other for a short bit before Ryan started to slowly pull away fairly early in mile 1. According to Julie’s Garmin the race course was a bit long, coming in at 3.18 miles. So, if you trust Julie’s watch, she ran a pretty consistent race pace averaging 8:15s. If you trust the race results, she ran an 8:31. Either way, she was happy to have some degree of speed accessible in her legs and the ability to hold it fairly consistently. According to her watch, lap 1 was 8:18, lap 2 was 8:14 and though she desperately tried to get negative splits, she really started to feel the hurt in the last mile and clocked in with an 8:25 for mile 3. And she was working quite hard to maintain even that. With an average heart rate over the course of the race of 163, the pattern that she would notice for many races following Wisconsin was just this, a nice easy heart rate at the beginning and then having to work harder and harder to maintain even though the pace still felt easy for her legs. So, while the first mile had heart rates in the 140s, the last mile she was circling 181 for a large part of it. Not ideal, but still a fairly strong race experience for her nonetheless.

There was one significant turn to make on the race course. Ryan was running maybe 200 yards ahead of Julie for much of the early part of the race that laid out on one long road, so he was quite visible ahead of her. When he went to make the turn, he turned back at Julie to make sure she saw the turn signaling her the proper direction when it came her time to make the same move. Julie laughed, smiled and gave him the thumbs up across the distance. This one would have been quite difficult to miss amongst the throngs of racers filling this mile long stretch of road all taking a sharp right turn into the woods, but Julie still appreciated Ryan looking out for her amidst a reputation that she had now earned. Julie easily made the turn and arrived at the finish line with only 5K under her belt. A wonderful added accomplishment. While she had enough for a pick up for the last .12 miles, it hurt more than usual and when she crossed the finish line she unceremoniously said out loud, “Ouch”, which got an understanding laugh from a spectator.

Ryan’s race reflected this new phase he was in of both being loose, well-conditioned and now running like he was racing easily laying down negative splits with lots of distance between each other. His Garmin also measured the course as long, coming in at 3.19 miles. If you trust his watch, he delivered an average of 7:52 pace. If you believe the race timer, it was an 8:04. By his watch he clocked in mile 1 at an 8:19, mile 2 at a 7:43 and mile 3 at a 7:37. Whatever data you believe, he ran strong and steady through the slightly rolling course and came in across the finish line at 25:10.

And, here in Wisconsin, another milestone was passed. Julie and Ryan passed through the fulcrum of their race journey. Ryan 7 – Julie 7. A lovely, if not temporary, moment of marital competitive balance.