R and J in the USA

September 7, 2024

If you measured our 5K times from when we first crossed the starting line to when we last crossed the finish line, today’s 5K running took us over three hours. That may seem like a long time, but between those first and last crossings were 120 miles, a two-hour drive, and a border river.

Because of a confluence of geography, itinerary, and 5K availability, this sunny Saturday morning found us running back-to-back 5Ks in neighboring states. We ran one 5K at 8:30 AM in Minnesota, followed by another in North Dakota at 11:45 AM.

The first race of the day was the Dick Beardsley 5K in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Taking place smack dab in the middle of west central Minnesota’s lake region, the 5K is one component of the annual Dick Beardsley Races, which also include a half marathon, a 10K, and a youth run.

The event is named for former Detroit Lakes resident, native Minnesotan, and one-time world class marathoner Dick Beardsley. Beardsley won the 1981 London Marathon and took 2^nd place in the 1982 Boston Marathon, in which he was edged out by Alberto Salazar by a mere 1.6 seconds – which is a nanosecond in the context of a marathon. Beardsley and Salazar both bested the previous American record and came within 35 seconds of the existing world record in that race.

Beardsley’s running success took a back seat to a series of life challenges in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. During that span he was sucked into a corn auger, was in a severe car accident, was hit by a truck while running, rolled his car in a snow storm, and fell off a cliff while hiking when the ground gave out beneath him. Each of these accidents caused severe injury, some of them life-threatening. The Dick Beardsley races honor Beardsley’s perseverance in the face of these challenges as much as, if not more than, they honor his running accomplishments.

The race started and finished beside Washington Ballpark Field, a baseball field dating back to the turn of the century. Not the one 24 years ago. The one before that. The course was a flat out and back that paralleled the north shore of Detroit Lake.

Knowing we’d be running a second 5K later in the morning, we both decided to take it easy in this race. This made for a different 5K experience than we were used to. Running at a relaxed, intentionally slow pace allows one see outside the tunnel vision of race focus and take in the scenery along the course. And what we saw was a Norman Rockwell scene of Saturday town activity. People walking along the lakeshore. Families enjoying the park. The football team practicing at the high school field. We ran by tennis courts, shops, and lakeside houses on tree-lined streets. It turns out 5Ks can be kind of pleasant when you’re not torching your lungs and slobbering stringy spittle.

We did a good job of taking it easy, running side-by-side at a comfortable pace for most of the race. Until Julie smelled the finish line, that is. When Julie sees a finish line, she turns into a tail-wagging puppy dog who has to have her treat NOW. And she expends every last bit of energy frantically trying to get that treat. Ryan, on the other hand, has no problem with even flow. As a result, Julie gained 17 seconds on Ryan in the final quarter mile.

Julie’s burst propelled her to a 2^nd place finish in her age group out of 33, and a 45^th place overall finish out of 244. Ryan finished 6^th of 18 in his age group and 48^th of 244 overall. Full results here.

We may not have won our age groups, but we were national front runners. Removing participants from Minnesota and North Dakota, we were the top two finishers out of all runners from 48 different states. That’s 96% of the country! Granted, that group only included seven runners, but finishing 1^st and 2^nd out of 96% of the states in the country? That’s got to be worth something.

While it was nice that we finished 1^st and 2^nd nationally (excluding Minnesota and North Dakota participants), our race didn’t end at the finish line. After grabbing a bottle of water, we beelined to our van for the two-hour drive to Grand Forks, ND, for our second 5K of the morning.

Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds

We headed into the morning of our race in Detroit Lakes pretty psyched for the task in front of us. Our first doubleheader. We both had our minds set on running our Minnesota race like a warm up jog and treating our later morning 5K as the real race. If you haven’t caught onto the pattern yet, Ryan succeeded at this, Julie, not as much.

She thought she succeeded, but in the middle of the North Dakota race she found out that, in fact, she had not. This was largely because she wasn’t paying attention to her heart rate throughout the race. Even though she was running what felt like a fairly easy pace, her average heart rate was 172, and that drained her battery more than she had hoped.

We enjoyed the first race where we ran together ALMOST the whole time. Julie started out a little slower than Ryan, clocking in a 9:14 for mile 1 to his 8:55. Then, somewhere in mile 2, she caught up to him with an 8:54 to his 8:59. For mile 3, Ryan and Julie ran side by side at an 8:46. Julie was feeling great, like she had hit the perfect stride, a nice slow race that she could easily maintain (and finally get back to some negative splits). Ryan was feeling nice and relaxed the whole run, just letting his legs loosen up in prep for our next 5K.

Julie was loving the chance to run alongside her speed demon husband and started to feel romantic about crossing the finish line together. Then, after passing the mile 3 marker and seeing the finish line in the near distance, Julie was ready to pick it up a touch as per usual. “Ready to pick it up a bit?” She asked Ryan. “No. I’m gonna stay steady. But you go ahead.” If only Julie’s romantic visions were stronger than that dang competitive spark. If only Julie’s ability to be prudent and follow the wisdom of her prudent husband was stronger than the urge to kick it to the finish line. But then Julie thought, I gotta! She picked it up and clocked in a 27:45 to Ryan’s 27:58. Well, that’s one more tick in the win category for Julie.

When the race was done and she realized she just let the chance to cross the finish line together go, she realized, perhaps, she lost more than she gained. That said, Ryan 10 – Julie 8. Alas, the adventure continues, and onwards we went, having loved our short time in Detroit Lakes and feeling invigorated for our double feature!