October 26, 2024
After spending most our South Dakota time in the western and central parts of the state, we ventured to the eastern edge of the state for our 5K. Our South Dakota 5K took us to Sioux Falls, and back into the Central Time Zone after six weeks of wandering through the Mountain, Pacific, and Alaska Time Zones.
When we rolled into Pasley Park to find costumed people in running shoes, we knew we were in the right place for the Trick or Treat Trail Run, an event that featured a 5K, a 10K, and a kids Candy Dash, and whose proceeds would benefit Special Olympics of South Dakota.
Though billed as a trail run, the 5K was actually a paved path run. The mostly flat out and back race followed the meanders of the Big Sioux River beside trees and green park fields. Because the race was an out and back, we got to high five each other as we crossed paths.
The 10K started 15 minutes ahead of the 5K, doing its own out and back along the same path. The 15-minute differential was small enough that 10K runners were overlapping 5K runners near the end of the race.
Julie finished 71st of 257 overall, and Ryan finished 19th of 257 overall. There was no age group tracking, so we don’t know how we placed in our respective age groups.
The overall winner brought some heat, finishing in 18:21, running a 5:55 pace and finishing a full minute ahead of the 2nd place runner. The top female finished in 22:01, a 7:06 pace, and came in 8th overall.
The 10K winners ran a faster pace than the 5K winners for both the men and the women. The top male 10K runner averaged a 5:45 per mile pace, compared to a 5:55 pace for the top male 5K runner. The top female 10K runner averaged a 6:59 per mile pace, compared to a 7:06 pace for the top female 5K runner.
Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds
Ryan’s goal for this race was, once again, to run no slower than eight minute miles. As long as he maintained that, as per usual, he would simply run what felt easy and not push anything. It was a fall day with a slight chill in the air – the type that is no fun to start running in, but perfect once the blood gets pumping. He started closer to the front of the race and easily maintained his intended pace with an average of 7:29 per mile, which gave him a 23:14 total.
In the middle of the first mile he heard someone huffing and puffing coming up behind him. It turned out to be a woman in her mid to late 50s, huffing and puffing in a way that usually means a person is running faster than they’ll be able to maintain. When she passed Ryan he thought, “She’ll be back.” He didn’t see her again for the rest of the race.
There was another guy that burst forward past Ryan at a speed that Ryan knew was likely not maintainable. Ryan passed him when the guy started to walk, thinking that he wouldn’t see that guy again. But he did see him again, about 500 yards before the finish line when the guy burst by him. They chatted for a bit after the race as Ryan went up to congratulate him on gutting it out at the end. The guy clarified he was a basketball player, not a runner. He didn’t know much about pacing, but he had the fitness to compensate for it.
After running what she considered her dumbest race of the trip in Montana the week before, Julie was committed to finally learning the lessons that the 5Ks kept trying to teach her. She would reign in her completely inconsequential competitive drives that had been showing up race after race. Her only goal was simply to jog. That’s it. Ryan asked before the race, “So are you going to run, what, 9 minute miles?”. “I don’t know,” she said. “Might be as slow as 10 minute miles. Whatever jogging feels like.”
The race started and Julie kept repeating in her mind how little consequence or value there would be added to the world or anyone’s life for her to run faster. Just jog, she kept repeating. She wanted the low heart rate. She wanted the negative splits. She realized by now that, whatever her body was going through, she was never going to get those things by running what felt easy and comfortable. Over and over she was finding out that her fitness had worn down over the course of the trip and the only way back to that kind of fitness was to jog.
And jog she did!
She clocked in the first mile at a nice easy 9:28. In the second mile, her body loosened up and she ran a 9:04. In the third mile, she continued to jog, and her body loosened up to an 8:49. When it came to the last 0.12 miles, she clocked it in at a 6:31 pace and felt like she was barely moving with a kick that felt so easy. It was like the good old days of just going out for a run. Her average heart rate was a lovely 141. Julie crossed the finish line and felt triumphant. The best “race” she had run in a long while.
Julie’s biggest goal was to cross the finish line and not feel like she was going to vomit for the first 15 seconds over the line. Mission accomplished.
“That is how I’m going to run every race for the rest of the trip!” She told Ryan. Whatever speed she will eventually build, it is going to be from building a base that comes from runs like that.
With a slow, but respectable 28:17, she finished 71st out of 257. Nothing remarkable, but feeling like victory. After putting in her dumbest race of the trip in the prior one, she was happy to report FINALLY having learned lessons and running her smartest race of the trip. Progress.
We both finished feeling great.
Ryan 17 – Julie 8.
R and J in the USA 
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