The Weekend of Two Races

Asia ran a 5K on Saturday and a 10K on Sunday. She was supposed to run 10 miles with her team on Saturday, but chose to run the Discover Milan Day 5K. This is the 3rd such race, put on by Asia's cross country coach from high school days. It's a good chance to run with the current crop of Coach Porter's elite runners as well as other folks in Milan who just like to run.

Following the race is a pancake breakfast.........which is not Asia's preferred race day breakfast, even tho she loves pancakes. On race days, Asia wants scrambled eggs with sausage.....and not just any sausage..........Jimmy Dean's Hot sausage. No bagles and peanut butter for this kid, uh uh. No banana and toast, no way. Sausage and eggs, and maybe a little fruit, if we have home canned peaches, or the canteloupe is especially fresh and tasty. And Asia is not one to eat breakfast twice, so we were stuck with waiting for the pancakes. Pancakes are closer to her normal PRACTICE breakfast of French toast.

Anyway, the morning was cool, but dry and clear. The runners took off about 7:30, and Asia was done in 25:04, which is closer to her daily running pace than her race pace. No PR, but she did place 2nd in her age group and got a medal and a hug from her old coach. It was a good morning, followed by pancakes!!

On Sunday was the 30th Annual Burns Park Run, in Ann Arbor. Asia has run this race several times, and last year PR'd there. There is a 5K run, which several of her teammates ran, and a 10K, which Asia and several more teammates ran. The course loops thru beautiful Burns Park and is very spectator friendly, which *I* like! This time we had the correct race day breakfast........sausage scrambled with eggs and a few slices of home-canned peaches, before driving up to Ann Arbor. Asia lined up with some of her buddies, and after some chip/mat issues, they took off. Jerry, Grizz, and I took off for the first spot to see the race. Asia always runs faster when we/others cheer for her, so we try to place ourselves around the course for maximum cheering advantage. And we're not above enlisting total strangers to cheer for her too! Gives her that little extra kick. We saw her 3 times before the end of the first loop at 5k, and her time was already better than the 5k the day before. She was looking good, and each time we cheered, she sped up. On the second loop, she was closing in on some of the faster runners from her team, and by the finish, or 400 yards from the finish, she still had a good kick, because when she saw Jerry up ahead taking pictures, she blasted past Heather. (To be fair, Heather had just done a Duathalon the day before! On a good day, no way Asia would have gotten that close.) Heather closed the gap as they blew past me to the finish. Asia beat Heather by 1 second. Heather was first in her age group and Asia was 3rd in hers. Andrea, another from the team, was the first female overall! And Michael finished 3rd in his age group. It was a great showing for the Running Fit 501 team!

And I learned not to mess with Race Day Breakfast!