Main Street Mile: My Humiliation is Complete

Note: if you are looking for results: flight 1 (walking), flight 2 (run), flight 3 (run), flight 4(fast runners).

My stats (6:43 official though I got 6:42): 75 (all flights) beat my time, 68 did not (excluded walkers in flight one). 7 who beat me were my age or older; 18 that were my age or older didn’t.

I talked about my feelings of doom here.

Bottom line: I warmed up with an easy mile of running (legs felt heavy!), felt better after some walk/accelerations (about 1 mile), and then lined up in the second wave.

Yes, I started off too hard (going down hill) and hit the half way point in 3:10; a bit too fast. I started to get “joggy” and when I was close to 5:00 at 1200 meters I knew I had to pick it up some; I was gaining on many in my heat but got passed a few times as well.

My finish time (my watch) was 6:42; we’ll see what the chips say.

Then I watched the last heat (the fast people); they ranged from 4:04 to 6:10. About 9-10 years ago, I would have been bringing up the rear of that group.

I got to talk to many including Lou Murray (a 70 something year old triathlete), Larry McMasters (who is recovering from injuries), The Big Willi Style and to my yoga teacher (afterward).

So, 6:42 on a down hill course. Next mission: to do this time on a track.

Note: it is cool running down main street; if you can make this event, DO IT!!!

Note 2: Was it 2001 when I averaged this pace for 5K? 1999 when I averaged this for 10K??? Groan…

Updates

Article One:

PEORIA —

Tony Jenkins had a few C.H.O.I.C.E. words Thursday night for Main Street Mile announcer George Jacob.

“Four categories,” race staffer Jenkins told the city councilman on the spot at the intersection of Main and Adams Street.

“Walkers.

“Fast runners.

“Faster runners.

“Fastest runners.”

A total of 187 participants in the aforementioned four heats started the Main Street Mile near Main and Sheridan Road and finished a couple of blocks short of the riverfront.

A drop in elevation from 600 feet at the start to 490 feet at the finish increased the likelihood faster than usual times could be had by all.

“That downhill was amazing,” said Metamora Township High School alumnus Nikki Domico, 24, who traveled from Bloomington to compete in the fundraiser for the Peoria Area Track & Field Club and the C.H.O.I.C.E.S. Youth Outreach program.

“I was actually kind of taking it easy, because I was scared I was going to fall,” Domico said. “Once you got to the bottom (of Main Street hill), I’m like, ‘I got nothing to lose, I might as well go all out.’

“The worst that’s going to happen is I’m going to throw up, and that’s OK.”

Domico was the first female finisher in the fastest heat.

But the Illinois State University graduate student took a backseat Thursday to the first person to cross the finish line in the second of the four heats.

That was Tammy Bryan, 36, who was pushed from the start by Main Street Mile promoter Adam White.

Bryan arrived in style, riding in a fire-engine red push chair that arrived Thursday from Adaptive Star in Selah, Wash.

Bryan’s time was 5 minutes, more than 10 seconds faster than Domico’s performance.[...]

Article Two:

PEORIA —

Nobody in Peoria broke a four-minute mile Thursday, despite trucking down Main Street hill as fast as their feet could carry them.

But somebody in the next Main Street Mile might.

Word gets out. People come. …

“This is an event for the future,” Peoria City Councilman Eric Turner predicted, standing on the corner of Main and Sheridan, about 30 minutes before 187 men, women and children took off to see how fast they could get downtown to the intersection of Main and Adams, one mile away.

Turner might be right.

I initially wondered who would enter such an event. Serious runners, yes. Young legs with big egos driving them. That makes sense.

But I did not expect the CityLink buses that rolled up to the front door of the Running Central store, hard by the starting line. The doors opened, and out stepped all kinds of people. Old men, rotund men, little children in soccer shirts, middle-aged women, hot mamas.

That’s right, “Hot Mamas.” So said the fronts of hot pink T-shirts worn by three women from East Peoria: Christa Tucker, a mother of two; Christy Decker, a mother of three, and Julie Burwell, mother of one. The backs of their shirts declared they “Run Like Mothers.”

“We thought this would be a really cool experience,” Tucker said. “It’s all downhill. Our goal is to stay on our feet and not crash and burn.”

At this, they succeeded.

(photo from the Peoria Journal Star)