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Comments: Mile 1:8:19 – Sort of a rolling first mile, with more gain in elevation than loss. Really wasn’t as congested as I thought it would be, and found a comfortable pace without having to do much dodging. Saw the first free beer sign at mile 0.1 “Free beer – 9.2 miles) Mile 2: 8:37; 16:56OA – Had to stop for a bathroom break, hoping the extra 30 sec. wouldn’t come back to haunt me at the finish. This was the “International Mile” since so many immigrants live along this section of the course. There was an Irish Band, a Bosnian band, Polish dancers, and best of all, two locations with belly dancers. This stretch of the course is flat and wide open, so seeing the belly dancers sort of took my mind off how hot it was getting (or maybe it was the belly dancers that was making me warm) Mile 3: 8:04 25:01OA – Still feeling really good and running the hills strong, this mile starts the climb towards the golf course and the highest elevation along the course. Come through the 5k in 25:54. Pace feels really easy. Mile 4: 8:16 33:17OA – UGH the climb through the golf course, all uphill the entire mile. Trying to maintain a steady effort, by shortening stride and using my arms to “pull” me up the hill. Over a minute off pace at this point, but with a long downhill coming up, still not panicking yet. Look down to my right, and you can see where you just came from, and see masses of runners headed up to the golf course. It’s amazing to see so many people. Mile 5:7:06 40:24OA – That’s what I’m talking about, all downhill for this mile. Just lean a little bit down the hill and let gravity do it’s thing. Just before the end of the mile I saw a guy lying on the ground screaming in pain holding his knee, not sure if he fell, or tore something or what, but he was in a lot of pain. Mile 6:7:49 48:14OA – Consciously starting to work a little harder now, definitely notice the increase in perceived exertion. Lost about 15 sec. during this mile, when I saw a cop and an ambulance at one of the intersections, and stopped to tell them about the runner down about a ½ mile back up the course. A little good karma can’t hurt. Mile 7: 8:06 56:20 OA – UGH all uphill again on this mile, and its wide open with about 6 lanes of pavement. Strategically, I have my family meet me just at the start of this mile, which gives me a huge boost. Stop for a kiss from my son and wife (daughter decided to sleep in) and on we go. Through the second 5k in 23:59. Huge crowd of people at the end of this mile, standing 3 and 4 rows deep, really helps pull you up the last section of the hill. Mile 8: 7:26 1:03:47 OA – All down hill and finally under PR pace, slap high fives with the guy on the stilts (it’s a tradition for me). By now my shoes and socks are pretty much water logged with all the water I’ve been pouring on me, and I can feel it squishing in my shoes with each stride. Time to put the hammer down at the end of the hill and finish the last mile strong Mile 9: 7:44 1:11:32 OA – Damn, I forgot how much this mile is a slow gradual climb. Start looking for people ahead of me to start picking off. Run by a crowd of kids and slap high fives with all of them (about 20). Huge crowds along this stretch of road. At the end of the mile, all I’m thinking is don’t fall down and you’ll have it. Finish: 2:13 1:13:45 OA. – Yes, a PR by over a minute, fastest time in 3 years, however, now I feel like I want to throw up. Find a chair to sit down in and take my chip off, and feel better after a couple of minutes. Get some ice for inside the front and back of the shirt and make my way down to the Party. What would you do differently?: Absolutely nothing. Pacing was perfect. The first half of the race is the hardest, and I didn’t panic when I started falling behind goal pace. Patiently waited knowing there were sections I could make up time. I figured I left about an additional minute out on the course with the bathroom stop, stopping to talk to the police about the injured runner and stopping to see my family.  Post race
Warm down: Ah where to begin…a popsicle on the way to the party, then some chocolate chip cookies, and a few 16 oz. curls of free beer. Best post race party anywhere. Live music, F-16 fly over and fireworks…oh…and FREE BEER. Event comments: Seriously, this is a race that everyone has to do once. It’s the best run, best organized, best post race party anywhere. The whole city comes out for the race, all 9.3 miles are lined with people. Last updated: 2007-07-10 12:00 AM
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United States
Boilermaker 15K Road Race
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1995/10882
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 223/829
This is my 11th consecutive year doing this race, so I pretty much have the pre-race route down. This year there was no cut off on registration since it was the 30th anniversary and they ended up with over 12,000 runners. This race is billed as the largest 15k race in the US.
Saturday morning was the kids fun run. They have races from a ¼ mile to a mile, depending on how old you are. Of course my son and daughter weren’t racing the same distance, so there was a big fight as to who was going to get to run with dad. Ended up solving that problem by agreeing to run with both of them, which required me to run ½ mile with my daughter, then run back to the ¾-mile start, and then run ¾ of a mile with my son. My daughter finished in just over 5 min. for her race, which was a lot quicker than I thought she would. I kept asking her if she wanted to slow down, and finally she told me that she could run just as fast as the boys could and that she was going to beat them. My son ended up running 6:34 for his ¾-mile run, which is about 8:45 pace, which really surprised me. After he got done, I asked him if he was tired, and he said no, and that he wanted to run the 15k tomorrow. So we agreed that maybe next year, if he trained, that we could run the 5k race together.
After the race, headed over to the expo and picked up my packet and race schwag. The best part about race schwag is the beer glass that they had out every year, with the logo for that year. These are heavy duty beer glasses that don’t break. These are pretty much the only glasses we have in the house now since they last so long.
The rest of the day was spent helping my FIL work on replacing some siding on his house, then we all went out for a great Italian dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours.
Woke up at 5:30, had a bowl of Apple Jacks, read the paper and packed the car for the 20 min. ride to the race. Stopped for a large coffee and a bottle of Gatorade on the way and parked at the usual parking spot about a mile from the start. Hung out at the car until about 7:30 worrying about how warm it was going to get during the race and whether I should bring any extra endurolytes. Decided to take two with me, to take just before the race, along with some hammergel and that would be it. Jogged the mile to the start, got into my corral, looked back at all the people behind me (12600 registered runners), and thought aloud that I was glad I wasn’t in the back. The cannon went off exactly at 8:00 (this race always starts on time) and we were off. I noticed just before the start, that the cloud cover had started to break up, and you could feel the heat starting to rise. I decided I would take water whenever I could (there are over 25 water stops along the course), and just try to stay as cool as possible by dumping water on me. Goal for the race was to beat PR of 1:14:47, figured I would need to hold 8:00 min pace to get there.