All about Ele's Race 5K + results

Yesterday was Ele's Race 5K, but I wanted to give some info about it. There's no info on the website about how the race was formed, so I'll go with what I remember...

The race is in honor of a girl named Ellen Osborn, who died while getting her tonsils removed because she had a very very rare reaction to one of the meds they gave her. At the time, I think it was 1995 and she was about to head into the 6th grade. She was actually a week younger than me, and the race is always held at the end of July around her birthday. Her parents formed the 5K, which started at the elementary school she went to and wound through the streets of her neighborhood, and they appropriately named it Ellen's Race. This race is the first 5K I've ever run (in 2001) and I did it in 20:53...I've improved a bit since then :) It's fun because it's well organized and a TON of people run it. The only bad part is that it's usually very hot and/or very humid, so race performances tend to suffer.

Early in 2005, Ellen's parents decided to move to Missouri, and since they felt that there would be no more use for the race since none of Ellen's relatives were left in town, they decided to discontinue it. Little did they know, a bunch of runners didn't want the race to disappear. Enter Ele's Place. It's a place for grieiving children to talk to somebody about the life's daily battles, and they spearheaded the whole thing. They switched the name from Ellen's Race to Ele's Race, kept the same course and date, and the rest is history.

Last year's race, the first one with the new name, was one of the most eventful races I have run. While I was warming up, I saw the sky was getting darker and darker, and eventually about 15 minutes before the race, the race directors made everybody come into the small school gym because we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. Just great! A good warmup for nothing. No worries....might as well enjoy listening to the band playing while sitting in front of the fan....that is, until the power went out! No power + a ton of people crammed into a small gym = a very humid environment. Eventually the rain subsided and the race got under way about an hour and a half late, but it ended up being a success as usual. I ran a 17:51, which was surprising because it was so humid after the rain, but I'll definitely take it.

This years race was sponsored by Jackson National Life Insurance Company, so they moved the race to their headquarters about 15 minutes southeast of where the race had always been held. I wanted to go watch the race but wasn't able to due to my internship, so I got info from the results page as well as some details from my buddy BJ. Oh what a race it was...BJ said the course was flat and fast, as he came in 3rd with a time of 16:09. The winner was a 15 year old who clocked in at 15:35, beating the second place guy by 17 seconds (15:52). Can you imagine how fast that kid will be in high school cross country the next couple years?! The craziness doesn't stop there....the female winner came in 7th overall with an unbelievable time of 16:20. BJ talked to her after the race, and apparently she's a senior at U of Michigan and is the second best female 5K runner in the nation. He also said she was like 4'8", 80 pounds, and very good looking....but possibly has a big boyfriend. Haha, oh well.

As for me, today I ran an easy 3 miles early this morning, and everything felt good. Really that's all I can say about it, it was that uneventful. Time for me to get a good night's rest...