Race Preview: 42nd Annual Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA Half Marathon + Family 5K Walk & Run

Event: 42nd Annual Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA Half Marathon + Family 5K Walk & Run
Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010
Location: South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona
Previous Results: First time at this event for me. 2009 results for the curious. Course map.

It is family mini-vacation time. For five brief days we'll be in one of the rare places in the world where I can actually relax. It's amazing how I simply decompress the very moment we step outside of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. I love it in Arizona.

It is the oldest footrace in Arizona. Wyatt Earp starts the half-marathon race with a double barrel shot gun in the tradition of the old west. The proceeds benefit the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA Strong Kids Campaign. This fundraising effort provides resources for inner city youth and Teen Center programs, as well as financial assistance for children to learn how to swim, experience day and overnight camp, and learn important values and life skills.
 
This will be my last running event of the year. I'll have only one event left in 2010 after this, a duathlon in Ft. Worth, Texas on November 14. For this Arizona race I'll be doing the 5K event as will the Well Kept Wife™ and the Boy®. So the whole family will once again be racing just as we did recently in Fargo.
 
Also joining in on the fun will be fellow Jamestown High School class of '79 alum, Tom Ohe. Tom and I ran together on the two Class A state championship ('77, '78) cross country teams. Two Blue Jays once again dominating the field? We'll see!
 
I won't be setting any goals for this one. Of course, I'll be striving to do my best and have a great effort. But it is a vacation after all and I don't want the added pressure of setting a time goal. It should be fun just to cheer on my family and friends as this is an out-and-back course. Apparently the 5K is uphill for the first half, then of course, downhill on the return. Should be interesting. Tom e-mailed me to say he thought the course reminded him of a certain cross country meet in Medora, North Dakota circa 1978.

If you have never been to western North Dakota, that is Badlands country. Sort of a miniature Grand Canyon. Flat..flat...flat...BOOM!...big mesa's, hills, and culverts. This meet had us essentially running a mile to a monster hill, climb it, turn around and come back down. It was a tough, tough course. Too bad the team didn't fare very well.

The Jamestown Blue Jay 7th/8th grade boys won. The 9th grade boys won. The girls won. The junior varsity won. And the varsity won. Tom and I ran on the JV team that day (the team was loaded). We did OK, I guess. If taking the first six spots and seven of the first ten spots is considered "OK".

Tom is 3rd from the left. I'm 4th from left.

Getting our trophies.

In any event, I'll be relaxed. I'll be happy. I'll be in my element. Like I said, I love Arizona and hope to live there for a portion of the year some day. We have even taken to doing some Southwest themed decorating in our house. Maybe I'll even come back with a permanent tattoo similar to the temporary Henna tattoo I picked up at the Minnesota State Fair this past summer. This little guy is pretty much seen everywhere in the Southwest.

In any event, we'll have a blast. We'll tackle one of the Seven Summits of Phoenix as well. We tackled Camelback Mountain in 2006, Lookout Mountain in 2008, and Piestewa Peak in March of 2010. Maybe we'll tackle South Mountain on this trip a few days before the race at the same venue. But we definitely be going on family desert hikes along with some Geocaching as well.

Wish us luck!
Appendix:
 
This will be the second event in a row that will be using the ChronoTrack system. You must be wearing your "D-Tag" correctly in order to be timed. For future reference for anyone who needs to know how to attach this unusual tag, please follow the instructions below.