Heart of Michigan

I ran a 5K race this morning, the "Heart of Michigan," which kind of took the place of last spring's "Heart of a Spartan" that Michigan State University declined to host again this year. (The story I heard was that the President of the University was inconvenienced by the closing of roads around her house for the race.) It was in Lansing, proceeding westward down Michigan Avenue, and ending at the Capitol building (hence the name). With Lansing being about an hour's drive from us, and the race at 8:30, I wanted to leave myself plenty of extra time so I wouldn't have to rush either in Ann Arbor or on the road, and thus I rose a few minutes before 5 AM, and was out the door by about 5:45. After stopping for gas, this put me up in Lansing around 7:00. Lansing Community College had kindly offered to let us park for free in their parking structure, so I got myself situated, and then went in to pick up my race packet (my bib number and t-shirt) ... and in that building, began my experience in Lansing happily, when a smiling man walked up to me and said, "Hi - I'm Will. I know you because I work at Running Fit in Ann Arbor (where I buy my shoes)." And then looking at my shirt, he said, "Oh, I see you've run the Big House Big Heart in Ann Arbor ... and I remember you running the Heart of a Spartan last year, too." After I picked up my stuff, I retreated to the car to read for a while, and then about 7:45 caught one of the buses they were providing to transport us to the start (at Dunham's, near Frandor Mall). On the way up, it had been raining lightly, and I hoped it would stop ... but no such luck. A light rain continued during my 20-minute warmup jog, for which I had plenty of time, and then for the start of the race, too. But sometime during the race it tapered off, because by the end it had stopped. I was sure I couldn't challenge my 29:14 5K personal record, but even so, I was disappointed in the 34:34 my watch showed me. (Official chip times will be posted on the website tonight.) I would have beaten the PR if the race had only been straight down Michigan Avenue ending at the Capitol, as I had originally been told, as I did that in 28:34; but once we got there, we had to do a (clockwise) loop around the Capitol itself - 4 larger-than-average blocks. Anyway, after walking the 8 blocks or so back to my car, and then making the leisurely drive home, I walked in the door about 10:45, after having had a good morning's workout.