Popeye 5K Chester IL 9-8-2007

(Marvin) I had myself talked out of running this race because of the Millstadt Biathlon being the next day, but ended up running it anyway. It is the one race that I don't have to rush to after work since I work midnights in Chester; also it is the race that I won my first age group trophy, and Dave was signed up to run and I wanted to give him another shot to beat me, so I had to do it. The weather was drizzly and warm. I checked the weatherunderground.com for that day and the temp was 75 with 94% humidity. The 94% humidity really kicked my butt half ways through the race. It was very hard to breath, and like always I was soaked with sweat. The hills in Chester are very challenging and there is little to no flat areas. I had a time of 20:19 3rd in age and 7th/125. Overall I felt good about the race and didn't want to push myself too hard, so I would have something left for the Millstadt Biathlon. Dave and I ran the together for half the race although he kept elbowing me...:) I was ready to open a can of spinach on him. Jeremy came and ran with us and Bill Freeman was there too. The Popeye race has one of the biggest walking draws for this area; 65 walkers! It just amazes me. The awards like every year take a long time. They have many attendance prizes that they draw for one at a time. I usually don't mind but the monsoon hit and it pour down rain for the rest of the morning. I wish we could have gotten a picture with Popeye and Olive, but the rain drove them away. Oh well maybe next year.


(David) Marvin surprised me at this race by running. I didn’t expect him to run, so I wasn’t going to try really hard. Last year I got first in my age group and figured I could do it again if I ran under 21 minutes. When I found out Marvin was going to run I figured I better try harder. My first mile was the fastest I have run, 5:55. The second mile was slower at 6:40. Marvin and I ran side by side for the first two miles, he actually elbowed me twice. Once I hit the mile marker I started to slow down a lot. I’m not sure if it was the hills, humidity, or the fact that I have never beat Marvin in a race before but I slowed down. My overall time was 20:36 and I did get first in my age group (35-39) and 10th out of 125. Last year my time was 20:43. I thought I would be quite a bit faster, but oh well. After the race it started raining quite a bit. There were quite a few attendance prizes given and I won one. It was a box from Gilster-Mary Lee with a bunch of food products like cake mix, cereal, macaroni and cheese, cookie dough, popcorn, chocolate syrup, etc. It is one of the better prizes I have won. I’m surprised they had all that stuff in there. I had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment so Marvin picked up my trophy. You can see the results at www.popeyerace.blogspot.com. The picture is of me, Marvin, and Jeremy.