Popeye 5K Chester IL 9-6-2008

(Marvin) This year we got the picture with Popeye and Olive unlike last year when it poured down rain after the race. The weather was great 65 degrees in the morning and a north wind. I had the Millstadt biathlon on my mind because in was the next day, so like last year I was apprehensive of running Popeye before Millstadt. I went ahead and ran the Popeye 5K just like I will in the coming years because it is in the same town that I work in, and it happens right after I get off of work. The course is a hilly one, and I was feeling the lack of hill training when I was climbing the last hill of the race. I guess now I'll start running hills again in my training. This is a race where I see a lot of familiar faces. I talked to so many people afterwards that I had a hard time listening to the awards and attendance prizes being announced. I was lucky with the attendance prize, and won a cartoon drawing of Popeye as a STL Cardinal hitting a baseball out of the park. As for the awards I came in first in age 30-34 6th overall and a time of 19:25. Pretty good race this year, I'm pleased with my time and I like the shirts with the theme this year being pirates.


(David) I really like the Popeye race. They always have a big crowd, give out nice trophies, have good t-shirts, and give out a lot of attendance prizes. It is a decent course, hilly but not horrible. I wish the day was different. It is always the day before Millstadt Biathlon, oh well. I put more emphasis on this race than Millstadt, I’ll write about that in the next blog. This year I wanted to beat last year’s time of 20:36. I felt I could have done better. This year I wanted to be in the 19’s. I wasn’t sure if I could, considering the hills. They are not huge hills, but hills none the less. I tried to keep up with Marvin but he lost me after mile two. I think a lot of my problems are mental. I start thinking I am hurting or that I can’t run as fast. I think this started happening before mile two but really kicked in when Marvin started pulling ahead of me. I think I could have been faster but in the end I did accomplish my goal of getting in the 19’s, barely, with 19:56. I also got first in age 35-39 and seventh out of 138. I was happy with that but thought I should have been closer to Marvin’s time. I did not win an attendance prize this year, unlike last year when I got a really nice prize from Gilster’s. This year’s race was special because we got our picture taken with Popeye and Olive Oyl. We had talked about this the last couple years but never got the chance.