Manheim is a short commute, only 35 minutes from home. I was able to find the registration area quickly once in Manheim. It was at a car wash on Rt 72. I was pre-registered for this race so I picked up my goodie bag and promptly headed for my car. I needed to walk the mile to the beginning of the race, which when walking, takes me about 20 to 25 minutes to traverse.
The town has a parade which coincides with this run. Its called a Farm Show parade. As I am walking back the race route I noticed there are dozens upons dozens of lawn chairs lining both sides of the road. I also noticed I will be running downhill for the last half mile of the race.
I made a turn onto High street, located at the square in Manheim and kept walking. And walking. It seemed like we were running much longer than a mile, but the course actually measured out to be very accurate. My watch beeped with my last split for a mile about six feet after I passed the finish line. Ironically, the race also began at a car wash. The Manheim area is home to a very large auto auction facility so its stands to reason there are more car wash businesses than usual in this area.
When you add the five gender-aged banded heats together you probably had in the vicinity of 150 runners in total. I was running in a male over aged 40 heat, the fourth of five heats for the evening and was scheduled to go off at 6:38 pm.
Most of the time the runners in a race are a normal lot. There was one runner in the race who was cast from a different mold. The man was in his late 50' s or early 60's and was only wearing short shorts, sneakers, and a clear plastic poncho to break the wind. There comes a time in everyone's life when you need to cover up in public.
My heat probably only consisted of twenty to twenty five men. It is a little awkward waiting for the race to begin. You don't know anyone and you are in a competition. I would classify myself as a recreational runner, and was among some very good athletes. It's a testament to good health for anyone individual over 40 running a mile sprint.
I had set up my watch to display my splits at quarter mile intervals. It was very dark during the race and as a result I did not review any of my watch split times during the race. There was a split clock on the course at the half mile point. I hit the clock at 3 minutes and 10 seconds. This was a good split, as I had purposely held back the first half mile in order to conserve energy for the last half mile.
At about the 3/4 mile mark, right in front of the town's fire station, a muscle in my right calf popped. I had to alter my stride quickly to minimize the pain. I had been running at a great pace until this time. As I am running now, I hear a man gasping and gasping for air coming up behind me.
Typically when you hear someone gasping for air, they are in bad straits and in the midst of falling back in the pack. This gentleman was gaining on me as I could hear his gasps become increasingly louder. I never turned around, because it was no concern who was behind me nor would I have known the man had I looked.
As it turns out, the man scared me into running a very fast last quarter mile. I pretended I was being chased and ran as fast as I could to avoid being caught. The ruse worked as I sailed through the finish line sprinting.
My finishing time was in the range of 6:25 to 6:30. I am still awaiting official confirmation. I was very pleased with the outcome as I had beat my 6 minutes and 30 seconds goal. I was disappointed because I was injured again.
As soon as I got home I iced my right calf for nearly an hour.
I called the Manheim Central Recreational organization at 717 664-7506. The results of all the races are to be posted on Monday October 12th on http://www.mcrec.org
Here are the results of the male aged 40-49 group ...
| Ricke | Ray | 48 | M | 05:42.9 |
| Nissley | Rod | 44 | M | 05:55.5 |
| Winters | David | 48 | M | 05:59.7 |
| Howe | Tom | 43 | M | 06:13.0 |
| Evans | Jeff | 46 | M | 06:26.5 |
| Germer | John | 41 | M | 06:36.1 |
| Tarallo | Paul | 48 | M | 06:47.5 |
| Bucher | Alan | 42 | M | 06:53.4 |
| Eshleman | Nathan | 44 | M | 07:06.4 |
| Grimm | Joe | 49 | M | 07:21.8 |
Excerpted from the race website ...
The first heat time will start @ 6:15 and the race start location will be at “Molly’s” Convenience store on the east edge of town at the corner of Doe Run Road and White Oak Road (35 Doe Run Road) The finish line will remain the same as before at Graybill’s Manheim Car Wash @ 240 South Main Street. The race route will run west on East High St. to the town square and then turn south onto South Main St. (Route 72) and continue south on Main St. to the finish line.
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