Wheat Montana 5K

The Wheat Montana 5K was held in Missoula earlier this morning. On a calm, overcast and crisp day - a pretty sizeable group of runners took off from the Wheat Montana store on South Reserve Street.

The big prize for the race (overall male and female winners) were hotel accommodations in Spokane for Bloomsday. With that type of prize booty, you'd think that the race would have attracted a full slate of top end competition. Well, as it turned out that wasn't the case. Jimmy Grant and Meghan Lerch pretty much walked away with the room reservations.

On a course that was proably closer to 5.15 or 5.2 kilometers (closer to 3.2 miles), Jimmy ran a very solid 16:37 (Probably worth a 16:00 +- at a true 5K). He was at least :30 clear by the mile and just continue to pull away from there. Your's truly was a little under 2:00 back in 2nd (and 1st Masters) in 18:30. John Cuddy was 3rd in 19:28.

Meg was not only 1st women, she was 4th overall (and relatively close to 3rd overall) in 19:46. With a sub-18:00 5K PR, this was a pretty comfortable day for Meg. Much like Jimmy, her primary goal was to secure a free night in Spokane.

I was pretty happy with the race. My mile splits were pretty even (5:37, 5:43, 5:41) (And, in looking at the course on USATF Map Your Route, they seemed to have been set at pretty accurate locations). And, I felt most controlled. But, my overall speed and turnover still aren't there. Every week it get's a little better; and, I know that I need to be patient. But damnit, I don't want to be patient. I want to be back to full speed. Ah, the American Way - Instant Gratification.

At any rate, if anyone does the Big Sky HS fund raise race tomorrow morning, let me know how it goes.

The Muddy Buzzard.