Wild Ride! * Wild Run Against Cancer

My next race was Wild Ride! * Wild Run Against Cancer on Saturday May 21, 2011 in Richardson, Texas. This event consisted of several bike races, and a 5K foot race. Cyclists were able to choose between a 15 mile, 40 mile, or 60 mile ride. There were more than 2,000 cyclists from all across North Texas at this 8th annual Wild Ride which raised over $110,000 for Methodist Richardson Cancer Center, the home of Lance Armstrong's Shaped Beam Surgery program. The Ericsson Team ended up raising the most money out of all of the teams.   There were over 40 sponsors at the event including title sponsor Fujitsu and Bike Mart. This was the inaugural 5K timed run, so it was pretty cool to be a part of the event. The races took place at the same time as the 19th annual Wildflower Arts and Music Festival which took place in Galatyn Park just a few blocks away. The Wild Ride! * Wild Run took place at the same location as the June 18 Dadfest race (www.dadfest.com) which promotes early prostate cancer screenings. I hope to see you there; it's one of my favorite races of the year.   This was a Run-On! goal race for my early speed development group, my last one as a matter of fact. I have joined the 301 A training program at Run-On! which will help prepare me for the Too Hot To Handle 15K race in July. I arrived early, and after parking, I started scouting the area. I took my slow warm-up jog from the starting line, then started taking pictures of all the bike riders. Thanks to USMD Prostate Cancer, I now have a new pair of shoes from Run-On! Thank you USMD for your great support. This race was on the street and on a trail. I started on the first row, waiting for the mayor of Richardson to start the race.   Once the race started, I took off fast and made a right turn out of the parking lot into the street. My new light weight shoes felt really good, and my time at the 1 mile was 7:33. That's about the best that I can do for 1 mile. Then I start to slow down a bit, arriving at the 2nd mile in 15:28 (7:54 / mile pace). We ran on the trail, then arrived at a long hill half way up. I looked at my Garmin, and it said that I was running an over ten minute pace. That hill really slowed me down.   My 3 mile time was 24:25 (8:56 / mile pace). I finished the race in the time of 25:13, 2nd in my age group, and 48th overall out of a total of 457 timed runners. Other early speed class awards winners were 65 year old John Wuethrich who finished 1st place in his age group, and Hector Hinojosa 43 years old who finished 3rd place in his age group and 11th place overall in the time of 21:40:00   You can see my results here.   Place    Men     Overall    Chip Time     Gun Time                                                2/15   41/176   48/457     25:13:00       25:15:00 I run to raise awareness for prostate cancer and to benefit my community. www.runningforacause.tumblr.com