Thanks to summer temperatures continuing to make runners feel like they’ve taken three steps backwards, we didn’t have the normal slew of runners taking to the streets last weekend to race. However, we still had three athletes brave the conditions and record some big PRs and new course bests!
At the hilly Kankakee YMCA 5k, Mark Eichenlaub continued his steady forward progress with a 4th place finish out of 800 plus in 18:25, beating two local rivals who had been ahead of him in his last race and who each beat him at this race last year by 1:30 to 2mins! Huge performance for mark this week!
Matthew McKeown continues to improve, dropping just over 20 seconds from his 5k PR set just last weekend. His time of 18:05 is his fastest time since high school and he finished 45th in the highly competitive beat the heat 5k. Matthew also did a great job of sticking to his race plan and, as such, this was his first race where all three miles were under 6mins and he finished very strong with a 5:35 3rd mile! Not bad for a guy who was trying to run under 24 just this spring!!
Talaya Thomas ran a solid 52:46 at the high altitude spring creek memorial 10k to finish 4th overall and 2nd in her age group. Awesome performance Talaya!
Great job to those who raced this weekend. Hopefully, if you’re struggling in the heat you can use these results to motivate yourself and remember that personal bests are broken in training!
