Good run today

Had a good solid 5K time trial. With warm up and cool down jogs I got my 50 minutes in quite nicely.

3rd Annual Beat the Mayor 5K-- Save the Date!

Well my third annual "Beat the Mayor" 5K has a new location and is being contested earlier this year then usual. The race will be held on May 31, a Sunday, at 9am, at the Nippersink Forest Preserve. I wanted to hold the race last year at the Nippersink Forrest Preserve, but it wasn't ready in time, so we did the loop around the old section of Round Lake.

Here is a link to register for the race. The cost of the race is $22.50 if you register early, day of race registration is $25, Kids are $16.50 apiece, and on the day of the race its $18.50. Race registration will get you a Race T-Shirt, while supplies last, a wonderful experience and the ability to try to beat the Mayor at a 5K.

NOTE: For those of you who notice the fact that the date is after the April 7th election and I might not be Mayor on May 31, the race will merely be called Beat the "Former" Mayor in that unlikely case. For those of you who want to nit pick even further, this race is in no way affiliated with the Village of Round Lake in any way shape or form, any profits will go to an organization of my choice or be used for the 4th annual race.

The 2009 Mayors 5K

I have been walking and or running at the Nippersink Forest Preserve recently and have mapped out what will be a reasonable route for my third annual race. I specifically walked the loop on Saturday with an eye towards having a race, while my daughter ran the route and offered me her thoughts.

There are some nice steep hills so I am thinking we will have a very challenging race, however we are going to have to run one part of the loop first.

I need to confirm the date with the forest preserve, but I am shooting for a Saturday in late May or early June.

Winners of this mornings 3K

The winners of the event seemed happy, I on the other hand defended my last place finish for the second year in a row! Many thanks to all the people who showed up and helped and participated.

Mayors 3K this year! Walk and or Run Tommorrow Morning!

My 5K race is coming up on the 28th at 8am as part of the Streets of Summer Fest, and I have decided to make it two things in honor of our 100th Anniversary.

• First its going to be free,
• and second its going to be a run/walk!
  

I will have FREE T-shirts for the first 50 people (or until the shirts run out) to show up and walk with me. The route is slightly less then 2 miles so you can easily walk on sidewalks so bring the kids as well, it will be fun for all Round Lake Residents!

Mayor's 5K-- Save the Date June 28

On Saturday morning June 28 on day 2 of the fest we will have the 2nd Annual Mayors 5K, not sure of the details of the race layout and other stuff, so watch this space for more information! I promise warmer weather for the race then the recent Frosty 5k as well!

Centential Kickoff last weekend with the Frosty 5k as well!

Pictures from a great weekend!

Save the Date-- Frosty 5K

On the 24th of February (in one month) there will the annual Frosty Footrace which is put on by the Round Lake Park District and starts from the Sports Center which is off of Hook Drive in Round Lake Beach. Check in starts at 10am and the race is at 11am Registration is $20 dollars before the race and $25 the day of the race. You get a t-shirt and a light lunch after the race will be provided! You can register here! That's me in the picture before last fall's race with Trustee Michael Blum, my guess is neither of us will be dressed like this in a month!

Round Lake Park District Foundation 5K

I ran in the Round Lake Area Park District Foundation 5k yesterday! I have not been doing much running at all so I was shooting for 45 minutes or there abouts, and I finished in 43:58 so I was pleased with that. I was even happier to see Trustee Michael Blum, Village Engineer Erika Frable, Police Commisioner Al Villasenor, Valley Lakes Resident Mike Vanata and First Daughter Denise Gentes all get medals for top three finishes in their respective age brackets.

It was all to benefit Special Olympics, and was quite good to see the level of sponsorship be so high, that all expenses were covered by the sponsors and then all registrations go to the RL Special Olympics and there were 160 runners!

The Race is Over! Thankfully for me!

Well we had 34 runners and walkers, mostly runners however, (30 and 4) to be exact. However you will note that there are only 33 finishers, because one guy showed up, did not register, and then ran the race anyway got his time at the line, and bolted!

I ran the first mile! Nudging ahead of walker Silma Villasenor (speed walker extraordinarie) which allowed me to socialize with the RL Queen manning the water booth (many thanks) and then I walked for awhile, then ran along Nippersink, then walked through Parkview, and ran from the Library to the finish line, so maybe 2 miles running total, considering the crap shape I was in, I was pleased. Oh did I mention, that an ambulance followed me the whole way (true story)!

The results are here and here! The highlight for me was that our Village Engineer Erika Frable won the womens category and finished 8th overall as well! Public Works employee/speed demon Ross Hosking shattered the 30 minute mark! Karsen Green a 16 year old from Gurnee, who was about 6'5' churned out 3- 5 minute miles to win the race.

Round Lake resident was Mike Vanata, followed by Al Villasenor, and then Barry Swan rounded out the top 3 for the village resident race! My daughter ran with one of her friends and tormented him the whole way round, and then out sprinted him at the end to show him was boss.

I am also grateful to Ramona Ruskuls one of my colleagues from my day job, who took the time on Sunday to drive from Arlington Heights to race with me. So now I can have her talk smack to me at work, delightful! By the way thats her in the picture with me.

    Place    Name                    City               Bib No Age     Age Group        Time      Pace
  1    Karsen Green            Gurnee  IL            228   16     1 M  0-99      17:02.0    5:30/M
  2    Steven Kleine           Gurnee  IL            223   18     2 M  0-99      17:18.8    5:35/M
  3    Keith Brzezinski        Lakeville  IL         222   45     3 M  0-99      18:42.5    6:02/M
  4    Ray Levernier           Crystal Lake  IL      224   38     4 M  0-99      19:07.3    6:10/M
  5    Kevin Kerrigan          Spring Grove  IL      207   39     5 M  0-99      19:22.2    6:15/M
  6    Gardiner Wade           Round Lake Beach  I   220   27     6 M  0-99      21:38.3    6:59/M
  7    David Lomax             McHenry  IL           227   35     7 M  0-99      22:16.0    7:11/M
  8    Erika Frable            Spring Grove  IL      202   38     1 F  0-99      22:16.3    7:11/M
  9    Thomas Vaughn           Waukegan  IL          219   50     8 M  0-99      23:22.9    7:32/M
 10    Michael Vanata          Round Lake  IL        218   38     9 M  0-99      23:40.7    7:38/M
 11    Rick Wade               Highland Park  IL     226   57    10 M  0-99      24:38.3    7:57/M
 12    Al Vilasenor            Round Lake  IL        230   39    11 M  0-99      24:50.8    8:01/M
 13    Daniel Hartsteren       Kenosha  WI           221   53    12 M  0-99      26:26.2    8:32/M
 14    Mike Solomon            Lake Villa  IL        215   50    13 M  0-99      26:50.8    8:39/M
 15    Carlos Avila            Round Lake Heights    198   21    14 M  0-99      27:21.7    8:49/M
 16    Clint Rodriguez         Antioch  IL           213   32    15 M  0-99      27:36.0    8:54/M
 17    Barry Swann             Round Lake  IL        216   35    16 M  0-99      27:49.4    8:58/M
 18    Ana Caballero Rodri     Antioch  IL           199   31     2 F  0-99      28:05.8    9:04/M
 19    Kiki Dafnis             Round Lake  IL        201   29     3 F  0-99      28:53.5    9:19/M
 20    Renee Nichols           Naperville  IL        212   27     4 F  0-99      29:09.5    9:24/M
 21    Michael Freisinger      Round Lake  IL        203   30    17 M  0-99      29:17.8    9:27/M
 22    Elizabeth Kolek         Gurnee  IL            209   20     5 F  0-99      29:45.2    9:36/M
 23    Ross Hosking            Grayslake  IL         206   37    18 M  0-99      29:50.6    9:37/M
 24    Jen Kober               Round Lake  IL        208   35     6 F  0-99      30:09.6    9:44/M
 25    Denise Gentes           Round Lake  IL        204   17     7 F  0-99      34:38.7   11:10/M
 26    Rob Craig               Round Lake  IL        200   17    19 M  0-99      34:42.5   11:12/M
 27    Miriam Swann            Round Lake  IL        217   39     8 F  0-99      35:14.7   11:22/M
 28    Ramona Ruskuls          Arlington Heights       2   27     9 F  0-99      35:34.9   11:28/M
 29    Lori Hagi               Ingleside  IL         225   27    10 F  0-99      38:19.0   12:22/M
 30    Silma Villasenor        Round Lake  IL        229   39    11 F  0-99      41:02.8   13:14/M
 31    Mayor Bill Gentes       Round Lake  IL          1   47    20 M  0-99      44:48.7   14:27/M
 32    Anne Aleksich           Grayslake  IL         197   17    12 F  0-99      49:09.1   15:51/M
 33    Corey Miskell           Grayslake  IL         211   26    13 F  0-99      49:09.6   15:51/M

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped, set the course up and policed it for us!

Race Registration Form is Here Now!

I have created the race/walk flyer for everyone to sign up for the race/walk. There are two distinct parts the race, and the walk. Both get a T-shirt and the opportunity to beat me like a drum.

You can register online until
Friday at midnight.

To register at the race or beforehand here is a PDF of the registration form

I must confess I have been horrible in my fitness program and will more then likely walk the route, although I may jog very slowly for awhile.

Here is the race route, we will more then likely start behind the village hall (park in the train lot) then run downhill the whole way! There are two trains we have to be aware of a 8:56 and a 9:56 so the race starts after the the 8:56 pulls out of the station, and hopefully all of us will be done by 9:56, at least the runners will be.

Race Registration Heats Up!

Registration is open for the first Annual Beat the Mayor 5K Run or Walk on Sunday June 3rd at 9:00 am. The race will be starting near the village hall, more then likely behind the village hall. You can Park in the Metra Lot adjacent to the Village Hall.

I have signed up with Active.com to take race registrations as they make it very easy...so if you are running signup below on the link.

If you want to register please click this link and register the cost is $22.50 per person, this includes a race day T-Shirt.

I have no idea how many people will show up and participate but I am hoping it will be quite a few! There will be trophies to the first 3 finishers in both the Men's and Women's categories.

Here is the tentative course map courtesy of my friends of at mapmyrun.com.

The Round Lake Spartan Football team will be conducting a Pancake Breakfast starting at 8:30 am and continuing until after the race is complete. So bring the whole family.

Beat the Mayor 5K Run and or Walk

Registration is open for the first Annual Beat the Mayor 5K Run or Walk on Sunday June 3rd at 9:00 am. The race will be starting near the village hall, more then likely behind the village hall. You can Park in the Metra Lot adjacent to the Village Hall.

I have signed up with Active.com to take race registrations as they make it very easy...so if you are running signup below on th link.

If you want to register please click this link and register the cost is $22.50 per person, this includes a race day T-Shirt.

I have no idea how many people will show up and participate but I am hoping it will be quite a few! There will be trophies to the first 3 finishers in both the Men's and Women's categories.

Here is the tentative course map courtesy of my friends of at mapmyrun.com.

The Round Lake Spartan Football team will be conducting a Pancake Breakfast starting at 8:30 am and continuing until after the race is complete. So bring the whole family.

5K Race Help

A few months ago I posted about a 5K race that was going to take place on Sunday morning of the Summer Fest. The date is Sunday June 3 and it will be in the morning. Details to come!

My computer had to be repaired and I lost quite a few of the emails of people who volunteered to help me, could you please email me again?

I am going to solicit some sponsors this week, and hopefully we can make sure we have a wonderful race!

Save the Date---- Streets of Summer Festival

Open your calendars and mark these dates down. June 1, 2 and 3 for the Fourth Annual Streets of Summer Festival! Details will follow, but I can tell you that on June 3rd there will be the first annual Beat the Mayor 5K.

The thought is that I would post a time and anyone who beats my time gets something that says I beat the mayor, trophy, or a T-shirt for example.

I have two thoughts on how to do the 5K, one is I would run the course about 30 minutes before the regular race. I would record a time and then we could use an age-grading formula, and gender grading to determine an equivalent time. So before the race you would know you had to run a 23:56 to beat me if you were 18, and a 30:34 if you were 55 for example. The goal results would be posted somewhere visible beforehand!

The other way would be for me to run the race with everyone, and then we could figure the whole thing out afterwards.

There is pro and con to both ways of doing it, so since I am democratically elected we will decide it by voting!

If you ran in the Mayoral Challenge 5K would you...

Want me to run first and establish a time for you to run against?Figure them out later after we all finish?

Free polls from Pollhost.com

As a reminder the Mayoral Run/Walk will be April 7th, a Saturday, at 7am with the run starting then and the walk starting at 7:30. The route is here.

Frosty Footrace Was Quite Well Attended

The race went off! Snow and all, the park district did a nice job of having a clean route. I walked, but within 200 yards I regretted wearing my snow shoveling Timberwood boots. Those boots were NOT made for walking!

Why may you ask am I showing you a picture of my protection detail? Well since I immediately realized I was not going to keep up with anyone, I walked at a pace that would prevent blisters. Therefore I quickly fell to the back of the pack, where these gentlemen kept traffic off of the straggler (me).

They had some great inspirational comments for me, like "is the guy ahead of you walking with a cane?" He was walking with a "walking stick" not a cane I told them. There was some other banter as well, that we shall keep off the blog to protect the temperamental! I finished dead last!

The Round Lake contingent did quite well, Michael Blum got second in his age group, Mike Vanata ran his first 5K ever in 25 minutes, which is excellent. Race volunteers were Sherry Perkowitz, Dale Multerer, Deb Jones, and many others who I can't recall right now.

Save the Date-- Frosty 5K is February 25

Save the Date-- the First Mayor's Run/Walk-- January 6th in Madrona

A friendly year end reminder for the first Mayor's Run/Walk on January the 6th. I have mapped the route out for those of us with the inclination to know what's going on beforehand. It will be in Madrona starting at the park. So here's the schedule of events:

• We start at 7:00am with a jog/run of 1.83 miles at about 11 minute mile pace. The intention is to take it easy so we all can keep up (mainly me, given my lack of exercise over the holidays).


• We return to the starting point where those who want to walk will be waiting, and those who want to walk and cool down after running can stroll with us.


• Roughly 7:30am we walk the same route which should get us done by 8:00am.


• At 8:05 am drag Mayor back to his car and attempt to revive him.

Couple of guidelines, if its raining or snowing, we are going to take a rain check, there is no need to be out in bad weather, and its also not safe either. The other thing since not everyone is as energetic as us, and may be still asleep at 7am on a Saturday morning, we should keep the noise down. We are not inviting any bulls, but lets hope the guy in the picture had some good foot speed.

Wellness-- Tenatative 5K dates and "Run with the Mayor"

I spent the morning trying to figure out a schedule that works for my life and 4 Saturday's for the Mayoral 5K series. I think I have come up with something that might be workable.

The Mayoral 5K series will be 4 races held in the 4 majors areas of the community. (Valley Lake's, Lakewood, Madrona, and Downtown.) The dates will be Sunday's February 11, May 13, July 22 and September 23. These race dates are up in the air still, if you have an event for your HOA that might partner up with me, I would love that.

If I can get sponsorship to cover it, I am going to try to make the race free to Round Lake residents and $15 to non-residents or something like that. I also would like to award trophy's to the winners and the overall champions in the various age groups.

I am setting aside the first Saturday of every month at 7am for the run/walk with the Mayor. My goal is to run 2 miles from 7:00am to 7:20am at a nice steady 10-12 minute mile pace (closer to jogging) that way I can talk (assuming anyone wants to talk) and run at the same time. The from 7:30 to 8:00 walk the same course. So if you compete in both you will get four miles in. I am going to move these around from neighborhood to neighborhood. I think its an excellent venue for people from other areas to learn about and meet there neighbors, plus I can listen to issues and hopefully solve some of them.

The first one will be January 6th at 7am and I will do it in Madrona, meeting at the park.

Happy Thanksgiving (600th Post as well)!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone in Round Lake has a wonderful filling day with family and friends. I know I am going to. I am running in a 5k for a food bank in Crystal Lake that I actually ran in last year in the cold. NOTE: I have sore knees today from a run earlier this week when I pushed to hard and fast so I may not go, its a game time decision! NOTE NUMBER 2: I did not run, but rather walked the distance instead.

Today is the 600th post of this blog, I thought I had missed the actual date, because I actually have 624 posts, but I counted earlier this week and 24 of them are drafts. I have so many draft posts, because until the events are over, I will not reveal my thoughts. Its awful when you have a big mouth and you have to learn to keep it shut!

Huge blog traffic this last week, I will reveal its reason on Monday's post I think, although I may write something sooner.