Seaway RUN 5K

Seaway Run 2009
Added by Ken Stevens on June 27, 2009 at 1:17 PM
Vickie Swanson, 31, of Muskegon, rests in the shade and talks to sons Brady Swanson, 3, left, Colton Swanson, 3, and husband James Swanson, right, after completing the the 5K run during the 28th Annual Chronicle Seaway Run on Saturday morning

About 5 weeks ago I decided to train for a 5 K (3.1 mile) race. When I first started Leah and I went for a "run" (well if you want to call it that) .... jog .5 mile, walk .5 mile, try to jog another! It was awful and I realized what a heart attack waiting to happen I was!!! Thank you Leah for showing me this:-) I needed some real motivation other than my cardiac health, so I roped Jarred in, I know I did not want to let him down, once he was committed I was in 100%. My friend Danielle Bennett was also tossing around the idea of running the seaway so together we called, or facebooked each other at least 3-4 times a week to encourage each other to keep going, so thanks Danielle for more motivation! I am so proud of her for pushing her self to her physical limit as well. For some a 5k might not seem like a big deal, but this was for sure the biggest physical challenge I have ever pushed myself to do especially with what was to come....tendonitis...yuck! The 3rd week I was up to 4 miles, too many miles plus not enough rest plus extremely loose tendons EQUALS tendinitis...very bad tendinitis. After a trip to the Urgent Care I took three days off 7 days before the race, took way too many mortin, bought a brace, a shoe insert and RAN THE RACE! Along with Jarred and Danielle we all crossed the finish line. JR told Jarred numerous times how tough it would be to get an award (in the top ten)...well Jarred loves to prove him wrong and HE DID. Jarred placed 7th in his age group over 900 runners ran in the Seaway. Jarred came in just over 23 minutes, I was just over 28 minutes and 28th out of 60 in my group, my initial goal was under 30 minutes and then when the tendinitis hit I was really worried but in the end it worked out. Now from here if I can get my ankle fixed I am looking forward to more races especially with my awesome running friends, Jenni, Danielle, Leah, Shannan, Kristia and Jarred. I dont know if the future races will live up to the Seaway, its such a big race and an AWESOME experience!!