Rich's 10K

I ran the Rich Bouchard Memorial 10K at South Weber Country Fair Days in Utah this morning.

My goal was 45:00. My official time was 45:31. I should mention that the course was not certified. My Garmin had the distance at 6.07 miles and my time at 45:48. The race had it all. The course was challenging with hills. Of course the wind was blowing as it always does during the morning in South Weber. Fortunately it was at the runners' backs most of the way. That is until the final two miles which were run back uphill, into the wind ... tough! In addition, the altitude was around 4,500-4,700 feet.

I won my age group but that's more a function of today's event being a 5K and 10K. Most runners ran the 5K leaving the 10K field much lighter and very diluted. Still, a win is a win so I'm happy to take the victory and the hardware.

It's late but I want to add a quick note about Rich Bouchard, a personal friend of mine. Unfortunately he was killed in a car accident 20 years ago. During what now seems like a prior life, I ran track and cross country in junior high and high school. Rich is a big reason that I ran. He was a senior when I was a sophomore. He was an excellent runner who loved the sport and loved life. Rich drove a couple friends and me home from team workouts. We didn't have our drivers' licenses yet but he did. Of course, he didn't have to do that but he did. And I enjoyed the association of an "ultra-cool" upper classman.

A couple years later, I was part of a 4-man contingent that traveled to Columbus, Ohio to compete in the National Explorer Olympics. We had a great time during our week of competition. Rich was our distance specialist. Ricky Smith was our sprint specialist. Glen Coy was a strong distance runner and excellent swimmer. I was the fourth man in this group. We had no idea how we would stack up at this level coming from a small town in northern Utah. But by week's end, we had piled up a stack of gold, silver, and bronze medals primarily on the track and in the pool. Rich was the heart and soul of our team. The competitive fire burned brightly inside of him and each raised our game just from being around him. I don't recall how many medals Rich won but I remember cheering from the side during one race - probably the 800 or 1600 finals or maybe the anchor leg of our medley relay. He ran the gutsiest race I've ever seen and brought it home for the victory.

As great of a runner as Rich was, he was an even better person. It's a shame his time with us was so short. I'm happy I was able to share some of that time with him.

My run today was in his memory. Had he been with us to race today, I'm sure he would have challenged for the overall victory; just as he always did.