Kevin Marshall at the Dunkin Run

Here’s the deal.  First and foremost, the Times Union blogging community is a COMMUNITY.  We come out and support our fellow bloggers when and if we are able.

Last summer, Kevin Marshall came out to my photography art debut at the Schenectady Art Night.  This Sunday morning, he was scheduled to run in his first 5K race, the Dunkin’ Run at the Albany Jewish Community Center.

Now granted, I still had to traipse up to Vermont to find out how my pictures did at the Vermont State Fair.  But that was an afternoon trip.  Kevin’s race would take place in the morning.

I loaded the Nikon D700 with my best 8-gig CF card and slapped on the 80-200 F/2.8 telephoto lens.  Off to the JCC.

I got there early and scouted out locations for optimal action shots.  The runners would start at the JCC and head down Whitehall Road towards Westford, then follow the perimeter of the Westford-Hackett-Picotte block for a return trip down Whitehall.  The runners would reach the Albany School of Humanities, then loop back toward Hackett and the finish line.  Kevin would run in the 5K; there was a concomitant 10K run that would follow the course twice.

Oh look who’s picking up his running equipment.

Kevin made it to the race – and just in time.

His personal goal, he said, was to break 27 minutes in the 5K run.  He said he had gotten close to that mark, but never completely passed it.

I wished him good luck, and then went to look for a suitable shooting location.  I found a spot in front of the JCC.

Everyone’s at the starting gate…

AND THEY’RE OFF!!!

Somewhere in that swarm of a thousand runners was our intrepid Times Union blogger and raconteur, Kevin Marshall.  Luckily, he was wearing a red T-shirt, so it was not too hard to pick him out of the race.  But with a thousand runners zipping past me, I couldn’t get him on the first pass.  But my shooting position was such that I could catch the Manville Shark after he completed the Whitehall-Westford-Hackett-Picotte loop.

It was at that point that I heard someone else shouting at me.

“CHUCK! GET A PHOTO OF ME WHEN I COME BACK AROUND!!”

I looked.

Hokey smokes.  It’s another Kevin.  Kevin Baker.

Baker, the host of Trivia Nights Live.

Apparently Baker and his girlfriend are into track and field, and while he’s running the 5K, she’s completing the 10K race.  Unfortunately, Baker lets me know he’s in the race – AS HE’S PASSING ME.

Anyways, the runners make it around the turn, and look who’s doing well for himself –

And a few minutes later, here comes Baker.

I had some time to reset my position, and I moved over to the finish line.  I wanted to get the shot of the runners as they crossed the tape, and caught this photo finish of the first two runners to complete the 5K.

I still had some time.  Kevin Marshall was about 15 minutes away from completing the race.  He said his best time was a shade above 27 minutes, and he wanted to break that score.

The clock ticked away.  24 minutes.  25 minutes.  People older than Kevin Marshall will ever reach passed him by.  There were 11-year-olds that raced to the finish line as if they had wings on their feet.

And then, all of a sudden –

He surpassed his goal time by a half a minute.  Kevin Marshall FTW!!

I then waited to see how the other Kevin did.

Very respectable time.  I stuck around to take some other pictures – Baker’s girlfriend, for example, did quite well in the 10K race.  Unfortunately, she ran so fast I was only able to photo the back of her head as she raced past the finish line clock.

No matter.  It was a good morning for all concerned – the race went off without a hitch, and Kevin Marshall broke his personal best track speed.  Me, if I tried doing this kind of a race, the bet would be whether I would collapse after passing the third hazard cone or the fourth one.

Now it’s off to Vermont for me… and the hope that my pictures did well at the Vermont State Fair!