EDWARDSVILLE – For Edwardsville runner Lindsay Hustedde, it was a good start to a possibly very successful summer running season.
Hustedde was the overall women's winner of Saturday morning's Run for Bonifest 5K race at St. Boniface Catholic Church in downtown Edwardsville, coming in with a time of 17:38.
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Her strategy going into the race was very simple.
“I was thinking starting about somewhere around 5:40, 5:50 for the first mile,” Hustedde said in a post race interview, “kind of go conservatively, but I haven't run a 5K in a little while, under training. And then just kind of went by feel, and started pulling ahead a little bit, and tried to keep around a 5:42 pace.”
Although running conditions were somewhat favorable, the infamous St. Louis area summer humidity did play a bit of a factor. But Hustedde feels that she runs better as the weather gets hotter and more humid.
“This was pretty hard to run in this kind of humidity, and this heat,” Hustedde said, “so it's actually a lot harder. But I kind of like the heat. I feel like I run a little bit better in the heat rather than the cold cold.”
Hustedde's background is one of achievement. Hustedde currently runs for and helps coach for the Run Well Racing Team, and in her biography on the team's web site, Hustedde won 10 Ohio Valley Conference championships and qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional track meet four times while running for Southeast Missouri State. A native of Metropolis, Ill., where she ran at Massac County High School, Hustedde also won the IHSA state title in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs four years in a row. She's also coached in both high school and college, and in 2010, helped coach Florida State's women's cross country team to second place in the NCAA meet.
“I run for the Run Well Racing Team,” Hustedde said, “so I'm thankful for that opportunity to run for them, and wear New Balance shoes, just thankful for my family for coming out and supporting me, and my running buddy Crystal (Harriss, the event's runner-up) for pushing me every day.”
As for upcoming races, Hustedde plans on running in the Covered Bridge Run in Glen Carbon on June 16, but will miss the Route 66 10K event the week before, on June 9. She does have a good reason.
“We're going to do the five-mile Covered Bridge; I've decided to do that,” Hustedde said. “It's our wedding anniversary on the Route 66, so I'm not going to run that one,” she said with a smile and laugh. “And then just hope to run quite a few local races this summer, and I hope to run a faster half-marathon time eventually in the fall.”
And as the summer running season continues, look for Lindsay Hustedde to be among the top runners in the both the Metro-East and St. Louis areas.
