Ringwood Rocket 5k - Run

Started just behind the front line. Most seem to take off really fast. I do better building into it. Brother said he planned to just hang right by me, but of course he took off. First bit is false flat down plus a tailwind, was seeing mid to low 5's for pacing, which was way too fast. I knew it was from the boost, so just rode with it. Wasn't hard to keep up. Made my way through most of the early fast starts in the first half mile or so. Got around 2 more on the trail section, one was a 13-14 yr old kid who ducked behind me for some wind protection as long as he could. My brother and a high schooler were another 100 yds or so up the road. Kept them in sight and was very slowly reeling them in.

Came up to the turn into a subdivision (completing the first small loop) and they kept going straight. I yelled & pointed "that way" to the person manning that corner and they agreed with me. I was going there regardless. Brother and the kid were too far ahead to hear. Knew he'd figure it out eventually, but this why you know the course ahead of time.

First time leading a race in anything, so just kept up the effort and did what I could. Had to go into the wind for a bit and knew it'd be tough. Had everything zipped up well, so it wasn't as bad as before, just a lot of resistance. I always feel like a parachute. Made my way partially around the loop to the out & back, not knowing for sure exactly where the turn would be. Sure enough it was right at the bottom of the only (yet small) hill on the course. Barely noticed it coming back up. The 13 yr old was a little ways back and everyone else was quite a bit farther.

I had stayed on the right side coming out, but everyone else went to the left. I knew we had to be right otherwise there would be crossing over when getting back to the loop. So ran down the right side at everyone, thinking they'd get the idea. At least enough for space on the return runners if not all the way over. They did just fine. I'm bigger than almost everyone running and easy to see with the hi viz vest, gloves & shoes on solid black everything else. had a lot of high fives going down the line here. Resisted hitting the clown who told me wrong way.

Moving right along here with the wind at least partially behind me. Back to the loop and a right turn to finish it off. Lost sight of the kid who had been behind me, hoping he was ok as the gap was huge now. Turns out he ended up going left and lost a few minutes figuring this out. He could have battled for second overall. I was feeling some burn at this point as 3 miles was getting close. Hung on keeping up a strong effort to finish the loop and go around into the parking lot for the finish, first one back. Noted the time said 21 minutes which was very surprising, but then saw 3.35 on my watch. Hadn't looked at distance later on the loop as I knew exactly what it looked like to the finish. Things seemed about right with that extra quarter mile in there.

Not really anything. Just a fun run and my running has been terrible to non-existent for months, so good to just be out there.

Mile splits have a big disparity, but HR built up over the first mile and held very flat the rest of the way, so seemed to do ok with pacing.

Hung around the finish to see who else was coming in. Had to wait a bit as the field really wasn't very deep. Turns out my brother had run his way back up into 2nd place with that 17 yr old a few seconds behind. They ended up going 3.6 to the 3.35-3.4 miles of everyone else. And with the time gap, who knows who would have happened as we all would have been close with that 13 yr old not too far behind.

Went inside to get some food. All the doughnuts were gone already. Just missed getting back outside in time to see my sister come in. Then mostly hung around waiting for others to see how they did.


Extra (but needed) gear for the weather conditions and very substandard run training for the last 4-5 months, including none at all a full month fairly recently.


Really like doing this race and seeing so many people I know. Also really like how they're a benefit to help someone.