Building Tomorrows 5k - Run5k

There was some confusion about which direction the race would go, and people which cared about positioning had to scramble a bit once it was all figured out. I just stood at about the middle of the pack and waited for the horn to blow. The first quarter mile was tough because it was all uphill and runners were bumping into each others while trying to find a comfortable place and some room. Several fast people passed me at the start and I never saw them again. Others started fast and I did catch them, some as early as the end of the first hill which seemed to take the wind out of many. I was glad it was over and then I settled into a comfortable pace and felt strong.

I flew down the corresponding downhill and when I looked at the garmin it showed me a crazy pace of something like 6:43 on the downhill, which I don't think I've ever even been near. I passed a lot of people in this segment.

There was a volunteer calling out times on the first mile marker and as I went past I heard 7:24, which I was _ecstatic_ about since the fastest mile I've ever ran so far was 7:45. I did start to get a bit winded though, and my HR was getting in the 170s, so I decided to slow down a bit and preserve some energy while the course was somewhat flat.

The second mile was my slowest and reflects both that I was getting a bit tired and that it contained all the hills around the start line and then some. Luckily I didn't see those hills again until the finish stretch. Mile 2 called at 15:45. Even though I slowed down, I was still passing many people.

There was another volunteer calling out times at some random place in the course which was NOT mile 3. When I looked at the garmin it said 2mi63, so the best I can figure is that there was .5 miles to go. It did confuse me and the girl that was running next to me though, when for a second we thought we had hit mile 3. Maybe this is my race inexperience showing :-)

The last 1/2 mile was difficult since we hit the end of the loop hills again. The end of that part goes around a baseball field though and I could see the finish line from probably 300 yards away, and that gave me a bit of a boost to do a little sprint and finish it. It seems that the last 2-3 minutes of the course went on autopilot as a decided to not listen to my tired legs telling me to slow down. My wife and kids were waiting by the finish line and it was great to see them and also the race clock which said 24:15 as I crossed the finish line. Yeah, a PR and well under my goal!

A couple of misc notes:

There was a little kid that I was seeing on and off during the race. I remember him about a mile in, he was red and breathing heavy and I thought he was just about done and called out to him "go little guy!" which seemed to pick him up a bit and he kept running. Somehow he appeared again ahead of me near the finish line which amazed me since I hadn't thought he was going to make it, never mind keep running this fast! He ended up finishing 2 places ahead of me, and I found out later that he was 9 years old.

Also, a couple of minutes after I finished, and went to my family, I saw that my 10 year-old son was missing. My wife said "oh he took off after you when the race started!". I then went back to look for him, and found him walking maybe a half mile to the finish. I then jogged to the finish line with him. My son Peter, who had not expressed any kind of interest in running this race, and had never run anything longer than a couple of laps around a track, had decided on the spot to do this 5k and (unofficially of course) completed it at 35:14! Make daddy proud big boy!

Overall, a good/great day. I'm proud of myself and my performance. Of course I would like to run faster but I've come a long way in the past couple of months and with that I'm very happy.

More hill training.

Sipped water and accelerade, ate 1/2 a bagel, hang around and chatted with friends through the awards. My son wanted to race me to the car afterwards and apparently he had a lot more energy than me since he beat my by a long shot.


Relatively short preparation, race inexperience.


Good organization. There were water stations every mile (I didn't take any), and a decent amount of stuff handed out. Results were printed quickly and the awards were well done and, again, quick.