Bryan and I took it out at a comfortably fast pace. We were sure to take it just a tad easy on the steep downhill start since it had snowed just a bit that morning and could have been slippery. Neither of us wanted to eat it doing a silly 5K in January! Once on to Shepard Rd., we settled in to a nice quick pace and talked only a little bit since we were both pushing pretty hard. We hit mile 1 right about 8 minutes in and were very happy since we thought we could hold that pace for the duration. About mile 3 my back started to tighten up and got pretty uncomfortable. Bryan pulled away from me just a bit as we went back up the big hill at the top of which I thought I might barf. I managed to kick just enough to come in about 10 feet behind Bryan. Thanks to Bryan for running this with me and helping push the pace. My AHR was right about my LT which means I was cranking just about as hard as I could. Finally! Maybe I can do that during the run of one of my tris this summer...

Warm up more thoroughly. The relatively lackluster warmup plus a hard effort plus 20F temps probably didn't set me up for the best race. Still, its my 5K PR in a race.

Milled about and chatted with Bryan and Roger. Got our schwag bag which was kind of disappointing considering the cost of the race.


Relative lack of training lately. No speed work. Fatigue from having a 3 week old in the house.


I'll rate this one as only "Average". It seems that you should get a lot more than an untimed 5K and a coffee mug for $25. No race results and no formal timing is bothersome to me. I'd love to know how I did against the field. I am, however, glad to NOT have another crappy t-shirt.