I really screwed the pooch on the start of this race. Went into it fairly fresh and with realistic expectations to go top 5 with a low 17 minute time. I knew I could go low 17 and maybe just crack 16 if the chips fell right...they didn't.

At 8am they sent off the 10k participants and I had until 8:15am til the 5k start, or so I thought. When I signed up it was an 8:15 start, at some point after that they changed it to an 8:05 start. My fault for not realizing this as I viewed the website and course a thousand times after that.

At 8:04 there was already (of course) a crowd amassed in the start corral so I told my sister I needed to start heading over that way. As I was excusing myself through the crowd, attempting to get into the corral and then to the front I hear the announcer state "we're about ready to go...at the sound of the turkey cluck you are off"...ummm, but I still have 10 more minutes! I managed to get to just about the mid way entrance break in the fence into the corral when the cluck happened and everyone was off. Adios leaders, I'm 50 rows back in traffic.

So I did what I could knowing I would never gain sight of the leaders and had to pick my way through (slow) the crowd in front. The first 3/4 mile was just that, acting like Barry Sanders and the band is on the field as I'm shuffling and dicing to pick a way through the thousand or so people. At one point this couple decided to cross the street in front of the blob of thousands...really?

Finally around a mile in I got some clear road and dialed in my pace. My plan was to target 5:30s for this race so I decided it better to just sit in on that rather than try and run anything faster in hopes of catching the leaders, not happening at this race. So I locked in around 5:30 and put it on cruise control. One bonus of starting mid pack is that you have a LOT of people to pass so it keeps it fun...always a rabbit to catch.

Passed the first aid station and somewhere around the 10 minute mark my watch, which was set to auto lap every 5 minutes, just quit. Awesome. I still had pace thankfully but no idea on time or distance now. I kept running, kept the target 5:30s and plugged along. Next thing I knew I saw the second aid station and just beyond it noticed the turn to the final block for the finish. "Holy cra*, already!?" was my reaction. Picked it up a few notches and cruised in.

Should have been at the front of the line at the start. Then I could have gone out with the leaders and had some desire to really keep it turned up.

Easy two mile post race cool down run


Last year this was a standalone 5k but they added the 10k this year which started before the 5k but ran two loops of the 5k course. IMO, too much traffic as a fast 5k-er is having to weave through all the back of the pack 10k people. Should have kept it as a 5k only.