Cause & Event 5K race report
My 9 y/o daughter has been doing a thing at school the last couple of months calld Fit Girls. All seven of the elementery schools in town have an after school thing where the girls get out and run a couple of times a week after school with the goal of running a 5K at the end of the program. Today was the race.
I had no intention of racing today. By the time I knew about the race and went to register it had sold out, so I was just going to watch and support my daughter. The race was starting at 8am, so walked down to the HS where it was starting at around 7:30 so my daughter could find her friends and get ready. I was dressed for a run, planned to do a ten miler after the race finished, with my while my wife would bring Lily home. I ran into the lady who runs the program, who I know, and she asked if I was running. I told her no, got shut out of registration. She pulled an extra bib out of her bag and offered it to me but it was registered to an 11 y/o girl...I said no thanks, that would be weird. So I went on my way and was milling around waiting for the race to start and the same lady came up to me with another lady who said to me "my husband decided not to run, take his bib." Hmmm...49 y/o male?...#### it, I'll run. So I pinned the thing to my shorts and got in line two minutes before the gun. I wasn't sure what may plan was...am I really racing this thing with no warm up, in another dude's name?
There were 1,000 registered runners, 250 of them 9 - 11 y/o girls from the fit girls program, and tons of other kids. By the time I figured out I was running I didn't have time to get to the front so when the gun went off it was a bit chaotic trying to get free from the pack. A lot of the kids, predictably, went out in full-on sprint mode but faded immediately. It was not a fast field, lots of families running together. I broke free of the kid-pack, saw a few guys going out quick ahead of me, and deciced yes - I guess I am racing.
The course took two quick rights then on to Mass Ave. When you make the turn you can see clearly 1/2 mile down the road and I could see there were 10 or so people ahead of me after the first 1/4, on guy way out in front. The course is essentially a segment of the run I do almost every morning. The Mass Ave portion (uphill) runs paralell to the paved bike path I typically run on, then the course hooks around and the way back is actually on the bike path, downhill the whole way home. My 5K PR from last fall was 20:27, and one of my goals for this racing season is to get it under 20:00. I wasn't thinking it was going to happen today and frankly I'd rather wait until I had my own bib to make it "official".
First mile: 6:32 I didn't feel great, just not loose at all and felt like I may have gone out too fast. I looked at my watch soon after the turn onto Mass Ave and it said 6:02, and I slowed down from there considerable. Spent a lot of energy busting out of the kid zone.
Second mile: 6:41. I hit the bike path at about the 1.7 mile mark and had told myself leading up to that point that this was when I would turn it on. But when I got there I felt like it was too early, that I wouldn't be able to sustain it, so I waited. And it was a little slower than it should have been.
Third mile: 6:21. With a mile to go I tried to push it. I had not passed anyone or been passed sinc the 1/4 mark. There was a guy who had been 20 yds ahead the entire time though and I set my sights on passing him. He knew I was there, as he would later tell me, and sped up as I did. With a half mile to go I had to seriously fight the urge to puke. Had to slow down and take a few deep breaths, swallow hard, made some wretching dry-heave noises but kept it in. Got that under control and finished strong but never caught the guy and actually got picked with 20 yds to go by a guy who came out of nowhere. I'm not sure what the final .1 split was as once again I failed to turn my watch off at the end of a race.
Official time was 20:08, a 19 second PR, 9th place overall. I'm totally ok with not going under 20 this time around. I didn't prepare this past week with racing in mind and certainly would have done some things diffrently to have fresher legs. Very happy with how it went under the circumstances and have no doubt I'll be in the 19s next time around.
And my daughter did great! 33:13 and very pleased with herself. Of my three kids I refer to her as "the lazy one". Very athletic but not nearly as competitive as the other two, but she's coming around!
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That's Runner's World worthy #### right there. 
gives me time to check into the hotel before meeting up. 
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Figures you got me by 3 seconds!!
I remember that hill and the course ...the big hill, then a right turn to the finish, as I recall from checking google maps. Way to hang tough on that hill!
Nice job fellas!
