Run Wild 5k
This race is pretty cool – its a course through a state park right next to my neighborhood. Starts off on a grass field, progresses through a campground gravel road, a mile or so of rolling sandy open trail then into a winding single track for the last mile. Nice crowd for this one, not sure how many. Weather was around 70 degrees, low humidity. Actually quite nice. The atmosphere was cool because the open 5k heads off a series of 4 high school cross country races (boys and girls , varsity and JV). Got there about a half hour ahead of time, drove there to avoid last year’s near miss of the start. I did a mile warmup and got back within 10 minutes of the finish.
With the gun, it was total chaos, as a very wide start group had about 100 yards to make it into the woods/campground area, where there was a narrow bottleneck. I was able to make it up near the front, but it was crazy with all the people jammed in like that. Had no idea what my pace was – my Garmin was unreliable in the woods. Tried to stay with an age grouper that has always beaten me, though I finished ahead of him last race when he got misdirected. He was too fast today. Hitting the sandy trails was tough, it was basically a long slow incline on very soft footing. First mile was called out as 6:15, though the Garmin was coming up about .96 mile if I remember correctly. I was getting pretty gassed on the sand trail until finally we hit a nice decline. I actually got passed by an older guy and Amy, the girl from last report. I was not happy about getting passed, but I had to defer to the air-sucking lungs at that point. Started to recover midway through mile 2, and my recover I mean not about to die anymore. Mile 2 was right at the entrance to the woods again and some pretty technical trail. They called out 13 flat just after I got there, so I guess 12:50ish for at 2 miles. Just before the woods I was able to re-pass Amy on a sandy hill. I drafted older dude most of the next half mile, when finally I decided I’d had enough and did a Adrian Petersen maneuver and passed him in the little straightaway that existed. I dont think he liked it but I did give him warning and apologized between sucking all the available oxygen in the area. Hit an open field again about 300 meters from the finish. Came up on one of the local triathletes that I’ve never come close to much less beaten. Passed him in stealth mode and we sprinted for about 50 meters but he finally gave way and I was able to hold it to the finish – 19:40. Real happy with going sub 20 again, especially with the trail course and almost 2 minutes faster than last year. Only got 3rd in AG, but given the field I was OK with that. I’ll post the results when they come out – it wasnt chip timed and there was a 2.5 hour wait for awards! Got in 6 miles in “cool down” which was nice with the great weather.
Gave me 2 more seconds
Tour de Blue Shoes 