Here is my mini race review.
I was hoping to leave my house by 3pm so we could arrive at the event at 4pm. This would give us enough time to eat, digest, and then be ready for the 5K at 6pm. My wife decided to go shopping earlier in the day and didn't make it home until 3:30. This through off all my plans. We ended up being able to eat but it was rushed and it lead to other issues, which I will discuss in a bit.
When we arrived the weather was perfect, but the sun was hot. Virtually no humidity, which is rare around here in July. It's a tough race to sign up for because it could be like FL, 90's with high humidity. I want to say it was about 80' when we got there but there was a slight breeze. We ate and while we were waiting for the food to cook I ran to the car to get some stuff I needed for the race, like my water bottle and the GoPro as I knew the girls would be thirsty during the race and I didn't want to depend on the water stations for their first race. I wanted them as comfortable as possible. I made it back and slid the keys to my wife (this is an important piece of info). We finished and rushed down to the starting line. It was packed. The corrals were overflowing onto the sidewalks. We got the before pictures and we got ready to go. I gave the girls some quick etiquette lessons and we started. By this time it was getting cooler, the breeze was nice, the sun was going down, making it hard to see in some spots. Overall, I was glad I made it to this race and was able to run it.
I had never run a 5K before and I am glad. This race was very frustrating for me. I am all for whatever it takes for people to get off the couch but there were so many walkers, who don't follow any etiquette at all, that it slowed us down. The girls finished in 36:49, which is a pace of 11:51 but there is no doubt we could have gone much faster had people not blocked us on the congested parts of the course. I also don't like 5K's because the first 3 miles are the worst for me of any run. I don't warm up until after 3-4 miles. I don't see myself doing many 5K's by myself in the future. I would obviously do more with them.
I had to try and push them a little during the race as I had to finish and then make it back to the car to switch bibs, get my water belt (last year I didn't have it and wished I did), etc... This course, as opposed to the 10K, about half the mileage is in the stadium, so that was cool. I don't know the official number but I believe there is at least 5000 runners for the 5K and there was 10,000 for the 10K.
This is the view from the corral toward the starting line.
This is the view toward the back of the pack.
Overall it was a fun race and I got a nice picture of us all in the stadium. I don't normally take selfies and the sun was in my eyes so I look a little goofy but it still came out pretty good considering it was mid run.
This was almost at the end. We just needed to make our way down the ramps and then onto the field. They called Kara's name at the finish, so she was all excited because they were hoping they would hear their names. We made our way over to the rest of the family and got our pics taken, that you saw yesterday. Then I said to my wife, "I need the keys so I can go get my stuff." She says, "I don't have the keys, you do" She had left the keys and her sunglasses on the table at the restaurant. Meanwhile I had about 20 minutes to be ready for the 10K. She was in the stands and told me I would get them faster than her. So I told the girls that we needed to run back to the restaurant and try and get the keys. No big deal except the restaurant is at the top of a HUGE set of stairs.
As you can see I am not at the top of the stairs in this picture as the guy on the right is starting to climb more in the pic. We had to come from the field, in the distance, fly up these stairs, get the keys (which they had thankfully), fly back down the stairs to run to the car so I could switch bibs and stuff. Then I had to find my wife to take the girls. Thankfully we parked close to the starting line. I made it to Matt (we ran this one together too) as they were signing the national anthem. I don't have as many prerace pics for the 10K for obvious reasons. I essentially never stopped running between the races. I probably did a 1/2 marathon.
The 10K was fun, it was more uneventful for sure. The sun was down, the weather was perfect. This is a hilly course as Sue mentioned. Last year I did this course in 54:31. This year was 1:09:05. I wasn't even disappointed. I was in pain toward the end and this race, and I have been in pain all day today. I am glad I didn't push it. I wanted to enjoy my last race of the year and I did. The course is hilly but it didn't seem as bad this year, maybe because I knew what to expect. If I got enough good footage for a video I will post it later on.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
