Street Light 5k Recap 7/13/2012
Friday, I headed toward downtown Concord for the Street Light 5k. As luck would have it so did the area thunderstorms. While I was trying to find the race registration, the skies opened up and poured with rain.
The air was left so thick that you could have conceivable cut it with a knife.
Following my usual routine, I ran over the course as a warm up. I was careful to memorize that the first mile and half were fast and flat, but the 2nd was going to be tough.
The race started with us running about 15 yards before making a hard left hand turn. My struggle with getting out fast had left my hopelessly boxed in by other runners. We run maybe another 20 yards before taking a 2nd hard left turn. From there, the course opens up and I started passing a few people.
Reed, Patrick, and Caleb were making fast work of the first mile. They must have gone through between 5 minutes and 5 min. 5 seconds. My Garmin read 5:17 and I was pretty happy at this point and had pulled into 5th place overall.
We make the turn on the greenway and head back. I passed the 4th place guy. I can see Caleb running in the distance ahead of me and I am trying to keep him in sight so I have a reason for running hard. The heat and humidity are making running difficult because all of my blood is being circulated up next to the skin to cool me. The cooling isn't helping much because I am coated with a layer of sweat.
By 2 miles, Caleb has inched out sight. I have been running up hill for about ½ mile when we hit these switch backs. Really, I don't think I have ever seen a greenway that had switch backs but this one does.
I am just trying to keep my legs moving because I think I see the top. But no, it is a false top. I turn left and have another climb to which my legs don't want to do.
Some guy yells that I am almost there. I certainly hope so. My second mile had been 5:43. The third was going to be ugly a 6:24.
I crossed the finish line in 17:56 and finished 4th overall. I finished 1st in the 45-49 category.
Overall, I got what I wanted. This weekend I am headed to Beat the Heat 5k so having a shakeout race helps a little with the preparation.
One interesting note, this race had some 400 runners and they sold out. I talked to several runners that showed up 45 minutes before the start and were told they could not register because they had no more numbers. I have heard of racing have a cut off before race day but never running out of numbers on race day. I guess a lot of people like racing on Friday night.
See you at the races,
The Cool Down Runner
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