Tour De Elvis 5k
The Tour De Elvis 5k was this past Friday night, and I was
there toeing the line for the 4th straight year. Tour De Elvis is
usually the 2nd or 3rd Saturday in August on a Friday
night which means it is usually one hot Friday night. However, this past Friday
was the most different than any of the previous races.
Maybe the biggest difference was the weather. Usually, heat
and humidity make this race a struggle, but Friday, the humidity was down and
the temperature was in the high 60s at the start time. For a runner in the
middle of summer, this couldn’t have been better conditions.
Then, there was the lead police vehicle leading us the wrong
way around the block. In the previous 3 years, we go up by the Y and make this
loop around a block before heading to the finish. Running marked route, we hit two
up hills and one sharp downhill, but running this section of the course in
reverse, we have two nice down hills with one short step uphill. Peter asked me
about it after the race. Honestly, I like running it in this direction and hope
Peter makes it a permanent change.
Recapping the race, I got out slow as usual and spent most
of the race trying to make up the distance. A lot of local high cross country
runners use this race as a tune up so the first mile is usually insanely fast.
Everything starts to equalize once we hit the first nasty hill and realization
sets in that they have gone out too fast.
At the mile, I was barely in 3rd place. During
the 2nd mile, I slowly reeled in the 2 place runner. As my luck
would have it, the lead guy jumped out to a huge lead during the first mile and
I could never chew into it.
By mile 2 I was a few seconds in front of 3rd
place. With the major hills behind me, I leaned into the downhill and tried to
push the pace.
I made the right turn on the greenway. As I crossed the 3
mile point, I could see the leader crossing the finish line. He ran 16:58. I ran 17:36.
My Garmin recorded my splits at 5:41, 5:37, and 5:35.
As with any of Peter’s races, I always enjoy my trips to
Albemarle. He, his crew, and Uwharrie Running Club do an awesome job with this
race. Elvis being the theme of the event, there was plenty of pizza, jelly
donuts, and banana and peanut butter sandwiches for the runners to consume
afterwards.
If my luck holds, I will be back for the 5th
running of this event next year.
I highly recommend this race to everyone.
Sharing one thought at a time,
The Cool Down Runner
Comments