March Forth 15K Race Recap
March Forth 15k Recap
A couple of weeks ago, in my Valentine’s Day 5k Goodie bag,
they gave out flyers to this March Forth 5k/15k race in Denver, NC. The moment that I saw it, the idea of running
a 15k race intrigued me. A couple of the
days later, I put through my race registration.
This brings me to this morning. Standing at the starting
line at 7:30 AM with a temperature of 26 degrees, maybe this wasn’t as good of
an idea as I had thought. Unfortunately or fortunately, once committed, backing out
is never an option for me.
Off went both the 5k and 15k races at the same time. A couple of guys settled into lead with me
and another guy following behind. By Lake Shore Road, they had slipped out of
sight, and I was putting some distance on the 4th place runner.
With no mile marks, gauging how well that I was running was
really tough. And as luck would have it, the course had an abundance of rolling hills. Some of them were
rather steep. The kind that makes my legs burn and my breathing labored.
Toward the end, we did a little out and back on this side
road. This gave us an opportunity to check our competition and gauge how harder that we needed to run to the finish.
The two leaders were still together and looking strong. There no catching the. And, unless I fell
completely a part, 3rd place was pretty much a lock for me.
So keep digging was
all that I could do.
My goal going into the race had been 60 minutes given my
level of training. The 58:09 displayed on the clock was a huge surprised to me.
Given how difficult the course was I was half expecting it to be either 62 or
63 minutes.
But I will take it. I walked away with a 1st in
my age award which as a nice gift certificate to use at you guessed it – Charlotte Running
Company Northlake. By the way, it was nice to see them out in the community
to support local events such as this in Denver. It really shows what Charlotte
Running Company is all about. Kudos to them.
Before I wrap up, a strange sequence of events happened to
me during the middle miles of the race that I wanted to share.
So as I said, early in the race I had
settled in to 3rd place overall. So back along Lake Shore Rd, I
caught a glimpse of runner in the distance. My first thought was that one of
the two leaders had crashed and burned. Over the next mile or so I reeled him.
Then, just as we were approaching a water stop and with me right on his heels,
he moves over and stops at the water stop. Glancing over as I passed him, I
noticed that he was wearing one of the race bibs.
However, something was off. He didn’t look like either of
the two runners ahead of me from earlier. They were both much younger. This guy was
older late 30s or 40s. My brain is turning this over and over wondering how he got in front of me. I was pretty sure they were only two runners ahead me which later
I was confirmed same two during our little out and back section.
Setting here now, I could kick myself because I didn’t think
look at his bib number. I would have
liked to ask him how he had gotten front me. I guess it is one of those questions that
will never be answered.
The Cool Down Runner
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