Food Truck Race #1

 Friday evening, I headed for Kings Mountain State Park to run the first of the Food Truck 5k Summer Series. Sadly, this isn't a trail race but just asphalt one. It does have some rather nasty hills in it. 

At around 6:30ish, we roll away from the starting line. Several guys surged out ahead. Some I know and some I do not. I do know from my warmup miles that this is going to be a one tough little 5k race. 

We started hitting those hills, and they started coming back to us. 

The hills were tough, and I was digging in to my reserves. Another guy and I topped the last hill pretty even. Once it flattened out, he made nice move and gapped me by a few yards. I was holding my own until we turned back and started through the hilly section. Yes, this was an out back course. 

He took to the steep downhill and gapped me pretty good. I felt like I was clawing back a few yards on the up hills but it was too little too late. 

Then, we got caught in a traffic jam coming to the finish. The road is barely wide enough for two cars to pass, and it wasn't closed course race. Apparently, a bunch of people all decided leave and enter at the exact same time. This put them and us trying to navigate between each other. Fortunately, these were some rather intelligent individuals. They just stopped and waited until we made our way through them. 

I finished 2nd overall in 19:49. I got a nice race branded tumbler for my effort. 

The smells coming from the food trucks were awesome. I dearly wanted to partake in them but my tummy isn't exactly in the mood for a burger and fries right after a race. Who knows. Maybe next time, I might just have to try them. 

Cool Down Runner