Night Owl 5k @ Ann Springs

Well, a few weeks ago, I was back at Ann Springs - the Lake Haigler entrance for the Night Owl 5k. Not totally sure why but this race caught my attention while I was scanning the list of S2F upcoming races. 

So, I jumped into this race. 

The race had a 7 pm start so I waited for it to get good and dark before I did my warmup over the course. Glad that I did. There were a number of twist and turns that my pre-run gave me a heads up. 

 Looking around at the start, most of the faces standing at the starting line didn't look to be out of high school with more than few yet to be out of middle school. 

True to form, every one of them went sprinting off the starting line. They were running hard, that is until they started into the trails. 

I slowly closed the distance. 

As we rounded the lake, one of the "older" ones, bombed one of the downhills. I was behind another guy, so he got away. 

After that, I could never make it up. 

I ended up 2nd place overall in 21:37. 

I am big fan of the really nice plaques given to the top 3 overall finishers. As for the race itself, it was well run, the course well-marked, great race atmosphere, and hit all the times listed on the website. I really enjoyed it. 

I would definitely consider running it next year. 

The Cool Down Runner