2007 Firelands 5K Race Report

Saturday started early. Due to the events of Friday night, I only got about 3+ hours of sleep. I got up early, packed up the van for a long weekend, helped get the kids around, and we headed for New London.

Brooke was the only person in our immediate family running the 1-mile fun run. The fun run is at the local recreation park where the Firelands Festival is held, and there were many people camping out in the woods along the race course. Brooke dropped out after 1 lap (the fun run is 2 laps), complaining that there was too much smoke blowing in her face from the campfires. Nephew Clayton did run the 1-mile.

I then warmed up a little with Ken and Brad, and headed to the starting line. I gave Luke some last minute advice (start slow) for his first ever 5k. I had decided I was going to try to run with Karl and run even splits, so I would be starting slow also.

Bill Spencer, the father of my classmate Eric, was the starter for the race. He fired his pistol and we were off. I was still in a big pack of runners and lost touch with Karl on the first turn. I still could see him but never quite caught up with him. I made it to the 1-mile mark in 6:24.

I thought if I did run even splits I could be pretty close to my mid-19 minute goal. I tried to keep the same level of effort to the turn-around. But in an out-and-back course, it's easy to get distracted once you start seeing the leaders coming back (and the slower runners still coming out after you turn). I dumped a cup of water on my head at the turn around and headed back, cheering for family members as I saw them. Luke was still running, not too far back. My sister Barb and brother-in-law Bob were also at the turnaround to cheer as usual.

My time at the 2-mile mark was 14:00, a 7:36 mile. That was pretty slow! I had fallen behind Shawn T., who I was even with at the turn-around. I started to focus on not falling further behind him, planning to pick up the pace and catch him by the finish.

With just over 1/2 mile to go, I realized that Shawn was a year ahead of me in school, and I was 39, he had to be 40. That meant he was in the next age-group up and I didn't have to try to beat him after all. I pretty much relaxed and coasted in from that point, getting passed in the last 1/4 mile by the 2nd and 3rd girls in the race.

I ended up 4th in my age group, but I did win a $10 Walmart Gift Card!

After I finished, I turned around and ran back to run in with Luke. He ended up with a time of 30:12, and said that he didn't walk until he got to the 2 mile mark. His legs were sore but he's definitely interested in doing another 5k.