How 'Bout Them Apples?

I got up early this morning to run a small local race, the Apple Festival 5K. I've never run it before but my friend Brad has and I knew it was a smaller race. My 10-year old son "Levi" also wanted to run another 5k, having finished the Firelands 5k earlier in the month in just over 30 minutes.

My goal for the race was actually to beat Brad, who had beat me by 1:49 at the Firelands 5K, and also to finish under 20 minutes.

Levi and I got to the race plenty early, picked up our shirts, and warmed up a little. We visited with Brad, Jeremy, Angel & Don, and Paul, Cindy, & Steven. At 8:30 we toed the line, the gun went off, and away we went.

The top 3 quickly distanced themselves from the pack, 2 other high school looking kids were together in 4-5, and I settled into 6th place for the first part of the race. Concentration and focus were good. The course was flat and I hit the mile in 5:43.

The 2nd mile went down a hill, made a couple turns, and then started back up the hill. Brad caught me at the bottom of the hill and we stayed pretty close together through the turns. He took the lead just before we started up the hills. Now I was in 7th. I thought I could possibly reel Brad back in once I got up to the top of the hill.

My 2 mile split was 13:02, just a couple seconds behind Brad. 6:19 for the 2nd mile was pretty good for me.

I worked up the hill and tried to surge a little on the top, but I could never gain much ground on Brad, in fact he ended up pulling away. Also, during probably the last 600 meters, 2 other guys passed me. My fear was that they were both in my age division, but luckily for me, one of them was 50. I ended up 9th overall out of 117 runners, with a time of 19:53. My final 1.1 mile was 6:51, very solid.

I didn't beat Brad but I did break 20 minutes, and I got a trophy for 3rd in my age group!

But the surprise of the day was "Levi", who ran 25:36, about 4 1/2 minutes faster than his 5K a few weeks ago! He finished 65th overall, right around the middle of the race. His age group was 13 and under, so he got beat by several older kids, and unfortunately didn't get a trophy.

Great job son!

Official results should be posted on the LCCC website, and I'll add a link once they are up.

The race was well organized, with one water stop (that we passed twice, once out and once back). There were no raffle prizes, but there were apples, bagels, and granola bars, and of course plenty of water.