2007 Skeleton Run 5K Race Report

I ran the Skeleton Run 5K in Amherst today. My kids "Levi", "Bess", and "Rae" also ran the 1-mile Funny Bone run.

We were a few minutes late in leaving, and then we stopped to pick up Dunkin' Donuts (for after the race, we had a coupon) and coffee on the way. At this point we were still pretty close to on schedule. But unfortunately I made a wrong turn and it took us about 15 minutes to travel the mile from the donut shop to the race site.

Then we went in to pick up our numbers and Hermes had lost our registrations. The race personnel got us re-signed up but this took some time and "Levi" and I didn't get to warm up as much as we usually would have.

"Levi" ran about the same time as last year, and while he was in the top 10 overall, he didn't place in his age group.

"Bess" started off in the very back and jogged with "Rae" for a while. She ran to the side of the road and high-fived her baby brother "Gabe" around the 1/4 mile mark. The next time I saw her she had moved up past at least half of the field and was the 4th girl in the race. She ran in the low 8-minutes and got a medal for 2nd in her age group.

"Rae" knew if she finished she would have a good chance at a medal so she was just trying to get there. The finish was on the track and she picked up the pace on the backstretch, and then stopped and walked. Another girl came along and passed her, and then she took off like she'd been shot from a cannon, and left that girl (and the next one in front of her) in the dust.

"Rae" won her age group in a time around 11-12 minutes.

Then I had to hustle over for the start of the 5k. It was a narrow start due to the chip-timing and I found a spot about 8 rows back from the front. I got a decent start but never made it up close enough to the front to be able to count what place I was in, something I'm usually able to do in a race this size.

I was hoping for a mile time around 5:50 but the timer called off 5:59 as I ran past. I was slightly disappointed but kept my focus on the race and tried to keep a steady pace. (I didn't realize at the time that my chip-offset was 6 seconds and I'd really run 5:53).

We went up and down a bike path, into a little park past a soccer field, and then back down. The timer called out 12:39. Again, my actual 2-mile time would have been 12:33.

I really felt focused and engaged in the race for pretty much the entire course. I picked up the pace when I hit the track and held off a sizable pack of runners right behind me. I crossed the line at 19:57 but my chip time of 19:51 gave me my best 5k since I ran 19:27 in 2000. I got the medal for 3rd in my age group, finishing 31st overall.

I was hoping the speedwork of the last 3 weeks would have enabled me to run a faster time, but all things considered I was satisfied with the effort.

The weather was cool and crisp but the sun came out and it ended up being a decent day. We saw a parent and another family from our soccer team, as Jason's dad was running, as well as Justin's sister and mother.

Full results for the 5k are posted already.