Run for the Roses 5K

I had participated in the Run for the Roses in 2009 and finished the tough course that runs through the northern part of downtown Raleigh in 23:29. The course is very hilly and has a couple of nasty up hill portions in the final mile that I struggled with in 2009.

This year the race was the second race in the Second Empire Grand Prix Series of races and I felt confident that I was in better shape than last year and could beat my previous time.

The weather was again cold (40F, 3C), but the race was in the afternoon with the sun shining. I decided to run without my hat and gloves. Elizabeth volunteered to help with Chip distribution, so I got plenty of time to stretch and prepare for the race start. I decided to take a Strawberry Banana GU 15 minutes before the start of the race to see if it had any major effects.



Kristin and I ran the race together and set out to run hard and see what happened. The course starts out with a downhill first mile, which we went through in 6:59. The second mile is relatively flat in comparison and we slowed to 7:12 conserving our energy for the nasty up hill final mile. We paced ourselves perfectly, and pushed through the hills of the final mile in 7:45. The final 0.1 of the race was completed in 30 seconds for a final time of 22:28 and a new PR for me!


The race was won by professional tri-athlete Tim Surface in 15:57. This gives me 709 points for the Second Empire Grand Prix Series. I placed 70th out of 430 and 9th in my age group.

I am really pleased to finally break 23:00 on a certified course and amazed that I did it on what I believe is the toughest 5K course I have ever run on.