Summer Racing Update

Freedom Run 5K+ 
On June 30th I ran the Freedom Run 5K in Wake Forest. It was a cloudy morning but still hot and humid and I was covered head to toe in sweat by the time I had walked to the starting area from the car. I had that sub-20 5K goal in the back of my mind but the weather and the hilly course meant it was very unlikely. I found a playground for Jack and Liz to play during the race and then warmed up (not sure that is the right term on such a hot day) and headed to the starting line. I found it a little strange that the "lead car" was parked behind the runners instead of in front, but that was quickly corrected and we headed downhill to the first turn on the course. I hadn't run this course before but I had studied the course map and ran part of it during my warm up, so I knew we were meant to turn right. There were lots of youngsters in the race who sped of at the start and followed the lead car as it rounded the roundabout and went left! I happened to be running alongside a friend of mine who also knew the course and we both shouted to the runners ahead that they were going to wrong way before taking the rest of the field on the correct route. I don't know how long it took for the lead car to tell those that had gone wrong way to turn around, but I certainly felt bad for them. There was another part of the course which seemed strange at the time where we passed the only water stop on the other side of a divided highway, but more on that in a moment.

Just before the lead car mistake

The course was hilly and the weather caught up with me in the middle mile of the race. The eventual winner passed me at that point (yes, I had been leading for 1.5 miles!) and I dropped back to 8th overall where I stayed until the finish. I thought I was on for a 20:40-20:45 finish until my watch beeped for mile 3 with a full quarter mile to go until the finish line just as we were being directed around the outside of a roundabout for the final turn to the finish. I ended up finishing in 21:45 and running 3:25 miles. I checked with some other runners who also measured the course as being 3.25-3.30 miles and we came to the conclusion that the course hadn't been measured for a lead car (which has to stay on the right side of the road and go around roundabouts) and as a result, we'd all run too far for a 5K.

Overall I was disappointed. The roads were open to traffic and on three occasions I'd come face to face with cars on the roads who were unaware that there was a race going on. The lead car had lead 40-50 runners in the wrong direction and then lead everyone on a long course.

Result: 21:45, 8th overall, 1st age group


Denny's 5K
On July 14th I ran the Denny's 5K at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. I got a $10 entry to this race, which is the main reason that I decided to go and run on the Cross Country course which is hilly and a mixture of packed mud, sand and grass. It was another hot and humid morning which is no surprised for North Carolina in mid July.

I had no time goal in mind as I had no idea how fast I'd be able to run on all of the different surfaces. I ran a 24:15 on this course in 2009, so I knew I wanted to be fast than that, but other than that I just wanted to finish as fast as I could. The race started in the middle of a field that was soaking wet from the rain the night before and my shoes were soaked in the short walk from the gravel road to the start line. The start was downhill for about 0.3 miles (on the wet grass) to the woods where we switched to a packed mud/sand track that looped around and returned to the grass were we climbed back up the hill and looped around the outside of the soccer park on packed mud/sand. By the time we got to the 4000m marker (the course was marked in meters and miles) I knew that the final hill was coming up and that I had nothing left. I had tried to pace myself with the final climb on the grassy hill in mind, but I didn't do a good enough job and had to power walk up the steepest part.

Approaching the finish

I was disappointed that I had done a poor job of pacing myself even though I finished with a good placing overall and in my age group. I'll get another chance to run a better race and time on this course in late August in the Run for Life 5K

Result: 21:47, 16th overall, 2nd age group


Expressway Trot II 5K
On July 21st I ran the Expressway Trot II in Cary. This race took place on a newly finished but yet to be opened section of I540. When I signed up for this race I had my sub-20 5K goal in mind but the hot and humid weather made me change that to running an even paced race.

I was grateful that it was overcast and there was a slight breeze across the 6 lane highway as there wasn't any shade on the straight out and back course. I ran my best race for a while with splits of 6:20, 6:42 and 6:39 and gradually picked off runners that were ahead of me during the last half of the race. The course itself was very boring as there was nothing to look at, but it was certainly a very unique thing to do.

Result: 20:29, 6th overall, 3rd age group