Today was a United Way 5K race that was sponsored by our company at our company park. This has been about its third year as a race, but our first time making it. It was surprising to pull in and find that we had people directing traffic and the attendance was quite large. Apparently last year they had about 300 5Kers and this year was guestimated around 600-700 5Kers (will have to say when the results are posted online).

The course was two laps of the park with the second lap included a bike path area. The temps were mild and there was a foggy mist in the air, it felt perfect out. Although the race has grown in size they have yet to do chips for this race, maybe they will consider it for next year based on the popularity.

The race itself went smoothly. I felt great the whole race. The two laps did mean that we had to maneuver large groups of walkers around 2.5 miles so I just said excuse me a lot. I just tried to be careful to not have someone change direction and step out in front of me, but it wasn’t annoying or anything. I was just happy to see so many from our company out there. It was funny to hear little kids say things like “why are they going so fast?” and a lot of “woah” and “jeez” as we all tried to make our way past. Rob was well ahead of me the entire race and fell out of view anytime we moved into a new section of the park so I knew he was feeling good as well.

We both PRed!
I came in at 23:14 and Rob was 22:31!!

I also got third in my age group! The age groups were larger than most races we run (30-39), but the awards went 5 deep.

Us and our fellow pilot buddys (Keith, Linda, Rob, Me, Tanya, Terry).

Me and my medal.

Medal up close.

Stats:
23:14
7:28 pace
F 30-39: 3/92
F: 5/326
Overall: 42/596

And that’s it for racing before the marathon. We are missing some fun 5Ks and 10Ks for the marathon training, but it will be worth it. With fall being a popular race time sometimes it leaves us picking and choosing between events.