Third year in a row here. Not a race I need to run, but Jody has a work thing and I do want to run today. Pick up my 10th T-shirt of the year. Getting close to 100 lifetime 5K races.
Got my number and swag bag yesterday, so it is extra easy to get here and be ready to race with little time to wait. Heavy rain on the drive here, now at 8:40 it lets up just in time for a warm up. Light rain, a little wind and 42 degrees at the start. Dark clouds.
This 5K is for "competitive runners who can run it in less than 30 minutes." In 2013 there were 577 finishers. In 2014 they added the fun run after the competitive run and the total in my race dropped to 204. This year we are down to 145 runners, but with a much larger group (many in costumes) in the later event.
Warm up is OK but not great. Seattle Marathon was six days ago. Line up giving all these young fast looking kids a place ahead of me.
Start - Feel pretty good and go out fast. I know that I will slow on the clumpy grass part. Wet. Soon it gets difficult to maintain pace. Terra passes me.
Miss my mile one split time. Lots of runners with me, passing and being passed. No one I know or that I can really stay with. Slow on the grass as expected. Hard time up the hill, then more trail and out to the pavement. Feet are wet. Finish the first loop at about 7:43/mile which is dissapointing.
Grind out the second half as best I can. I-phone 6 on the ground getting rained on. I will check for it after I finish, but it will be gone, hopefully back to the owner. Kali Walker sighting. All runners got a jingle bell and I tied mine to my shorts and the constant ringing is bugging me. Lots of runners have done the same and the bells were fun for the first five minutes. Slow on the grass and hill, but running about the same pace as earlier.
Confident of beating 24 minutes but as I get nearer to the finish, I really need to speed up to get that time. Quite a bit slower than the past two years but really everything felt pretty good. No injuries or nagging spots. I will blame it on the Seattle Marathon and the weather today. Chip timed with results available right away.
23:54
55th of 145
Race#371, 5K#96, SMJB5K#3
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