Candlelight Run

The candlelight run... how should I start. Well it was definitely hot. We ran the 1 mile fun run with the kids and it wasn't too bad because there was a breeze and it was only a mile and we took walk breaks.... For a few moments I thought that the 5K was going to be pretty nice. Then the race started.

The asphalt was still hot and I think the temps were still in the 80's when we started. Earlier in the day, I had hoped to PR but it didn't take long to figure out that wasn't going to happen. First, there was a pretty big crowd. For once in my life, I wasn't too shy and got in the front part of the pack. Not near the leaders, but up front where I was sure several people would pass me. I don't normally like this strategy, but I really didn't relish the thought of the mass of humanity that was going to merge into one lane on an uphill stretch of the race.

The course started out downhill and then had a short uphill stretch followed by a 180 degree turn that was as dangerous as I expected. I went wide since I knew it wasn't going affect my time in any significant way. Following the nice little downhill we started uphill for the last time. Unfortunately is was well over a mile uphill. I did well until about halfway, then I started to falter. One guy sounded like he was about to heave and sped up for a few minutes to get away from that possible disaster. The mulch smelled fresh, and that wasn't very pleasant. There was a little boy balling his eyes out while running at this point. I though he was just hurting, but he was upset because his dad had left him or lost him.... Someone started to try and comfort him, but I think he was upset for a while. As we approached what I thought was the top of the hill, I realized that I had not seen the leaders coming back down yet. That bothered me because I knew that I was nowhere near the leaders so obviously I wasn't too close to the turnaround either. When I finally saw the blue lights coming down the hill on the other side of the median I felt a small sigh of relief.

When I finally made it to the top and turned, I had to remind myself that I had over a mile back down. Even though it was downhill, it was still running. I hit a pretty good stride as I got my wind back and made it down the hill. When I saw my time (24:07 chip time) I was a little disgusted that I didn't push hard enough to come in under 24 minutes. However, given the conditions I was pretty happy.

The race was pretty well organized and since we heeded the warnings and arrived early we had no problems. The hot water at the finish line was a little disappointing, but there was plenty of cold water and gatorade further up the road. Lee said she was going to do the mile with the kids next year and then cheer me on at the 5K. I think she will run when the time comes though...