Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Ronald McDonald Firecracker 5K

Race Recap

This is one of the most popular races in the area.  The name says it all.  Great cause!  There were over 1100 runners at this years event.  Unfortunately, this year there was some construction on the route, so the organizers had tochange the route.  The bad news is that this ended up with a short course.  Right at .25 miles short.  Not good when the race is only a 3.1 mile race.

Race time was 7:30 AM and it was might hot by then.  They temps were probably around 85 or higher by the start.  Humidity was off the charts!

I tried a new warm-up routine for this race.  I did some good stretches and a 1 mile warm-up run.  I think it helped and I will continue this routine from now on.  I felt good throughout this run.  Had one spot where I was feeling tired, but thought about a comment a friend of mine said just before the start.  The friend's name is Rueben and he is 67 years old.  He has been running all his life and was a pretty damn awesome runner in his prime.  For that matter, he still!  He consistently wins the Senior Grand Master award.  He told me just before the race that when I hit that point where I was tired and the mind was saying either stop or slow down, to bear down and push through it.  That is exactly what I did at the 2 mile mark.  I put my head down, my mind in gear, and pushed through it.  Finished strong!

My time was 23:46, but remember, it was a short route.  I ended up finishing 11 our of 47 runners in my age group.  Not bad. Would have like to get in the top 10, but I'm ok with 11th.

2 comments:

Megan said...

That happened to me a few weeks ago. The race was about .20 short. It makes you feel like you have to put a big asterisk on your time. :/

Lisa J said...

wow its much easier said than done to actually push through the mental barrier- congrats on a race well done