4th of July 5K race recap

On Monday I ran the July 4th race that was being held in a neighboring town. I've been wanting to run this race for a few years now but have never been home to do so. I heard this race was a pretty big deal and there is always a large turn out. That was absolutely true!

I had to park a street away from where the park was where the race took place and as my friend and I were walking down the street I made the comment, Is there a parade? Because people were just lining up and down the streets with lawn chairs. And then I said, Oh, I guess WE'RE the parade!

The park sits right along a portion of the rail trail, so we had enough time to do a little warm up on the trail before heading to the start.

Then it was start time. I could tell that I didn't go out as fast as I did at the Relay for Life 5K last month. The course was through the park and then out on Main Street. I was running at a pretty consistent "feel good to me" pace and not trying to keep up with anyone.  As I approached mile one, I looked at the clock and was super surprised to see how well I was doing. I thought for sure the clock was lagging behind a bit so I checked my own watch and low and behold I was doing real well!

That didn't last long though because a little after mile 2 we approached a HUGE hill. I know I said out loud You've got to be kidding me!  I was not expecting that!  There was never a map of the course posted but I knew right where the park was and I remember the surrounding areas to be flat. Well, I didn't realize that the course would take us this convoluted way over what seemed to be a mountain  outside of town.  I was trying to run up the entire hill without stopping. I kept pushing myself because I knew if I would take the time to walk, I would be kicking myself at the finish line if I came in a few seconds later than I had hoped.  WELL, when I saw the majority of the people around me walking, I just figured why not? Why try to be a hero?  So, I ended up taking 3 very short walk breaks AND stopped at the water stop and had a drink.  Yes, I did end up kicking myself in the end but at the time, those breaks were totally worth it.

Okay, so after the mountain it was all down hill. I heard people saying this is the easy part now!  Even though the downhill was so much better than the uphill, I certainly don't feel like I picked up any speed because I had to run very controlled. I mean this was a steep hill and it was straight down!  

After the downhill there was a stretch of flat land where I was hoping to pick up a little speed.  And then we came to a covered bridge that we had to run across.  The surface of the bridge was metal grates and NOT ideal to run across.  I really didn't keep my eye on my Garmin except for that first mile so I had no idea what to expect as far as a finish time.  As I turned the corner to sprint to the finish, I noticed on the clock that I still had a chance to finish with in my time frame I had set in my head, but in the end, I was short by a few seconds.  But ya know what, it was okay. My friend was waiting for me at the finish line and said that I did great.

I immediately got a water and we found a shady spot under a tree and both talked about how tough this race was.  My face says it all, doesn't it?  I told him that this was a race that I would not be doing again. We later found out that my friend PR-ed at 25 minutes! I was so excited for him!

After reflecting on this race, I actually would consider doing it again now that I know what to expect. The route isn't too far off the rail trail so I could probably try running it a few times for practice next summer. I know I say this now, but really what are the chances I'm gonna run that hill on a training run, umm, probably not. But it's a good thought I have!

After the race we had some refreshments and watched some of the kids race before heading out. They had YELLOW Watermelon here (and no it wasn't rotten. It was suppose to be that color).
I had never seen yellow watermelon before. Have you?  I didn't have any though, I just had an orange. They had the community swimming pool open and everyone that ran that day was given free admission to the pool which we though was nice. Oh, and I wanted to mention that there were a TON of spectators and they were placed throughout the entire course (even on the hill)!

In the end, I found the Juxtaposition in the whole event in how my friend and I both thought this was the toughest 5K we've ever done yet I had my worst time and he had his best time. For that reason I'm linking this post up with Deb and her Wednesday Word!

As I was leaving the race, my sister text me that she had run a race as well, so tomorrow she'll talk about her race.  Did you run on the 4th?  -M