5k – This race was held on Sunday, Feb 23rd in 64 degrees, That’s a cooler event day than we usually get. Held on the familiar John Prince Park 5k course, this is a two out-n-back loop setup.
I arrived at 6:30 am, having already received my packet from Hannah the day before at the Juno Beach run. I stopped at Wawa for coffee on the drive to the race. There’s one at Forest Hill Blvd and Congress Ave, easy to get to on the way to the race. I had Columbian coffee and hazelnut creamer, all 90 minutes before the race. This comes back in the story…
I saw people I knew upon arrival and decided to run the larger “first” loop of the course as part of my warmup. It was humid but cooler temps than usual felt good. I saw Eric DeSimone who arrived once the daylight peaked through the clouds, he said he had been running in the dark and already had 12 miles completed. Kate DeFrancisco introduced me to Dave, the East West Okinawan studio’s owner. I met Deanna, mom of a blackbelt son, and a few others in the packet pickup pavilion.
I took time to visit the men’s restroom twice, to be sure I wouldn’t need to stop in the race. I should be able to gut-out 3 miles even if I needed a restroom break I thought to myself. I saw Hannah and her family arrive, the kids run this race each year with mom. I went aside by myself with 25 minutes to go and ran six 200-300m warmups so my lungs and legs would be used to starting off quick and keeping a nice pace. I saw some runners that looked like they could be fast – a high school aged kid that had very long legs and was stretching near the parking lot with his dad. I saw another younger guy with very large coverup sunglasses and a puffed up hairdo, I jokingly said, “Wow, I’m racing against Patrick Mahomes today.”
I felt ready to go but still wondered how I’d be breath-wise in the later miles. After succumbing to humidity last week at A1A Marathon, this was a valid concern. I know I’d get my heart rate up rapidly, like if I was running intervals on Singer Island. Could I stick out the feeling for a run from the Blue Heron Bridge to the entrance of MacArthur State Park, I thought?
The race was well organized, a timely playing of the National Anthem and then we were asked to assemble at the start. Hannah and I answered the call when the announcer said, “Runners looking to finish between 16 minutes and 25 minutes should be up front.” We lined up right at the mat, counted down from ten and began the race.
I started like I would any interval, quicker for some separation from the group. My first 400m was below 5:45 pace, that set me out ahead and running towards the first loop. There was a volunteer on the small bridge leading to the island, then small white poles that pointed the way along the course. I never looked back to see how close runners were to me, but I also didn’t hear any feet nearby. A few walkers on the course clapped and said, “Hi!” One spot on the first loop had a fork in the road, one leading to a park restroom pavilion and the other to what I hoped was the true course around the outskirts of a pond. Thankfully it was a correct guess, this was leading back towards the pass of the Start/Finish area. My Mile #1 was 6:07 pace, a good start but I realized some of that was the rapid “off the line” start I did.
The run back to the main race event area had me hear the announcer call out that “the runners were returning” – and at a good pace. I ran past, heard my name called out, and concentrated on keeping this pace at least until the turnaround of the second out-n-back loop. I ran well, saw at a glance that my pace was in the 6:20s, and didn’t look for or see my heart rate. I didn’t want to influence my running with a thought of pulling back or slowing.
Right before the turnaround I saw a race volunteer video taping me on her phone. I ran around the sign marking the turn spot and said, “Ugh!” and smiled at her. I felt two successive burps or mouthfuls of vomit, try to gag reflex me into slowing or stopping. I didn’t give in to that, I kept going. Hannah and another girl were running towards me, they were the #2 and #3 overall runners so far. I had maybe a little more than half a mile left, all with a crossing of a small foot bridge wide enough for one person. I hoped I wouldn’t need to slow to let others come by, and fortunately I had the bridge to myself for the small bit of time it took to cross it. More runners were coming at me in their second mile as I approached my third. Once Mile #3 fired off on my watch at 6:29, I knew only a straightaway and half of a curve on a track was left to run. The announcer said, “If he hurries he can break 20 minutes” which for me was a good result for my first 5k in seven years!
I came in at 19:52. I walked only a few feet past the finish and onto the grass where my heart rate was high and I was ready to vomit. That was the same two small mouthfuls I avoided parting with on the course. The Wawa coffee was back! I had a bottle of water, so I washed my mouth out and swished with that. Hannah finished a minute later and came over to tell me, “You know better than that.” I was fine lying on my side, allowing my heart to slow and my breathing to normalize. I received my finisher’s medal and did the karate board breaking, directed by Deana to go to the station where her son was.
For the win I received a pair of Chick’n Legs shorts and another lanyard style medal. I was announced as the “Young 60 year old” at the top of the podium, a funny way to be introduced. Many photos werw taken at the event, I’ve included a few in this post.
This was my baseline effort for 5k, on legs that didn’t seem all there in the final mile. Now I plan to engage 8+ weeks of 5k specific training for a race at the end of April. Hopefully good wether for that and a new PR at the 5k distance.
drun4fun 