Today was all about family. I was still feeling sluggish
from the half marathon and then the travel last weekend. Not sure if it is a
work stress level thing or what. But I have to admit for one week before a
marathon my head is not in it. I hope to take Kory’s advice and just have it as
a necessary distraction so that I can go into the marathon rested. Anyway, here
is the race report.
We woke up extra early for the girls and all four of us
headed to the capital for the final race of the Racing with Passion 5K series.
This is a well run race and it is obvious that the race director (Stephanie)
cares a lot about doing everything in her power to improve the races and make
them each better than the last. As far as that goes, I completely missed the
first race and only Sandra ran the second race. It is still a small race series
but with the great organization and goodies a must do and I hope it continues
to grow.
The plan this morning going into the race was to stay by
Sandra’s side and help her improve upon last race’s finish. This was on the
same course and in the previous race she finished 2nd overall and 1st
in the stroller division. This time she wanted to finish first in both. Since
there is a certificate prize for both men’s and women’s stroller division I also
pushed a girl.
There were a few other strollers at the start and two that
looked like they could be trouble for Sandra. I just stayed glued to her side
and we enjoyed the run. Both girls behaved for their rides. I spent the first
mile talking with them to keep them entertained and giving Sandra
encouragement. One of the other strollers stayed right on top of us and I was
getting a little concerned. But it was another guy so I told Sandra I would
just stay with her unless he tried to take the lead.
The course is a fun one. It starts up/down Gravity Hill then
up the far side of Memory Grove to go into a 180 degree turn and then 1.5 mi of
downhill.
The first part was all into a pretty strong headwind and
when we finally turned to have it on our backs it was to go uphill. The good
thing about the turn is that we could see all the other runners coming back
down and we found out Sandra was in the lead of the women’s race. Even pushing
a stroller!!! We really started to pick it up on the way back down into Memory
Grove but the other stroller was still there. As we entered the Grove he
started to pull up alongside and I asked Sandra if I could go and she said yes.
I knew she had her win and I didn’t want to jeopardize my stroller win J…
So at 2.2 mi into the race I let the hammer fall and took off.
To the other guys credit he went with me for about 200 m
before falling off. It was great as my daughter said “daddy you are finally
running!” I ended up passing a few more runners on this stretch. I wonder what
it would have been to run all out from the beginning, but racing was not the
plan today, just family fun.
The splits went as follows:
8:09 HR 161 Ascent
121ft Descent 28ft
7:12 HR 166 Ascent
67ft Descent 77ft
5:31 HR 174 Ascent
37ft Descent 204ft
0:36 HR 185 (Pace
4:40)
TOTAL: 21:27 HR 167
I did meet the winner and he seemed like a nice guy. I
encouraged him to join the blog so please welcome him, Flo.
After the awards ceremony and some nice goodies we headed to
a birthday party, then to the gelato place in the avenues our friends from
church just purchased. A must go for great gelato and coffee the place is
Dolcetti Avenues. You should all go! Then we ended up going to the Avenues
Street Fair and some playing in a sprinkler in the backyard. All and all we
were moving from 6:30am to 6:30pm a very full and fun day.
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