This Saturday was the Airport 5k, our first group race. The event started at 9:00 but registration opened earlier. We got there around 8:30 to sign-in and look around.
There were a LOT of people, and lots of fun things going on. Some of the highlights included: a man with live snakes, spiders, and animal pelts showing off his wares; a band playing classic rock; and cheerleaders from a local high school providing motivation for the runners. There was also free food (healthy stuff like bananas and salads, as well as pizza and brownies), lots of water, and of course a goody bag including a t-shirt commemorating the event.
At 8:55 they herded everyone out to the starting line which was in the middle of runway three. At exactly 9:00 we were off; there were over 400 registered runners and many walkers too. Ryan and I stayed together for a little while, but he quickly pulled ahead. We did manage to find each other going opposite directions about half way through the race and high-five.
The course was a loop starting in the middle of the runway going to the end, then turning around and going all the way back to the other end, then down around the bottom, up past the starting point again, and around the runway a second time, finally straight to the finish line at the end.
It was really neat to see everyone running; there were a few people in wheel chairs that were “running” and they were crazy fast, there was a mom pushing a stroller, there was a whole team of runners from a local school, and tons of people of all ages and abilities.
Running with so many people was both easier and harder than I thought it would be. It was easier to keep going when you got tired because you saw everyone around you running, but it was a little tough to change speed up and pass people.
At the first mile mark there was someone shouting out times, I passed at 8:44 (a little slower than I would have hoped, but still decent). Ryan said his first mile was about 7:50.
We both finished the race in the top half, but Ryan managed to get in the top 100! His time was 24:01 putting him at 82nd place with an average rate of 7:45 min/mile. I finished in 28:11 putting me at 198th place with an average rate of 9:05 min/mile. I think Ry’s time is really awesome, but I know I could have gone a little faster. I would have liked to run around 8:30 min/mile, but am still happy to have finished.
The first place runner had a time of 15:50 – which is close to 5 minutes per mile! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to run quite that fast for that long, but I would love to be able to get back to my high school speed, which was about 6:45-7:00 minutes for a mile. (In high school and middle school I was actually the fastest girl runner for the mile test, but I haven’t run consistently since then and have lost a lot of stamina) I am now very motivated to keep running and training to stay in shape and get my time down.
To top off the day, I won a ‘hole in one’ contest at Wegmans! At our local Wegman’s there was a mini-golf challenge just after the check out, to promote the LPGA which is going on in Rochester. Get a hole in one and win a prize. The hole was set up to be L shaped so you had to get it around a corner to make it in. I somehow managed to make the shot and won the awesome prize of a free container of roasted peanuts!
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5K's are so much fun! They are long enough to be worth the effort, but short enough to lead to fun for most people. There was a local one when we lived in the States that was put on by a regional health insurance company, and it was really well supported by the community as well. Sounds like a good time! I miss that. Tough to find a community 5K here in SE Europe.
Jerry