I don't think I've written a race report for a 5k in awhile, but this one was kind of interesting, so what the heck. The forecast for today was cold (low 30's) with snow showers early on, changing to rain showers later. Luckily, that was wrong. It was cold and windy, but no snow or rain, and the sun did come out later which was nice.

DH and I had a 5k race today that I was hoping to do pretty well at. The first race in our local series, it's not an easy course, deceivingly so. It's mostly flat so should be easy, but starts on a narrow road, and funnels you into even narrower bike paths with chain link fence on the sides, narrow bridge sidewalks and lots of sharp turns. It does open up in a few spots and that's where you can make up some time. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but for some reason the buses to the start were pretty slow, or not enough of them. We showed up in what should have been plenty of time and got in the very (very) long line for the buses. And we waited. And it was cold (about 30° ) and windy standing there in that line. Brrrr! I had on long sleeves and gloves but I was still freezing. The second bus to come was filled when we were about 7 people from the door! Doh! Rats. More waiting.

I was tempted to do my warmup running laps around the parking lot of the Fred Meyer's we were at (aka Krogers), but figured as soon as I did the bus would come. So finally we're on the warm bus and headed to the start. The bus lets us off just minutes before the 10 a.m. start, but I figured I had time to get closer to the front (no chip timing at our races...). But as I'm working my way through the strollers, dogs and walkers in the back, the gun goes off, at 9:58! I start running, start my Garmin and hope for the best. This would be run with no warmup...

The first mile is choked with slow runners, walkers, strollers, kids who dart this way and that, and people who just sort of run along, drifting a bit from side to side. Passing was a challenge, but I figured out if I put a hand on the arm of the runner ahead, who is inevitably drifting over into my path, they "wake up" from whatever trance they're in (and really, we just started!), and move over. So I wove in and out, zipping ahead when the path was clear and slowing while looking for openings in the walls of folks in front of me. The race directors try to organize the runners by posting pace signs along the area before the start, but it's obvious very few people were paying attention. I hit the first mile marker where someone was calling out the times "8 minutes for mile 1."  Really? OMG, that's slow... Oh well, carry on. I picked up the pace after getting off the narrow bike path and was passing people like crazy. A couple folks said "hey, did you start late? You shouldn't be back here!" and all I could say was "yeah, late buses, oh well!"

I hit the second mile in about 7:28 and the third in 7:12. A young guy passed me at about the 2.5 mile mark (just after coming off the very narrow bridge), and then I passed him shortly after. I figured if I needed incentive to find a kick at the end, this was it. Up to now, I'd been running steady but not too hard. I did have 7 more miles to do today and 20 tomorrow, after all... But after we turned the last corner, this guy puts on the power to pass me and I said, I don't think so! Found a good kick to pass him and hit the line first with that last sprint at just under 6:40 pace. Weee! But.... final time was 23:35, which is certainly not one of my better times for this course. Official results aren't up yet so I don't know how I did AG wise or overall. I was looking for any "old ladies" I could pick off, and in the end I didn't see any.

After a piece of banana and a drink of water, I reset my Garmin and headed out for the rest of my miles. I went back along the same route and met DH coming down off the bridge. He'd started way in the very (very) back, and was running along very well. He'd passed a ton of people, as there were many more behind him that I met while on that part of the course. He ended up running a good race even though starting well after the gun fired. Just before I left the course to continue my run, I met my MIL walking along with a big smile on her face. Gotta love how everyone gets out there for this race!

Fashion report, such as it is... bright pink Nike long sleeved top, black capris, the Asics Speedstars I ran Boston 2010 in (and they're still doing great!) and black gloves. Should've had something on my head as my ears got really cold later on!

Nice one, Erika!  Very nice your DH is running, as well.

Sounds like you did reall well....especially considering no warm up and the crowd you had to fight through. 

Nice work!

just hearin' about the Chena again warms my heart.

so do you and everyone runs all winter long up there

(probably just you)..

when did the ice go out this year?.

Thanks for taking the time write your race report. They always serve as an inspiration to me. I agree with Perch, you must placed very well in your AG. Big smiles reading that your DH also ran the race. Way to go Peter!!!

Now I am wondering how the 20 miler is going for you!

Too bad about all the congestion but it sounds like you did not throw in the towel because of it and gave it a good push at the end.  Brrr, that sounds cold for this time of year!

Nice job putting the metal to the petal at the end there Erika!    Was that DH's first race?