Frostbite 5k for Autism (1/28/12)

I ran another 5k at North Park.  Not only were the 5ks at the same location but they had the exact same course!

I got there around 8:40. I was unsure where to park. I decided to park in a lot .25 from the Boathouse but didn't want to take my chances.   Plus I wanted to get some extra miles in so parking further away helped.

I ran to register. Registration was upstairs in the Boathouse. I didn't even know there was an upstairs.  It was pretty big too. I did see a sign once on the door saying a birthday party was through the door but I didn't know the door lead upstairs.

I ran back to the car (so another .31).  I sat there and played on my phone until 9:30. 

Then I ran to the start and went inside to keep warm.  I ended up talking to some lady I didn't know and was glad we kept talking. At 9:50 I went outside.  The race should have started at 10 but it didn't start until at least 10:30.  The weather was way better than I expected.  The previous few days I kept seeing cold rain. But the rain held off until after the race.  The temperature was 35 but the wind chill was 28. (Screen shot was before the race started so it showed 33 and 28.)

I wore too many layers but I had the layers for before and after the race and figured it would still be good for the first 2 miles of the race so I would just feel hot the last mile or so.  That is exactly what happened.  I wonder if I would have run faster/better without so many layers on.

I didn't PR this time :(  I was very close to my time last time.  This time I didn't pick anyone to chase. I just ran.  The course was the same but we didn't really cross the sides of the roads as much as last time. 

At the very end I passed up this girl.  I passed her up with 2 steps left.  The timing was all manual so the guy made me stop to pull my tag off and then the girl who I passed and who ran into my BACK when they made me stop, had an official time ahead of me.  What makes it worse is she was 2nd in my age group and I was 3rd.  The only thing that makes it a little bit better is only the top finisher in each age group got an award so neither of us got something. 

 I forgot to stop the timer so the pace got so slow at the end that you can't see the pace graphs as good. The peak halfway through was the turnaround.

After the race, Adrienne and I walked down to see her son finish and then her daughter.  After we saw her son, we saw some lady that was injured. She was grabbing her knee. She injured it. I'm not sure what she did, but I assume fall. She kept grabbing her knee but I think it was bloody.  Adrienne and I ran to get the race director and some lady went to get her with her fan.  She was concerned about driving on the course.  It was only about .25 from the finish and since it was so far into the race, there weren't that many people so we told her she'd be fine driving to get her.  I never saw what happened to her after that.  I'm kind of curious.

Adrienne and I stayed at the finish for a few minutes until she saw her daughter coming in. She ran down to run in and finish with her.  I got a picture at the finish.  Race photographers did too. Their pictures were better but who knows if I'll get to see those official ones at all.  I'm still waiting to find out about the Resolution Run pictures.

After the race, we headed to Parish Hill for the awards.  The directions needed to be more specific to get there.   I didn't know the distance. Also they should have warned that I'd have to park up the hill because Parish Hill doesn't have enough parking in their lot.  I had to go all the way down to JC Stone field to turn around and head back up the hill.

They had some food and some water. There was some local up and coming rapper there.  Then they did awards. That's where I learned only the top runner in each age group got a prize instead of the top 3. They also only gave the top female an award not the top 3 females.   It was the first year for this race and I hope they make some changes for next year.  There were 300 runners this year so that was pretty good for a first year race especially a first year race that had very little online about it.

While I ran this time, the splits that popped up were rounded down and my mile 1 added up was 7:59 but unrounded numbers ended up with 8:01.   This was the first time I realized each split is rounded down that pops up.  I think I will have to set goal times 1 second lower from now on to account for this.

Compare my splits from the Frostbite 5k to the Resolution Run.  My best split and worst split were the same.  I had 3 splits under 2:00 in both too.

Official results are posted and I'm shocked how many there are in my age group!