Saturday, July 04, 2009

Race Report - Village Runner 4th of July 5K

This is the second year I ran Village Runner's 4th of July 5K, and I had a blast this year!

I arrived super early (6:30 AM) to get a parking spot. Last year I think I arrived around 7:00 or 7:30 and had to drive a mile or so away for parking. Not bad, but not ideal either.

The pre-race festivities didn't seem as big as last year's, but that's OK.

I had a lot of trouble breaking away from the pack. I decided I was going to try my best and see if I could break my PR that I set in April (33:30). When I started off races walking, I tried to get into the back of the pack! Why were all these walkers starting up front? Arg!

The sole hill is a mean one. It tricks you into thinking that you're doing good, but you're only halfway up.

I hope I ran consistent or negative splits this time, so yay for me! My first mile was something like 12 or so minutes, and my time at the 2nd mile was 22-something. The guy before the finish line yelled 32:40 before I ran past him, and I just pushed it because I really wanted to beat my time. Because it took me a couple minutes to get across the line, I think I got a 31:00 or 32:00. If I got a 30-something that would just be pure icing for me.

They always have great post-race recovery treats at this race. I grabbed an apple and a banana with peanut butter. Yummy breakfast!

I hope next year they start doing corrals, because it's just frustrating trying to move past all the walkers at the beginning.

Update: My time was 31:25.

2 comments:

don said...

That's great!

They should start the walkers after the runners. You should drop that one in the suggestion box.

Diane Lowe said...

Yeah, that's how they usually do it, but sometimes walkers won't go far enough behind the finish line.

It's not a big deal. Just something to deal with.