Race Recap: Feet on the Street 5K

I wanted to do a race over the weekend, but not many people from our running group were up for it – only 3 of us agreed to race, and we couldn’t agree on one.   One other member and I chose to run the Feet on the Street 5K in BG – a run to benefit Wood Lane Residential Services, which assists adults with developmental disabilities.  The course was familiar (since I used to live there, and now I run in the general area several times a week) and I really liked the logo on the t-shirt.  Let’s face it – sometimes, it’s ALL about the race t-shirt.

I had been too busy to remember to mail in my pre-registration stuff, so I registered onsite the morning of the race.  The entry fee was $25, which in my mind is a little pricey for a 5K, but when I saw how much STUFF you got in the goodie bag, I quickly changed my tune.  This baby was PACKED!  Water bottle, coffee mug, dog treats, coffee, and tons of coupons to the local running stores, etc.  The t-shirt was a tech shirt, but it was unisex (men’s) cut, so I’ll be giving that to P.  (Side note:  if you are reading this, and are a race director, PLEASE consider adding women’s fit shirts to your races!!  The women will THANK you!)  In addition to the overloaded goodie bag, there were over 140 door prizes plus a 50/50 raffle!  I was majorly impressed with the incentives at this one.   They spoiled the runners rotten!

One of the local newscasters acted as the emcee, and we all clapped and cheered on the 1K walkers as they took off at 8AM.  While the walkers were out on the course, my fellow running club member and I stretched and chatted.  We did some warm-up jogs to the corner and back, and I felt some pain in the medial portion of my left calf, and on my right shin.  I chalked it up to residual muscle soreness from the 10K just 2 days before, but I will say it made me a little nervous.  My legs have been experiencing some weird pains lately  - I guess we’ll see what’s going on with that.

At 8:30AM it was time, so we all lined up behind the bright orange spray-painted Start line.  “Runners Set”…..and then “Go!” and we all took off.  There were just over 160 runners - a nice turn out.  The course was nice and flat and took us through the residential streets of BG.  It was HOT out, as July races tend to be - 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  One downer was that the wind that BG is normally so fabulous at providing was NOT there on race morning.  I’m not sure if it was because we were in a residential area with lots of houses and trees or what, but the air was thick and heavy.

There were timers at each mile, calling out times.  At Mile 1, the timer hollered “8:43!” to me, which seemed WAY off…and Garmin said 8:54.  Post-race, it was confirmed that the timers on the course were a little trigger-happy, so times were indeed off a bit.  The finish clock was correct though...and in the end, that's the one that counts!

The course had 2 water stops; I skipped the first one but did stop at the 2^nd one just past the 2 mile marker; I was parched.  I took two sips of water while walking, then tossed the cup and kept on going.  I normally don’t stop at water stops because I don’t want to lose those extra few seconds walking, but at these hot summer races, I try to listen to my body more – my body was telling me it needed a drink.  My leg pains were gone, but my lips and mouth were parched and sweat was pouring under my trusty Oakley running glasses and into my eyes (my Oakley glasses are probably my #1 favorite piece of running gear.  Money WELL spent!!!).

The entire first 2/3 of the race, this guy in a white bandana and yellow shirt was right in front of me.  His pace was just fast enough that I didn’t want to pass him too early because I feared he’d be going a bit TOO fast and I wouldn’t be able to maintain it, but I kept right at his heels.  Passing him became my motivation – well, that and finishing as fast as possible, because it was just really fricking hot out.

At mile 2.5 we rounded a corner to the final stretch of road that would lead us to the finish line.  It was at this corner that a ton of people in front of me just quit and started walking.  Aside from the fact that I was sweating buckets and the stale air was a little hard to breathe, I felt fine.  In fact, seeing the people stop just motivated me to keep going.  I turned that corner and it was at that time that I decided to pass Bandana Guy too.  So, I did.  I didn’t see him again til after I’d crossed the finish line, which made me very happy and smiley inside.  No offense to Bandana Guy (and thanks for being my motivator!).

As we charged up the last stretch, the clock came into view.  By the time I was in a spot where I could actually SEE what the numbers were (stupid crappy vision…) it was 27:44.  I was sprinting like a mad woman to get to that finish line BEFORE the clock flipped to 28 minutes. Honestly, it felt like someone was moving the finish line farther away as I was running toward it, because it sure took me an awfully long time to get there!  Of course, I forgot to turn the Garmin off til AFTER I got my popsicle stick (d'oh) so I had to wait for official race results to post, which just went up today - 27:59 - under 28 minutes (by a hair, but I'll take it!). I was 64^th through the finish line, and 4^th in my age group….I had missed placing by quite a bit, as the 3^rd place person was 36^th through.  Oh well.   It was still a PR for me, so I’m not complaining.

Mile splits broke down like this (per Garmin):

Mile 1:  8:54min/mile

Mile 2: 9:02 min/mile (I stopped and got a drink)

Mile 3: 9:07 min/mile (I have no explanation for why I slowed down there, except it was hot!)

Garmin reads 28:04 finish but remember I FORGOT to turn it off til after I got my stick.  Official race results have me marked at 27:59 finish. 

My running club buddy had finished about 30 seconds before I did, so together we went inside and checked the list of door prize winners.  He won something; I did not.  But, no matter….they had a nice layout of water and Gatorade and donuts/fruit/bagels/popsicles plus were giving away free jars of Biscoff Spread…

We stuck around for age group awards (we both were 4^th in our respective AG’s.  Wah wah wahhhh) and then headed home.  When I got home, I eagerly tried the Biscoff Spread as I’d heard about it but never had it.  It’s delicious!!!  It’s creamy like peanut butter, but tastes sort of like a graham cracker. 

Overall this was a fun race with lots of runner incentives (and what a good cause!).  I definitely plan on adding it to my race calendar for next year!