Summer Sunset 5K

I started a race series last night in Canton, NY -the Summer Sunset 5K series.  There are three races, once a month, in June, July, and August.  Jacki and I headed over to find the location early and arrived at almost the same time.  At first we didn't know where to go, incorrectly assuming the large crowd of people milling about was for some other event.  After having run the Frozen Foote series this winter I just hadn't expected there to be so many runners!  But of course it's much more pleasant to convene for a 7:30 PM race in the slowly cooling air of a nice warm Spring day, so the turn out was much bigger!  Maybe 150 people?  Maybe less.  I'm not very good at estimating crowd size.

As we chatted in the starting area we were suddenly brought to attention by the starting gun!  Off we went.  I'm really glad I did not push the subject of Tom accompanying me with the kids in the jog stroller because it was mostly a cross country run through some of St. Lawrence University and across the St. Lawrence University golf course.  I don't think he or the kids would have had a very good time.  The golf course was quite rutted in spots.  This was my first cross country race and I liked it although I was a little concerned about rolling an ankle -which I saw one woman do... ouch.

I got quite turned around in my mind as to which direction we were running while we were dodging trees and zig zagging across lawns.  I kept hoping and hoping that the next turn would bring us back to a view of the finish line.

I pushed and pushed and I had a really good race!  My hamstring only bothered me slightly and my IT band not at all.  I'm a bit sore this morning, mostly the hamstring, but hopefully that will go away with some nice stretching and rolling on a tennis ball.

I finished in 29:54, but the race was actually 3.22 miles, so a bit over a 5K distance of 3.1.  Based on my pace it was my fastest 5K with a 9:16 minutes/mile pace.  This is JUST faster than my Free The Girls 5K that was 9:17 (and that was before I was injured and recovering from a marathon).

One of the best parts about these race series is that they are VERY inexpensive.  $2 if you just want to run 1 race and $5 for the three race series.  When I complete the third race I get a shirt!

That's about it for now.  Have a great week, and Thank You for Reading!