L11 Day 2 - Reston Firecracker 5K

Well, sports fans, gather 'round and see what went down today!

Tami and I loaded up the Swagger Wagon, and headed out a little before 6 AM.  You should really check this video out - I am totally the dad in this thing!  And, yes, we have a decked-out Toyota Sienna Swagger Wagon!

We got there at around 6:35.  As you can see Max is still pretty tired.

Eventually, we got the kids energized and happy.

Here they are wishing me luck.

Naturally, I have my game face on.

About 675 runners participated in the race.

Here's the course map.

See where the race should stop?  It doesn't ... it keeps going until you're practically due south of the start point.  This means I ran 3.16 instead of 3.1; which works out to a little over 30 seconds.

Anyhow, here I am at Mile One.  You know I'm going to be showing this picture to several people asking them just how messed up my mechanics are ... I really thought I was landing mid-foot.  Doesn't look like it here though, does it?  I was trying to catch back up with that lady, get a ride in that stroller.

I did the first mile in 10:20.4; and the second mile in 10:01.2.  Unfortunately, I couldn't quite hang on in that third mile and I did a 10:45.1.  The last part was uphill ... it was a slight uphill, but I could feel it.  Look at all the happy faces here!  Yes, I am worn out at this point.

My watch is already saying 5K complete ... so now I'm thinking "Oh God, where is the finish line??"  It's not like I can just stop with family and strangers all watching and clapping.  My heart rate is 6 beats per minutes higher than my bib number at this point.

Predictably, upon crossing the finish line, I neglect to hit the watch button for about nine seconds.  But, let's look at the stats anyway, shall we?

The important thing in the stats is the pace, which says 10:23.  I uploaded this stuff to Running Ahead, and it says 10:24.  Fine, whatever.  I'm not one to split hairs.  So, I took this bloated 10:24 pace and put that across 5K instead of 3.16 miles, and that indicates a 5K time of 32:16.  I consider that to be my time.  The race website will likely consider my time to be 32:40.  At Possum Ridge, my watch said 3.1 miles when I crossed the finish line, so I really trust it.  And, on Google Earth, the shortest route I could draw was also 3.16.  Okay, enough of that nonsense.  Let's look at my heart rate. I was really working it.

I got a cookie, half a bagel, three bottles of water, and a very nice technical running shirt.  I had started near the back, passed a bunch of people in mile two (when it wasn't too crowded), and only some of those folks caught up to me before the finish.  We stuck around for the awards.  The overall winner clocked this thing in something like 14:24.  Hadn't felt sick today at all, until they announced that time!  Whew.

The official results can be found here.

In a few hours, we're going shopping for an all new kids bathroom.  We're re-doing everything except the wiring.  And, tonight, we've got a butt-load of fireworks to shoot in the cul-de-sac.  My son (age 6) advertises that this year he will not be scared of them.  We shall see.

Update: He was right - wasn't scared at all!!