Date: 8/28/11Location: Port Matilda (Graysdale Park), PA
Weather: Overcast, humid 65-70degrees
Race Results: 2011 Results
There were 359 runners in the 1st annual Kick Cancer 5k. The race proceeds benefit Christina Fetzer who is fighting spinal cancer.
Course: The course wound through Graysdale Park in Port Matilda. The hills were long but not overly severe in terms of the degree of incline. Although there were no mile markers, directions were clearly marked with white arrows and there were volunteers at crucial intersections. There were a few places were the race involved some quick twists and turns, but the footing was good throughout the race.
Race: After taking off a month due to an ankle injury, I ran this race to get an idea of (i) how much overall fitness I've lost and (ii) have a 5k time so that I can set a goal for an upcoming race that Liz and I are running in Syracuse, NY on October 2nd (Syracuse Festival of Races). For a warm-up, I ran a mile and did a few quick strides. The start of the race was very narrow so I ran hard for around 100m to get in front of the pack. Once there, I settled down, relaxed my form, and tried to make sure I ran the 5minutes of the race at a calm, controlled pace. In some previous races, I've found that after 5-10minutes I run at the same pace for the whole race. In this race, I tried to throw in a few surges ranging from 30secs to 1min. Overall, I ran 17.36 and was 2nd out of 311 recorded finishers.
Post-Race: After the race, I ran the course again as a cool down with two other runners. There were baked goods, water, and bananas for refreshments, and a raffle. The male & female winners received a $75 gift certificate to Rapid Transit.
Nice job, David! How would you rate this race?
ReplyDeleteI think my rating really depends upon my attitude. Taking the race seriously from a competitive angle, it rates poorly since the course was somewhat unintuitive, the start was way too narrow, there were no age-group rankings, and no mile markers.
ReplyDeleteBut, rating it from a non-competitive attitude, then it rates highly. I really liked the cause, there were lots of volunteers, good brownies and food at the end, and the overall mood from the participants was very positive.