Brent Strong 5k 2016 Recap

Brent Strong 5k

I’ll be honest. I don’t run a lot of 5k’s.  

The problem is that I THINK they’re going to be a fun short run and then Chrissy and I will go get pancakes after.

Around the halfway mark I start to remember that they are actually really hard and uncomfortable and that I shouldn’t eat a breakfast bar (or donut) 5 minutes before the start.

(I’d like to say this is a onetime mistake, but…I can’t. I’ve done it multiple times, and I’m comfortable saying I’m probably going to do it again.)

So after I ate my breakfast bar while we were getting our pre-race instructions, I lined up with everyone at the starting line.

The P3 crew represented! I couldn't find ANY of my gear that morning!
Of course I found it all after the race.

Oh, and I had left my shiny new Garmin at Chrissy and Josh’s house the night before so I dug my 310XT out of the drawer (which was miraculously charged). BUT…I had forgotten how the buttons work and had a little bit of panic moment that I couldn’t remember where the start button was. “Wait! I need to “reset” first!...Oh. I already did that. Whew!”

This is post race. I had to take my glasses off because they were fogging up.
Photo Credit: Karen Burkey

Then we were off!

I grabbed the 2^nd place spot pretty quickly, although I had been eyeing the other runners before the start (I know you do it too) and was expecting someone to pass me at any moment.

We were running the trails at Millersylvania State Park and despite the recent rain the trails were in really good condition. They aren’t considered “technical” in the worst condition, but it’s still nice not to be slipping or sliding around in mud.

The race volunteers had marked the course really well with caution tape and little arrow signs. I was following the kid in front of me and for no real reason figured he knew the course…but he didn’t. Someone had torn down (probably driven through) a section that was blocked off and as I ran across the fallen tape I thought “That looks like someone tore it down. I think I’m going the wrong direction.” But…I kept going. That is, until I heard the guys behind me yelling at me that I was going the wrong way. Which I thought was very nice of them.

Of course whenever something like that happens during a race it throws your rhythm off, and then you feel like you have to hurry to get back to where you were before you didn’t pay attention and torpedoed your race…

So I sped up and passed everyone that had passed me during my detour and it was really hard.

The combination of nursing a cold, running, fall and eating a breakfast bar at the start line resulted in an enormous amount of phlegm in the back of my throat. I managed to spit half of it onto the ground in a competent manner and the other half flew back into my own face.

It’s not the first time it’s happened…it won’t be the last.

But the weather was perfect, the trail was awesome and I gave high fives to the cute (but more importantly nice) fire fighters who volunteered and who pointed the way in such an exaggerated manner that someone must have told them about my earlier blunder.

I finished 2^nd overall because somehow the kid in front of me earlier managed to find his way back to the start…Dang it!

But what is even better than 2^nd place overall?

Being cheered by a tiny wee bat as you cross the finish line!