Race Recap: Worthington Hills Firecracker 5k

Race line up: look at all of the children at the front!

The 38th annual Worthington Hills Firecracker 5k took place Sunday, July 3 at 8:30am.

Before the Race
We woke up early-ish, got ready, and set out for Worthington. It's only a 15 minute drive, so nothing too terrible, plus packet pickup was fast, and there were plenty of indoor bathrooms. By 8am, I was not in the mood to run and wanted to go home. Plus, the shirt totally sucked (hard cotton, not the best design). But it was a $15 race and we were already there.

At the start (Alex and I are in the middle looking silly)

There was a delay to the 8:30am start (more folks showed up for race day registration than expected and the timing company had to manually enter their information), but the event organizers found someone to lead light-yoga and stretching. It was nice and it got me moving, which made me more excited about the event. Around 8:40 the National Anthem played and we lined up. There were a ton of kids and parents who looked fast in front of us. The weather was pretty good: 67 degrees and 77% humidity, but overcast, which helped keep me cooler than normal for the first mile.

I'll just do a quick stream of consciousness recap since this was a typical 5k --

Mile 1: passing kids who walked, getting passed by the same kids when they sprinted, smiling at volunteers and spectators, getting annoyed by folks running with phones playing (terrible) music sans headphones. Seeing 8:16 and knowing a PR wasn't happening and deciding to take it easy.

Mile 2: thinking, "I never want to race in the summer again!" as the humidity surrounded me. "Remember when I used to run faster?" "My legs are so tired." "Oh no, another hill." "Didn't I already pass this kid?" "You know, this neighborhood is great." 8:32

Mile 3: getting passed by a woman (in the photo below) and deciding to stick with her as long as I could, smiling at more volunteers and being told, "you're the first one to smile!", feeling pretty rough and not really paying attention to my time because it felt so slow, wishing for the end, but knowing I could handle another 8 minutes of pain. I wanted to walk, especially on hills, but I kept thinking, "the faster you run, the faster you're done." 8:07

Coming into the finish behind my beacon

After the Race
I forgot the most important part of mile 3: I had to pee so badly! As soon as I crossed the line I hauled my butt to the bathroom. Whew. With that taken care of, I went back outside to join Alex and get a snow cone. There were tons of goodies at the end of the race: cookies, bagels, granola bars, bananas, coffee, candy... etc. We stuck around for nearly an hour to see if Alex won an age group award (he did not - he finished 16, but somehow 5th in his age group!), but the timing company was still having a tough time compiling the late entries, so beside top male and female, the event organizers have to mail the rest of the awards. We talked to the two women in charge and they were pretty bummed the race wasn't going off without a hitch but honestly, after the little mini-yoga stretching and the race itself I was sold on the event. It turned my sour mood around!

Snow cone time!

Stats and Thoughts
My legs were tired from my first week of workouts 5 days in a row and I still finished about 40 seconds off my PR (this course was only 3.05 miles)! I felt very slow and this is the second 5k in the past few months were I wasn't in top shape, but still ran pretty fast (for me). I'm itching for a 7:XX pace 5k this year, but the it's not the time... yet. But it's close! I can feel it!

Time: 25:09
Overall: 56/250 (22%)
Gender: 21/119 (18%)
Age Group: 6/32 (19%)

Up Next: Oiselle Midwest Birdcamp Michigan in August. Besides daily running exercises, the group is running a marathon relay. I've never tried one before and I don't know my teammates, but I'm looking forward to it!