Results are here

I awoke this morning to rain on the windows and cool fall like weather. I had to pump myself up to head outside in the rain, but it was a light/moderate shower, similar to the conditions of the Denver Marathon last year. Today, I raced the Fit to Fight 5k.

The race started at the Colorado Convention Center. I found a parking spot and headed over to the registration table, while the rain kept coming. I was also excited to test out my new Nike LunaRacer shoes. I did a two mile warm-up some of it inside the Convention Center, since it is huge and another mile outside, rolled off a couple of striders and headed to the start line.

At the start line there was a bit of confusion as to where the race would go, we then found out that we were running the Cherry Creek Trail. Most of the runners were part of the Fire Rescue International Conference. I took my position at the front of the pack, towards the middle as I knew there was a sharp right turn coming.

The race starts and the runners start running down the Cherry Creek Trail, rain was in full force.
Now, let me tell you something about this concrete trail, when it rains, that rain tends to sit on the trail, thus the trail at times was filled with large puddles of water and you had no choice but to run through the puddles.

I hit the first mile in 5:54, feeling good on this cool day and I am in fifth place. I can see 2nd-4th right in front of me and I have been gaining on them the last half mile and am confident that I can pass them. We then come to Confluence Park and literally had to run up some stairs, I’m pretty sure that I have never run up stairs during a 5k race. At this point I am getting ready to pass the guy in fourth place.

Wait a second, the guy in fourth place takes a right and the guys in 2nd-3rd place took a left. I literally stop, looking around, confused and I see the guy in 3rd, he stops and starts looked around, I then started looking for signs. The other guys went off the Cherry Creek Trail, so I assume that the race is held on the path, so I decide to follow the guy who was in fourth. I start running after him, but now he is probably 10 seconds ahead of me, I also see a sign for the race, thus I realize that I am on the right path.

At this point in the race, I think that I am in second place overall, assuming that the leader also made a wrong turn. I’m also a bit frustrated, stairs, I literally had to stop running, but I figured I should at least catch this guy and cruise to the finish. I catch up to him a half mile later and pass him relatively easy. At this point I see the guy who was leading, so now I realize that I am in second place but I am not going to be able to catch the leader.

I sort of put the legs on cruise control, no longer that motivated, plus my shoes are literally soaked. On the way back we are running on the opposite side of the path and I keep thinking do I need to cross to the other side, because there are only so many spots that you can cross the river and I keep thinking that I am going to run past the exit and not be able to cross because I missed the crossing. Once again, I literally stop at a point where you can cross back on to the other side of the trail; I look around and can see the leader, still on my side of the path, so I decide to stick to my side.

I live in Denver and am familiar with downtown Denver, so I recognize the Convention Center and see it coming up. I also see the leader run pass the exit for the Convention Center, I then think well maybe we are suppose to go further down the trail, nope, I see him stop, turn around and come back to the exit, he too ran of course. He then makes his way to exit up onto Spear and I am not too far behind him.

I should also note that I never looked at my watch during the race, I didn’t really care about my time after the first mile, sort of gave up. However, I crossed the finish line in 16:31! Yes, a PR, I hadn’t broken 17 minutes in a 5k since I was 20 years old. I look down at my watch and see that I had run 2.66 miles, so some might say that the course was short.

A bit disappointed but I wasn’t really that upset because I only travelled three miles to the race, it was only a 5k and I knew it would be low key and everyone was incredible friendly. They had plenty of food and Gatorade at the finish and I had a good conversation with a Firefighter from Salt Lake City. It was a bit humorous when I overhead a Firefighter talking about how he never broke 20 minutes before in the 5k and that he was elated, I didn’t have the heart to tell him the course was short.

Now here is the “funny” part. They gave out $50 cash to the age group winner, with the age group being in ten year increments. I thought sweet, I’ll get some cash, but the winner was in my age group, so no luck! I did “win” some Firefighting device, but since I am not a Firefighter it’s going to get donated to the Denver FDP in my name. I must say that $50 to the age group winner is incredible generous.

Oh, I did the second mile in 6:23, which isn’t too bad considering I stopped twice and wasn’t really pushing it that hard.