Firecracker 5k

Chad-

Another week, another race, but for the first time this year, a win. Special thanks to John, Aaron, and Paul for not racing despite being on site and working the water stop. This was an odd week, as I ended up in Raleigh for two days for work. I had planned on running the Summer Track Series Championship 5k on the track Tuesday night, but with a 6pm start time and my meeting ending at 4pm it was impossible to get back in time. Danielle had requested a week off of racing and that I did not wake her at 6am getting ready for a race, as she can’t fall back asleep very well.  She thought that meant I would take a week off of racing, I took that to mean that racing was allowed if it was a night race. Luckily for us, there was a night race. How perfect. So with my workouts all messed up by the trip to Raleigh and too many bike miles on my legs at the end of the week, I decided to jump in the Firecracker 5k on Sunday night and Danielle decided to volunteer at the CRC water stop.

At the start I saw Alejandro, who is a very good runner, but injuries have sidelined him from any speed work, so he was just hoping to break 18, (which he did). I’m hoping he continues to get better and can make it out to more races. I also got to meet Frank Fawcett who is a beast of triathlete, heading to Kona this fall. I tried to get him to tell me what he was looking to run but he said he doesn't run 5k's, had a bunch of long running and biking on his legs from the weekend and was just having fun. He ran sub 19.

At the 2 mile marker

30 seconds into the race I was in about 15th place as a large group sprinted down the hill at sub 5 pace. A minute into the race the course turned uphill and suddenly I was alone in first running about 5:20 pace. It was a rolling course and I couldn't really tell if one mile was worse than any of the others. It seemed like we either went up or down, but never flat. The first two miles felt very good and I got a huge pick-me-up going by the CRC water stop twice. Aaron was nice enough to throw some water on me and Danielle tried to take some pictures. She is a better runner than a photographer. I struggled a little coming home on the last mile as the volume on my legs caught up to me a bit. Perhaps the 22 mile bike ride with Danielle at noon was a bad idea. I was very happy to see my time (16:44), as I would have been very happy with anything under 17. Back-to-back races with the same finishing time. I’m feeling good and hoping to continue to shave seconds off my time in the upcoming weeks.



Max modeling the super
soft race t-shirt



Next weekend is the Splash & Dash (300 yard pool swim and a 5k run) and a visit from Danielle’s sister. Last year, I was 2nd to Billy at the Splash and Dash by one second. In retrospect, sitting down during the transition was a bad idea, but it was my first multi-sport race so everything was still new to me. I’m hoping my swim and my much improved transition skills can translate into a win.