Fudgcicle 5k #2

Snoozed once, up and stumbling around, dark coffee, English muffin with butter and raspberry jam, warm-ups on, and Tim and I hit the road. The destination was Tewksbury Memorial HS for the 5k race series. The series appeared to be a cool "no frills" type of event, good for mid-winter training, and it proved to be exactly that. The flat and relatively low-traffic course is ideal, just 5 miles from my apartment.

Tim and I rolled into the parking area with just barely enough time to run the course for a warm up. We met up with Ryan Gough and ran the loop together. The roads were mostly clear, although there were a couple of icy sections I made it a point to remember. I took a pit stop in the woods while the others continued back to the starting line. By the time I got back to my car everyone was lining up at the start and someone announced the race was starting in 1 minute. Oh ****! I threw on my racers quickly, and ran to the start while pinning on my number. I felt a little overdressed for the conditions since I didn't reserve time to shed my tights or long sleeve, but it probably didn't matter much in the end.

The gun sounded and Gough took over from the start. I worked my way up to his shoulder by 800m in. We hit the mile marker in 4:51, but the GPS didn't ring until 4:59. I pointed to a sketchy turn about 1.5m in and said "careful", so, of course, within a couple seconds both of us were sliding. Luckily each of us found solid enough footing to navigate the turn and continue racing. I hit 2 miles in 10:01, Gough had about a 2-second advantage. By 3 miles Gough had probably 10 seconds up on me and looked strong. I cruised in about 13 seconds back at the finish for 2nd place in 16:03.

I'm content with the effort. According to the GLRR website, the course is 3.17 miles, ~7 hundredths longer than 5k, so my 5k split was ~15:43, 5:03/mile. Even if that's not entirely accurate, to run anywhere around 5:00s at this time of year and with the road conditions as they were, I am actually pretty pumped.

We cooled down over the course and parted ways shortly after. Lauren, Tim and I went to Cracker Barrel afterward and devoured pancakes, eggs, bacon and cheesy hash browns. It was just about the perfect Saturday morning. Certainly a great start to the weekend! Results here.