Aurora Labor Day 5K

A last minute change of plans left me around the area for Labor Day. I decided to hit a local race: the Aurora Labor Day 5K.

This 5k is at a nice little park named Sunny Lake Park in outskirts of Aurora. The course takes place on a pretty flat running path which is 1.75 miles around a lake (hence the name!)

I had just hit my highest mileage week/month yet (man, this is starting to sound like a broken record) and didn’t have any real big expectations for the race. I arrived at the park and got registered and got to talk a bit with Steve and Elizabeth (aka E-Speed) before the start of the 1 mile race. It was tempting to run the 1 mile for the sheer fact I have not ran a timed mile since my track days in high school. Been curious how my times would look now…seriously doubt I can still break 5 minutes.

After a lap and some around the lake, I was ready to go. We got lined up and off we went. As usual, I went out a bit too fast but then backed off and a steady pace through the first mile and started to bring a few folks in. By second mile I had passed a few folks and only been caught by two guys. One of the guys I hung with the rest of the race and just barely pulled a head of in the last part of the race.

After I crossed the finish line, I think my week caught up with me. I suddenly felt my calves starting to tighten up BIG time like a slow cramp. Steve saw my face and my limp and quickly said, “C’mon, you have to run. Let’s go.” We slowly did another lap around the lake (which REALLY helped, thanks Steve!) and got some great running and high mileage training advice from him along with the big question I keep getting…”So when you going to do your first 100 miler?”

Today wasn’t a PR, 19:20 on the clock, but I did mange to place 6th overall and 1st in my age group 30-49. It was good to see Steve took home first place, as he did last year, and E was first female overall. Great job, guys! Even nicer treat was a big group of folks I know showed up to run some miles and see the awards presentation.

The picture taken above is with my shazzy new digital camera which has this cool builtin panoramic picture taking thingy. Will miss my old camera...but this one is pretty sweet!