Boca Raton, FL
18:39.1 (6:00/mile)
9th place overall (out of 260)
1st in age (out of 5)Ahh, sunny, hot Florida. The temperature at race time (7:15 am) was already 80 degrees. The race meandered around a white collar industrial park (starting at a Siemens office building) but since it was Memorial day, there was little traffic. The race was simple enough, a sortof out and back. I started out with a solid 5:40 first mile, but, as with my other 5K races, I didn’t try really hard so I slowed. I wanted to break 18, but the temperature was just a little too high.

The age awards for this small race was an actual plaque, which is pretty nice. Florida is a great place to race, slow fields and kick butt awards.

Again, what could I do if I trained for this distance? Someday I just might try. Well, I now have less than two weeks before my third marathon as a honorary Hatfield.

17:58.5 (5:47/mile)

6^th place overall (out of 195)

1^st in age (out of 10)
Official Results

The Advance Packaging 5000 is a nice local run on a dead flat course. The weather conditions were perfect, 65 degrees and no wind. I am 4 weeks away from my next big marathon, so I am obviously not training for 5K races. I wish I knew how fast I could run if I actually trained for them, but honestly, a 3 mile race seems like barely a run to me now that I do 50+ miles a week.

Before my race was a 800m kids race that my daughter entered. She ran the whole way, and the look on her face ¾ through the race was priceless. It was the face of a runner near the end of a race, tired, wanting to stop. I ran next to her the whole way cheering her on. She did great, getting a medal (everyone did) and a cool bug collecting kit.

My race started out fast, with me right behind the lead pack with a 5:25 1^st mile split. What was surprising is that I felt pretty good, actually thinking I might be able to hold it. The pack pulled away at about 1.5 miles. Without them pulling me, I faded, getting on my own little island (like almost every other race I run) and I just tried to hold on to a sub 18:00 pace.

The post-race food included a sub from Subway, which was pretty cool, although I prefer hot subs, but hey, it was free!