The race kicked off Ashland County's Salvation Army Kettle Season, a great cause. It was a small race at around 40 people or so. I just stumbled upon this one from RunningintheUSA.com and decided to do it while W had other morning plans.
We started out from the Kroc Center in Ashland and headed out to one of the main roads. We stuck with sidewalks throughout most of the race. That's definitely different than most 5ks but it worked. A younger runner who looked like he was in junior high or high school took off really fast. He ran a steady pace the entire way, so I just ran hard to maintain second place. We made a loop around the Kroc facility on some side streets. I didn't wear my GPS watch and just ran on feel. No splits for this one.
I certainly felt the colder air in this one as it was in the high 30s. We have had a very warm fall and my lungs were protesting the cooler temperature. Regardless, I felt good and ran hard. There were just a few hills sprinkled throughout the course with the main one coming roughly halfway through the race. I dared to look behind me and saw the next group of runners were about 100 meters behind. I still felt pretty comfortable and let off the gas a bit before flying downhill and back to the main road. I did indeed finish in second place with a terrific time of 20:00.
I'm not really taking that time too seriously, as I'm very sure the course was short and came in closer to three miles even. That still would make for a sub-21:00 for me which is great. This race served as a nice low-key warm-up for my 60th half marathon, coming up in two weeks.
Next race: Hot Chocolate 5k- Columbus, OH
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