Good afternoon...
Jen~ Good job on your run in Philly. It sounds fun, but not suited for the hot weather... maybe it should be scheduled in the fall?
I ran the
Spring Lake 5 in New Jersey. I woke up in Toms River with heavy rain falling. It rained the whole way to Spring Lake, but it was raining hard in some areas, not so in others. The weather dude was calling for it to move out to sea but later in the day.
We got to Spring Lake and found a great parking spot along the ocean side of the main starting road and walked to pick up our shirts and pilsner glasses. They mail your bib to you, but you have to get the other items at the race. We got about 200 yards from the car and the sky opened up. Jim and Andrew continued to towards the tents to pick up the items, I ran back for umbrellas and then found them huddled under a tent flap a few minutes later.
The rain stopped before race time and other than it being humid and slightly on the warm side, it was good running weather. I started towards the front of the pack of the 7,581 people that ran this race. Yes, there were over 7,500 runners/walkers!!! It is a BIG race and its well supported by the community.
I got out fast and weaved through some slower runners ahead of me and managed a 7:49 first mile and I kept it rolling at the same pace for mile 2. From there I kind of sank into a groove, but a slower groove. I managed an official time of 43:00 flat (chip time) for the 5 miles. That works out to be an 8:36 Pace.
My splits were: 7:49, 7:49, 8:59, 8:59, and 8:57.
This was a 5 Mile Run PR for me by 1 minute, 14 seconds.
My Overall Place was 1,711 / 7,581
I finished fairly strong and enjoyed the race and post race refreshments. They do it right with: Aquafina water, sodas, Skinny Water, Bagels, Cookies, Jersey Mike's Turkey Subs, Doritos, Bananas, and Goldfish pretzels. Plus they give out a cool t-shirt, glass, 2010-11 calendar and medal each year.
Andrew finished in 57:19 (11:33 Pace) and my friend Jim finished in 39:21 (7:57 Pace).
Happy Memorial Day everyone!
Howard