gobbler's run 5k: 19:41.29

we decided a few weeks before thanksgiving to participate in the "gobbler's run" in wake forest, north carolina as a family outing. after my 5k experience on 11.13.2009 at the "run to the lights", i experienced a bit of a mental struggle regarding how to approach this event. part of me didn't want to race it. i considered just running with my sisters and approaching it as a purely recreational event. i finally resolved that i would attempt to go for some age division hardware and approach the event as a race. another race factor was that my nephew was gunning for me. he had managed an 18:30 5k during fall cross country, so i was envisioning him finishing 30 seconds to a minute in front of me. he claimed that he had recently lost some of his running fitness via shifting into basketball season. i didn't believe him.

the race started on a climb. i experienced some boxing in and was a step or two behind my nephew. as we finished the climb i found myself passing him and resolved to just run my own race. i attempted to stay relaxed during mile 1 and i was able to find a good rhythm. first mile split: 6:14. the second mile started with another climb. at this point i knew i had slowed a bit, but was trying not to slide too much. i had a teenage boy in front of me who was running very sporadically. every time i started to catch him he would surge and move in front of me. i didn't figure this would last for very long, as he appeared to be struggling. hit the second mile split in: 6:41. i wasn't too pleased with the split, but i could tell that i had enough juice to pick the pace back up. after the second mile split i again encountered the surging struggling teenage boy attempting to prevent me from passing him. i finally dropped a comment: "find a pace, and stick with it." my comment seemed to take the wind out of his sails, and he faded behind me. i was pleased to see my mile three split: 6:11. i managed to finish strong and never get passed by my nephew, who i was expecting to come roaring by me at any moment. finish time: 19:41.29. mile split average: 6:20.

melinder

mary ann and robin

the gobbler finish

cole

melinda and sarah

paige

caleb

jake

david and john

reviewing the event with the bobster

a good time was had by the entire family. i was feeling confident that i might have cracked the top 3 in my age division and so i payed attention to the awards ceremony with great interest. once they got to the older age divisions, we were informed that they would only be giving hardware to number one in the older divisions. thus, no hardware for me. when the results finally posted a few days later i discovered i got 3rd in my age division (30-39) and 14th overall out of 1200+ participants. this was a better 5k experience than the "run to the lights", but 5k events continue to have minimal attraction for me.