5k on St. Pat's Day Race Report

The race that is the kick-off to the Colorado Springs Grand Prix of Running is my favorite 5k race. There are several reasons for this:
1) It's a flat course, and for Colorado that's rare!
2) It's a community event - over 2000 people come out wearing green and other fun St. Pat's Day spirit wear.

no lack of St. Patty's Day Spirit here!

Today started off pretty typical. I met the TNT team at Monument Valley Park for a run. I do this every year....they run 50-60 minutes, and I run 30-40 as a warm-up, along with anyone else running in the 5k. After my warm-up, I walk over to the starting line, which is less than a mile away in downtown Colorado Springs. Temps were near 50 and sunny with a bit of a cool breeze.

Chris, Coach (me), Kisti, Bridget - awesome TNTers!

I get to the packet pickup and within 1 minute I have my packet and get my bib and chip squared away. This year the race is start and finish chip timed.

Race number 1598. Love my rainbow injinji socks.

I then head over to the port-o-potty line and it is LONG! But moves quickly. When I'm done there I have 3 minutes until the start. I squeeze myself into a spot near the front and find Ken Boggs from Runner's Roost. He's wearing bib #1! He told me the store did it to him as a joke. I think he's coming off an injury and told me I'd likely beat him. Yeah right, I said. (but I did...)

The gun goes off and the crowd surges forward. I ran a 23:32 last year, so I'd like to match that. I haven't been doing any real speed work - lots of base miles - so I didn't know what to expect. Going into the race I was recovering from a cold from 2 weeks prior and not enough sleep. But my legs felt strong during the warm-up so I was hoping for a strong performance.

And here's what I got:

Here's the link to the file:
Garmin GPS/HR data

My time was 23:12 but the chip time was 23:08. A 20+ second PR over last year's race and a 5th place age group finish. I'll take it!

Here are a few more pictures of the day:

bouncy things for the kids

guys with bagpipes

hanging out before the race with Pikes Peak in the background

runners almost to the finish

gorilla bouncy thing...

people in green heading towards the finish

And a link to full coverage of the event on PikesPeakSports.us