6th Annual Bobby Doyle Summer Classic 5K

Did this race two years ago when it was only a 5 mile option, and missed it last year due to a scheduling conflict.  This year I opted for the 5K race, as WTAC teammates Colburn and Jonny were doing that, and I didn't want Colburn to have to stand around waiting for me.  My friend Tim B., whose son is a runner and has been whipping him into shape, heard from me about the 5K and decided to give it a go, and I saw them as soon as Colburn and I got there.  After a short warmup, we lined up and got underway...

I was running in a WTAC singlet with the words "Miles for Madi" inked on the back.  Backstory?  Madi is a fellow member of a Facebook group I'm in called "Running the World," she's a positive and energetic girl who posts videos of what she's doing, running challenges she sets for herself, that kind of thing.  All good stuff.  She had set a goal of running a 10K a day for the month of August, then found out several days ago that she had an operable brain tumor, that could be removed.  So, all smiles, she had her head shaved, gave us a "Hey guys, going in for brain surgery, see you on the other side!" post, and got it done.  She's inspiring and has a great attitude, and came out of it already (46 stitches later) and is starting PT tomorrow!  A bunch of us decided to tally our miles and call them "Miles for Madi," so there you go...

My "Miles for Madi!" singlet :)

It was warming up quickly and I felt it as soon as the race began.  The first mile I crossed in 6:58?  The second mile had two small hills, and was my slowest mile at 7:13.  Mile three, I knew I was on the bubble for a PR (I peeked at my timer), Strava had me in at 6:55, with a final kick of 6:34 to the finish.  My time according to the results posted was 21:57 and 75th place, one second off a PR, but they weren't using chip timing so I beg to differ.  Strava has me at 21:44, at a 7:01 pace for a 5K PR, and from the looks of things if I'd kicked it in a few seconds sooner, my pace would have been sub-7?  Either way, I'm pretty stoked...and Jonny PR'd as well, coming in at 19:40!  37th in a fast field of runners, awesome.  Colburn came in at 48:27, the guy is a machine at 79 years old.  And Tim?  For his first 5K?  Came in at 29:02, a fantastic result and I'm pretty sure he's hookednow ...totally my fault, of course!!!

Tim finishing his first 5K, with son Christian pacing him.  Go Tim!  Thanks Christian!

Colburn Graves finishing strong

After the 5K was a 5 mile race, and while that was going on, I ended up chatting for a while with men's 5K winner Will Sanders, who was in a pretty talkative mood, and was keeping tabs on the 5M race with his timer and giving me updates on eventual mens winner Sam Alexander, who blazed through in 24:25???  If I fell down a mountain I couldn't get going that fast...

Men's winner Samuel Alexander

So overall, a great day.  If I start paying closer attention to my time coming in, I think I could kick it into my fastest gear sooner and hit more PR's, but I'm happy with the progress I'm making!