Thursday, July 4, 2013

Firecracker 5K for the Troops

For the 4th of July we decided to do what we do for pretty much every holiday now, and run a 5K.  We ran the PR Firecracker 5K Run for the Troops.  Today's race benefitted the USO.  We got there about an hour before the 8 am start.  The porta potties were plentiful so that got two thumbs up from JD.  It was overcast, but it was extremely humid.
Pre-race
Pre-race with Dad

We have all run this course before last year and also for Run with Santa so we are pretty familiar with it.  It was the boys 3rd time on this course, and my 4th time.  JD was pacing Zach, and I was pacing Nic.  Nic and I were hoping to get under 33 minutes.  Zach was hoping to get sub-30.


 The humidity was just killer.  Zach had a rough go of it and got a stitch early on.  JD reports that he gave it all that he had, but let up a little just before the finish line.  He was a bit frustrated to hit 30 minutes even so not goal, not PR, but it was a personal best on the course since he ran a 31:19 on the same course in December.

Wiped out!

Nic was battling it out with another 6 year old the whole way.  I was feeling competitive, and I didn't like his mom's snotty attitude at the starting line so I was hoping Nic could pull it out and run a better race.  Nic really pushed it up the last hill and gave me a good sprint putting down an 8 minute pace in the last 0.2 miles of the race to finish in 33:22.  Again, it wasn't quite what we were hoping for, but he was the best 6 year old on the course today and improved his time 5 minutes from the race there in December. 

I think the boys did a great job given the humidity today and also the fact that they had run the 8K on Saturday and then a pretty hard track meet on Tuesday.  That's a lot of racing for little legs.  We are off to hike and run out West.  Next race report should detail JD's suffering at the Vail Hill Climb.  The boys and I will probably be racing again at the 4th Annual Three Fox Vineyards 5K.
Showing off the USO dog tags after recovering at Starbucks


















Happy 4th of July!  Run Free!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a fun day! Greg and I were there too, but that race was SO crowded, it would have been hard to meet up!

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