Old Fashioned Flat 5K

This past Sunday I took on my first race of 2020 – the Old Fashioned Flat 5K.

This year was the 25th anniversary of the Old Fashioned 10 Miler and Flat 5K. I ran the 10 Miler years ago and was registered for it again this year, but a few weeks back Coach Marc and I agreed to keep my mileage super low-keyed to let my quad strain heal. When I mentioned to both my husband and brother about possibly doing the 5K instead they were both interested so I changed my registration and we were all in for the 5K.

After a couple of frigid and blustery days last week, we totally lucked out on Sunday with temps in the upper 30s and no wind. The race was a quick 15-minute drive from my house so J and I planned to meet my brother there by 9 (the race started at 10). Parking was super easy and well-organized with lots of volunteers guiding the way. The bib pick-up was also a breeze thanks in part to receiving our bib numbers via text message ahead of time. We picked up our goody bags stopped to enter the raffle for game tickets for the Bruins, Celtics, and Red Sox, and then made a quick trip back to the cars to store our gear. I had been debating the extra layer of a vest but decided to go without it – with exception of my hands I was already feeling pretty warm and we hadn’t even started running yet.

We made our way over to the start and settled in about mid-crowd – took a quick picture, the horn sounded and we were off!

Mile 1 took us on a loop through a residential neighborhood and back around to the main building where packet pick-up had been. Mile 2 took us past the finish line area and out for a long straightaway, before Mile 3 has us re-tracing our steps through the residential neighborhood, past the main building, and then into the finish area.

I felt great the first mile but got slightly derailed in the second mile by of all things having to stop to tie my shoe. My brother and I had been running together and when I had to stop I told him just to keep going and that I would catch up. But, when I stood up from tying my shoe, my quad was not pleased – ugh, seriously! I got moving and it did eventually loosen up. While I kept my brother in sight for most of the rest of the way I was never able to close the gap. J finished just shortly after. We all collected our medals, chatted with some of the other runners and then headed for the cars.

There were so many positives about this race:

lots of friendly volunteers all along the route. Despite the fact that the roads weren’t closed, there were very few cars, and the volunteers and police did a great job of keeping everyone safe.
finisher medals with a medallion designating each distance
easy packet pick-up and parking
free race photos (waiting for them to be posted)
and, yes…the 5K course was relatively flat 😉

This is a great local race and I can certainly see running it again next year.

I’m linking this with Kim and Zenaida for the Tuesday Topics Link-Up