Running for Maple Syrup?

This past weekend was the annual Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival and with it came a 5k.

Now, let me back up a bit.  I started running about two and a half years ago and ran my first 5k in September of 2013.  It wasn’t completely awful.  I finished and didn’t have to walk so, at the time, I considered that a win.  Ever since then I’ve been working on how I can get my 5k time faster.  The first goal was under 35 minutes.  And then 33 minutes.  So this summer I’ve decided I want to join the sub-30 minute 5k club.  My PR for the 5k after last summer was 30:42.  But there’s a problem…  I don’t run many 5k anymore.  Since I’ve started running half marathons I tend to lean toward running the 10k when it’s an option to help my training.

Anyways, back to Wakarusa.  According to my husband (who grew up in Wakarusa) there used to be a 5k around the festival but it was always the weekend before or after.  And this year was the first in many that a 5k has been run.  It’s a small town where everyone knows pretty much everyone so it’s easy to find people to talk to and run with.  The race started at 8:00 and had packet pick up starting at 6:45 so we got there around 7:00 and Mark ditched me with the kids to go do his warm-up.  Me, on the other hand, got my warm-up as I was chasing the three year old around the walking path for a half mile.  This was also the first 5k race we were going to let our daughters run solo.  I say solo but in reality, my father-in-law came out to run with them and as I said before – everyone knows everyone so we knew they were safe.  And it’s also a smaller race with only about 100 runners.

(That’s my speed husband in the BibRave Orange)

A friend Keri and her husband also decided to come and run so before the race started I decided that would try to keep up with Keri since her 5k time is faster than mine in that sub-30 category I’ve been reaching for.  We started off and I kept pretty good pace and Chloe (my 8 year old) was even keeping up with me.  The thing you need to know about Chloe – she starts off WAY too fast and gets a side stitch and then wants to walk to the finish.  Chloe said she wanted to run all by herself so when she slowed to a walk I kept going and ditched her.  I don’t know why but I let Keri get out of my reach and I felt my pace starting to drop.  Trying to keep pace I found another familiar face, Kathy, who’s husband used to be Mark’s cross country and track coach, so I decided to keep with her for the remainder of the race.

The course had a few out and back which was nice because I could see where the girls were when I did my turn around.  At the second out and back I saw Emma (who was running with my father in law) but could not see Chloe.  Looking at my watch I knew Mark would soon be finishing and that he could go find her to make sure all was okay.  I saw him coming towards me right about the 2.5 mile mark and told him to go find Chloe, that I hadn’t seen her since the first turn around so off he went.  I could see Emma close behind me (this girl will for sure beat me in a 5k by the end of the summer) and the finish was near.

So I finished.  I finished with a time of 30:09 . . . One would think I’d be ecstatic – a 33 second PR.  It’s something to be super excited about, right??  I was mad.  Mad that I was 9 seconds – NINE freaking seconds – off of that 30 minute goal.  And then even more upset knowing that if I had kept with Keri I would have gotten it.  And then finding out Keri had gotten first in our age group!  I still ended up 3rd but it’s just the fact that I’m not super speedy so when I have the chance to possibly WIN my age group, it’s pretty exciting lol.

So Mark ended up getting 1st overall (shocker) and you can read his race review here (don’t be surprised if you see many of the same pics lol).  And the girls got 1st (Emma) and 2nd (Chloe) in their age groups.  So overall we made out pretty good in terms of free syrup.   Gotta love when we can find a family friendly environment to get outside and enjoy some beautiful weather.

So final thoughts?  It was a nicely run race with some great awards.  Can’t wait for next year when we can run it again and see how much the race can grow.