Santa Clarita Runners Independence Day 5k

On July 4th I ran the local 5k - I needed to do a 3 mile run anyway and I thought it would be fun to do. The race course goes right along the parade we always attend so it seemed like a no-brainer.

I parked the car where we usually do for the parade and walked / jogged to the starting area. After wandering around for a while looking for race day registration I got my number and my bag of race crap, including a pretty nice t-shirt. Since I didn't want to walk a mile back to my car to drop it off I stashed the paper bag of stuff in a bush at the junior high school across the street.

There were about 600 runners and walkers lined up at the start. Starting from my traditional "2/3rds back" position I crossed the line about 10 seconds after the gun and tried to settle into my mile one pace. (I planned to run a 9:30 mile, a 9:00 mile, and an 8:30 mile.)

As I came around a corner onto the parade route I saw my family walking along looking for a place to sit. They all yelled greetings as I went by - except for Katy, who shouted something along the lines of "Hey! There are people pushing strollers in front of you! Get moving!" Thanks sweetie!

From there it was pretty routine - slowly passing folks that went out too fast and were gassed out early. In the last mile or so I kept passing this young kid. I would pass him as he walked along panting, and then thirty seconds later he would blow by me, running full-out. This repeated itself a couple times until we got into the last hundred yards or so. I picked up the pace and passed him for good about 75 yards from the finish chute.

I heard his mom talking to him behind me and then I heard a splashing sound. I figured his mom was dumping water on his head until I turned around and saw him projective vomiting on the street. Yikes! Somehow I managed to keep it off my shoes. After that narrow escape I grabbed some orange slices and a bottle of water, recovered my bag from the bushes, and joined the family for the parade.

So, to summarize: Fun run, happy with my pace (9:40 / 9:10 / 8:30, negative splits babeee!), final time 28:25, only beaten by one stroller-pusher, made one kid throw up. Cool!