Firecracker 5 Mile

I think it might just be me, but I loved having the 4th of July fall on a Wednesday this year. Yes, I had to go back to the office this morning, but only for two days. Two days people! I wish I had every Wednesday off. Forever. Ok while I'm wishing, let's just throw in Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday as well. Oh and Saturday too since I work two jobs... 

Anyway, without further ado, I give you my Firecracker 5 Mile recap! On the ride out, Sarah helped me realize that perhaps the course wasn't as bad as I remembered... or wouldn't be as hard. She had a good point - it had been two years since I ran this race... I had probably built it up to something much bigger and badder than it actually was. Confident she was right, we headed to the starting line and I was feeling good about my decision to give this race another shot. 

Well readers, she was right. I had not remembered the course over two years as well as I thought I had. I had remembered the first mile being all uphill. I was wrong. Thanks to my trusty Garmin watch, I now know the first mile and a half are all up hill! And they are steep hills!! After the hills you make it to the canal, which is nice and flat and should be a nice recovery (I remembered that), but it was not so great because there was no shade and the sun was already blazing hot (forgot about that part). But seriously though, besides the heat and the hills, it was not so bad, although after 3.5 miles the thought did cross my mind that if I had signed up for the Brighton 5k, I would have been done already. I can't say I'm dying to sign up for it again next year, but maybe in two years my memory of the heat and hills will fade enough to make me want to give it another try (I guess I better not go back and read this in 2014).

My time was 51:15 - a 10:15/mile pace. I can totally live with that. Now here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

And to include some non-running fun, the rest of my holiday was pretty awesome. Post-race brunch at the Gorton's (delicious), laid around our air-conditioned apartment (excellent), had a cheeseburger for lunch (delicious), went to Home Depot to buy supplies to make a Plinko Board for work (not fun but it was good to get it out of the way), then to the RPO's VIP event downtown which included a make your own ice cream sundae station (delicious) and an open bar (excellent). Plus fireworks. A very happy 4th indeed!