Running Dead 5K - Moline, IL - Saturday, October 11, 2014

The day was gorgeous.  Jason and I were going to run a half marathon in Nauvoo, Illinois that morning, but since Jason got injured in  the Timber trek race last week we decided to not run the half.   Thank goodness we hadn't registered for the race in Nauvoo or he would have lost out on the registration fee.  We were waiting until the 8th to see how we felt since the Timber Trek mud/obstacle race before registering for another half. So since neither of us signed up, we both slept in really late.  We decided to clean carpets instead.  Then we did some yard work.  I found this race online and it said it was an afternoon race.  It looked amazing.  My only regret is that I didn't sign up sooner to save money.  We weren't sure we would go, but as the day progressed we decided to go.

It was a 5K on the side of the Mississippi river.The area was absolutely beautiful.  We arrived nice and early and I asked at the registration if I could get a shirt.  I was only going to do the race IF I could get a shirt since the fee was higher to sign up race day.  Otherwise we would have both just volunteered and then went out to dinner instead.

The race started at 4 p.m. and since we arrived early we had a chance to walk alongside the Mississippi river and relax for a bit.  Here is a picture that Jason took of the Mississippi River

I didn't take any pre-race pictures and I'm not sure why.

At about 3:30 Jason walked to the place where he needed to block off a street since he was a course monitor for the race.

I began to warm up.  I did a .30 mile run then some high knees, some kick backs, some side twisting run things, some skips, then another .30 mile run, then walked about a half mile.  I felt great.

I lined up near the front and when the gun went off I took off a little fast.  I had a 7 minute mile pace to start.  That is too fast for me and I knew I'd die off soon.  But I felt good so I kept going.  I only maintained that for about a half mile when I slowed a bit.  My first mile was an 8.20 mile pace.  Not bad.  Mile 2 was a little slower, but not by much.  I was still maintaining the 8.20-8.40 for most of it.  There was a turn around at 1.30 and that worried me a bit because I remembered the race course being an out and back course on the internet.  If we were turning around at 1.30 then the course would end up being REALLY short.  But I figured that when we got near the finish line we would go past it and have another turn around to make it a 5K distance since this WAS a 5K right?

About .20 away from the finish line when we COULD HAVE GONE straight and gone down the street more and then turned around and come back to the finish line people were going straight into the finish line.  Weird I thought, this can't be?????  "If we go straight to the finish line then my time will be 22 minutes something and the distance isn't right.  Something is WAY off by like a half mile off."  Sure enough it was WAY off, it was tiny bit more than a half mile off.  This made the race a 4K, not a 5K.  I was bummed.   I was set up to have another major PR in a 5K.  I'm pretty sure I could have knocked another 30 seconds off my record, maybe more.  I felt so good and I usually speed up at the end of the race.  Oh well, every race can't be perfect, but having the distance off that much was a bummer.

I expected to place since not a lot of girls passed me and I only had 4 in front of me when I started, but I never expected to receive 1st in my age group or be 10th out of 100 women.  Pretty cool.  The next closest person in my age group behind me was 3 minutes and 10 seconds behind me.  Now if I had to run another .55 miles would I have kept this lead?  I don't know.  I hope so and I was hoping to place in this race since the awards were really sweet looking, but you just never know who will sign up or show up.  The full race results are HERE!

Good things about this race:
Chip timed for a gun and chip time.
Cute bib for your scrapbook
Great looking shirt.
Food after the race.
Sweet looking age group and overall awards
Race started on time.
Race course was flat.
Lots of volunteers

Not so great things about this race:
The course was short.

I took a few pictures and those are below.  None of me this time.

Shirt with the medal.

Up close picture of the medal.  It is a wood medal with a ceramic piece on top.

My race bib