LADYBUG RUN 5K RACE REPORT

Early in the race, settling into about 7:00/mile.

The first of two races on the day was the Ladybug Run for CDH Awareness that took place in Cook Park Saturday morning. I'll get into it more later, but this was a really great race and I hope to do it again next year. All told I had my second best 5k ever and placed fifth overall. Should have done the 10k, I would have likely won it considering my PR is nearly two minutes faster than the winning time!

Let me back up though. On Thursday night I decided to do a hill workout. So I ended up running loops on the Weir Road hill near my house... all told is was 1300' of elevation gain in just five miles. Needless to say, my legs were sore and worn and didn't quite feel like racing 36 hours later. Smart Thomas. Fortunately, they really didn't come into play until halfway through my next race. For this one, they felt fine. I did a short warm up jog with about a quarter mile of race pace work.

Later in the race, about mile 2.6.

Laurel came down to run the Crawfish Crawl and I also convinced her to do this race and do a "double" as well. So I was able to meet with her before the race and chat a bit before we ran. I tried to work my way somewhere close to the front of the corral... I wasn't planning on running super hard but also knew the park paths we'd be running on weren't the widest and I didn't want to get stuck behind people.

After a countdown from ten we were off! I did have to do some minor weaving the first quarter mile or so but nothing too bad. I settled into a nice pace... my first two miles were basically right on 7:00/mile, which is what I was shooting for. It was a hard effort but I wasn't killing myself. It was definitely a little too hard considering I had a half coming up, but it felt decent enough and I knew it would be over quickly.

Nothing too much to note. That hill to get out of Cook Park is a beast! Although I ran up it, my pace was slowed to over 10:00/mile. Should that hill have been more gradual I probably would have been able to shave another 10-15 seconds off my time. After climbing that we just ran to Durham Road and then along Durham to the high school. This part of the run was really flat and nearly a mile. A good spot to charge back up after the hill.

At the high school we turned left on 92nd and then wove downhill to the park. It was nice to do downhill but a majority of the downhill was too steep so you couldn't quite attack it like you wanted to. At this point I still had pretty fresh legs though so I was able to bank some time. My 6:34 final mile certainly was aided by this hill and the lure of the finish line. After taking a short detour through the parking lot and a trail in the woods we popped back onto the road with the finish line about a hundred yards ahead.

Race #1 is done! Onto Crawfish...

I had no idea I was in sixth place at this point as I honestly wasn't even paying attention. There was a man in front of me who I passed on Durham but he passed me going down the hill. At the start of these final one hundred yards he was probably fifteen yards ahead of me. I decided it would be fun to sprint to the finish and see if I could beat him. Yes, I was that guy. And I'm happy to report I beat him by a second after passing him in the final ten yards. Sucker.

Once I was done I was pretty delirious from my final sprint and the harder than expected effort. I found some water and regained my senses. Within a minute I was back to normal and able to cheer other finishers on. Pretty soon Laurel come through, so after cheering for her I ate some of the grub that was there but then we had to leave to go to our next race.

Overall a very successful race for me. Only 17 seconds off a 5k PR without really trying to run that fast. This run was a great event and honestly I'd rate it 10/10. Decent food afterward, a free-flowing beer garden for free, a great cover band, a fantastic atmosphere, etc. Really sad I had to leave and go do the other race. Next year I'll be signing up for just the Ladybug and soaking in all they have to offer.

Official Results: 20:55, 6:43/mile. 5/190 overall. 4/66 male, 2/5 M25-29.