Firecracker 5K Race Recap

Rush Runners at the Firecracker 5K 2010

Saturday was the annual Firecracker 5K race at Lake Atalanta in Rogers.  This race is held around a small lake near downtown Rogers.  The road around the lake is mixed terrain with the majority being unpaved.  The course is an out and back that goes almost the full way around the lake before turning around. 

Running with Rush teammates

The weather was okay...a little more humid than I would have liked.  I did a short warm-up run before the race started.  I got lucky that one of my Rush Running teammates Jody is nursing an injury and was able to run with me.  Normally, she is much faster than me so it was fun to have her company during the race.  We started with an easy pace and some fun.  I have done this race several times and this was the very first time that there have been cars driving around the lake during the race.  Jody's boyfriend Shannon was running with us (after running 16+ miles to get to the race) and did a good job of warning all of us about the approaching cars.  It was quite humorous since we could all see the cars with our own eyes!!!

We hit the one mile mark and the water stop.  With the heat and humidity, we took water and got ready for the hills which began just after that water stop.  The hills are on uneven terrain which only makes them more fun.  In previous years, I have walked up various parts of these hills so it was great that I kept a steady pace up the majority of them and didn't walk until the very last hill.  The cruel part of this race is that the turn-around point is after you climb and descend a hill so you go up, go down, turn around, and go back up.  There's just something not very nice about the design of that!

Not bad...3rd in my Age Group and I was happy to find out there were more than 3 of us!!!

The return trip was very lackluster.  I started challenging myself to pick up the pace around .6 miles out from the finish.  I took the walk break going up the last hill around mile 2 1/4 so I knew that I could push for less than a mile.  I tried so hard to pick off one last person in the final 1/10th but she got a second wind that I couldn't match.  My time was a little slower than previous years but not bad considering that I really didn't want to run the race after I completed my warm-up.