Falling Leaves 5K race recap

 

Believe it or not, this is NOT a NEW race. I have run it before.

I registered for this race on a whim. (No surprise there.)

photo from 2009 -the water was so much higher

It sounded scenic and it was north of my house so I could continue up to the marina if the weather cooperated.

Then I read my recap of the race from 2009:

The race started up a STEEP hill and then went down it.  I thought I was done but it continued to go up and down hills throughout the course.  I walked twice and said to myself:  NEVER AGAIN!! Too tough a course for me…

Great, a hilly course! Maybe in 5 years, I am better with hills. (Probably not).

Oh well, I have never regretted running a race.

I did win my age group but that was 5 years ago. Now I am in the 60+ age group. (Hate that!)

Again, rain was predicted.  I got lucky last weekend. And I got lucky again…just cloudy and cool.

It’s this type of weather that you don’t know what to wear.  I hate to overdress. I will resist wearing tights, capris or long sleeve shirts, half zips, etc. as long as I can.

I have been running lately with a skirt, knee socks and a short sleeve shirt .(Sadly have passed on wearing tanks lately.) I have been cold at first but warm up nicely.

However, today the temps were in the 40s…brrr! So I gave in and wore a long sleeve shirt but brought a short sleeve shirt for later.

The race started at 10am so I planned to get there around 9:30am so I left my house at 8:45am.

I got there in plenty of time (got the last parking spot in the lot) and it was very chilly waiting for the race to begin. I saw my Turkey Trot Training group coach who was doing the race timing. We chatted for a bit.  I told him that I was going to win my age group 🙂

Finally it was time to take off my jacket and start the race.  There were about 150 runners..a nice size for a local race on this busy weekend.

Like I remembered, the race started with running up a steep hill.

Maybe it was the cold but my legs were very stiff and I had a hard time moving for the first mile.  I glanced down at my Garmin and I couldn’t believe how slow I was running.

photo from 2012 race

After the downhill from the first hill, the second mile was a long long incline.  I got into a groove finally and believe it or not, I never walked during the race.

Eventually we turned around but it still didn’t ever feel like we were running downhill until the end.

I finally picked up steam during mile 3 and finished with a decent time.

27:46!

That was a second faster than last week on a flat course.

My race goals were almost the same as all my other 5Ks:

• run each mile under 10 min. YES! even mile 3 under 9 min!!!!
• run the whole thing.  Yes! Finally.
• win a AG award.  YES! 1st.
• have fun & stay healthy. YES!

Splits:
mile 1 – 9:08
mile 2 – 9:18
mile 3 – 8:46
.1  – 7:01

done and happy!

I actually didn’t know anyone at this race. But the food kept me occupied.

lots of homemade pumpkin treats – yum!

And I won first in my age group (60+).  I am not proud to say that I was the ONLY one in my age group.

At the conclusion of the awards, they had raffle prizes (gift certificates to local restaurants).  I have never seen so many at a race. They called bib numbers for over a 1/2 hour. I think I was the only one there not to win anything.  I did eat my weight in pumpkin cookies, bread and cupcakes 🙂

After the race, like last time, with only 2 weeks until the Perfect 10 miler race, I wanted to continue running. I wanted some place not too far but scenic enough so I wouldn’t mind running extra miles. Last week’s location was perfect but I wanted something different so I chose the Colonie Town Park.

This is the starting point for the Mohawk-Hudson Half Marathon tomorrow (which I ran last year.) I kinda wish I was since so many local runners are running it but I have decided to not repeat half marathons.

last year in the park

I have run on the bike path before but never through the park so I started that way.

There were a lot of trails but they were too rocky & leaf-covered to run on.

So I ran on the road.

Eventually  I came to the Mohawk River.

I was right across from where I ran last weekend.

I ran back to the bike path and continued my run. But first, I stopped at my car.  The sun had come out and I changed to a short sleeve shirt.

The path was pretty and not crowded but there was a fair amount of walkers, runners and bikers.

I had planned to do an out and back so that my total would be 6.9 miles.

I didn’t get to the end but took a detour to catch a view of the city of Cohoes.

Then I turned around to drag myself back to my car.

It was only in the 50s but felt warmer with the sun.

I must note that I’ve never had so many people comment to me while I was running:

• One guy on a bike said: “Run Forrest, Run!”
• Another old guy on foot, said: “Take it easy, young lady.”
• A guy running said: “Keep your arms looser!”

Usually people just smile and wave.

This run was a lot harder than last week’s run of the same distance and it was FLATTER!  Either the 5K tired me out more or it was the shoes…or who knows.  But it was tough!!

I got 10 miles done for the day which made me content.

I ran a race which is always fun!

On the way home, I stopped at Target.

but I didn’t buy the pumkin Oreos or the pumpkin chips or any candy!!!

 Happy Running! Did you run or race this weekend?