March Mad Dash - 5 Miles
Laura, Cassandra, me, Tom
This was a very interesting race. COVID-19 had started to sweep the US - after already hitting many other countries like China and Italy (and in a major way!). At the time, in my county, we were told we were going into quarantine, but not until after the weekend. So I decided, what the heck, I’d run if they didn’t cancel. Besides running isn’t a contact sport, and “social distancing” was pretty easy with running. I’m rarely ever close to anyone when I run. (Mind you, the term “social distancing” had not become common terminology quite yet - unbelievable now, I know.)
We had the option to complete the race virtually, but there was no way I was going to do that. I felt I needed some normalcy because the panic on social media was building, there was no TP anywhere, and I knew this race had actual bathrooms - SCORE! (For those who aren’t familiar, often times, long distance athletes are accustomed to port-o-potties on race day; or on long training days tall weeds or trees often suffice. Now you know.)
Racing
The morning of the race was cold - colder than I expected. I knew it was going to warm up to the upper 40s, low 50s, so I didn’t want to over-dress and overheat while I ran. That also meant that I was going to freeze before the race began.
I met up with my friend Laura, the reason I decided to race this weekend. (I didn’t plan on racing - I was suppose to race every other weekend in March, but had a feeling I wasn’t going to be able to do so.) We hung out until it was close to race time. She and I met up with other friends, Tom and Cassandra. This was the first time I raced with them, although they entered a different distance than I did.
We all started at the same time, but like every other race, I expected to run my own race. I told Tom and Cassandra I would see them at the finish line because I knew they would be done before me.
Laura and I raced at a similar pace for the majority of the race, until about 1.5 miles to go, and then she turned on her jets. I didn’t have those same jets in me. I don’t know if it was because I had forgotten my earbuds, or I just didn’t have the same speed that day. Either way, I couldn’t keep up; I tried.
She got to the finish line a little bit ahead of me, and I tried to finish strong. As I was coming down the gate, I saw Tom and Cassandra and they were cheering me on. I did finish strong, not as strong as my 10-miler, but I was happy with my run.
It was my fastest 5-mile in a race setting, and I’ll take that. I wasn’t fast in the grand scheme of things by any means, but for me, I could tell my speed was increasing and that’s what matters.
On a side note - I’d like to give a shout out to the cheering sections along the route! You guys and gals were amazing and made the race that much more fun! Your signs and cowbells were fantastic and really helped to keep morale high as we got tired. ;)
The After Party
I finished running, got my medal, met my friends, talked to everyone, and was determined to get some food. and I must say, there was a lot of it. And can I say soup - this vegetable soup was AMAZING! I don’t know how much I had, but I had several servings - it was delicious! (And yes the volunteers were being careful with how it was being served.)
Not only was there amazing soup, there was bagels from Panera, donuts from Dunkin’, cookies, from a local bakey (I think), and there were raffle prizes. When you picked up your bib and hoodie, you placed the number of your bib on a ticket - they pulled probably 25 tickets and those people won all kinds of prizes. I won a $25 gift card to Domino’s Pizza. Didn’t expect that! woo hoo!
Overall it was a super fun race that I enjoyed with my friends, Tami from the St. Paul United Methodist Church did a really great job of organizing the race. This is definitely a race I will participate in again.
Check out the March Mad Dash to learn more.
And please know that proceeds from this event support teens helping others through service projects on a local and national level.
Results
March Mad Dash (5 miles)
Course time: 56:12 minutes
Pace: 11:14 min/mi