Bucktown 5K

It was shockingly cold this morning - about 50 degrees. Although we werent at the race that early, we practically froze walking to the start line and then waiting in line for the start. There were about 4,000 runners and the street seemed narrow and congested as we waited. The race was crowded with for the entire 3 or so miles, more so than expected. There were also quite a few spectators. Since I expected there to be no spectators at all, there were way more than I was expecting ;)

The finish was one of the best finishes I have had in a while. Why? Because you turned a corner not knowing how much farther you still had to go (because you couldnt see around the corner) and found the finish line right in front of you. WHOOOHOOO!

The stuff after the race was not too exciting - a meager amount of bananas and water that we couldnt find until later. They were giving out muscle milk (nasty). It was an unmanned tent and people were taking whole cases full. You would think if they were trying to promote their product they would at least stand there for a few minutes and pitch it. Looks instead like they dumped off a bunch of muscle milk and made a run for it.

They were also giving out greek yogurt. That made me happy, and from the smile on my sisters face ... it made her happy too.

Race Results
Time:31:32   Distance:5K   Pace:10:09

This time RunKeeper was a bit closer in the distance - 3.01 :) I know there is some error because it stops and starts when I press a button ... which also impacts my time. According to RunKeeper, I ran a 30:50 - 42 seconds off my chip time. I like the faster time, so lets just go with that ;)

The splits are a little more easy to rely on: mile 1 - 10:50, mile 2 - 10:30 and mile 3 - 9:24. It was actually a very crowded race and it was difficult to run in the beginning due to the crowd. In fact, it was crowded during the whole race ... even crossing the finish line ;) At the end I had to do some weaving and turning to pick up the pace, but felt good ... and ended up with a pretty quick finishing mile!