Day 4,136: Run for Research 5K

If you like free snacks that you can get at a convenience store, the Run for Research 5K is for you.

I ran in the RaceTrac Run for Research 5K last year and came within 9 seconds of placing in my age group.

This year the race was on a new course that started and ended at SunTrust Park, the home of the Atlanta Braves. It actually looked like the course was the one that I thought I was going to get to run last June in the Braves Country 5K.

I arrived early and was glad I did. I'd forgotten that RaceTrac's snack vendors were out in full force giving out freebies of Oreo cookies, Utz chips and other things like Payday candy bars. I picked up my shirt and bib and had a whole bag of snacks before the race started.

When the race started it was a screaming downhill. I tried my best to keep it under control -- I did 6:49 for the first mile and it felt good. Mile 2 had a little bit of uphill and while I wanted to keep pace I faded a little bit to 7:12.

Mile 3 has the huge hill at the end going over Interstate 75. I just tried to run up it carefully and made my way down the hill toward the stadium. There's another rise right before you turn into the stadium -- Mile 3 was 7:25.

I remembered though that in last year's Braves Country 5K I noted that you have to kick when you turn to go into the stadium because once you get on the warning track, there isn't much race left. So I did, passing three guys and a woman who'd been in front of me the entire race. I finished the last .19 of the race in 1:03, at a 5:52/mile pace.

I finished in 22:29, good for 6th place in my age group and while the hills were hard, I felt really good about my run. It was the first time I ran in Nike's Epic React Flyknit shoes and these were everything I thought they would be for a 5K. They were very smooth on hard surfaces and didn't give me too much squishy give that the Nike Vaporfly 4 percent did going up a hill at the end of the race.

Still, I marveled how eternally consistent I am in hilly races -- 22:30 is my going time.

Time: 8:30 a.m.
Temp: 55 degrees
Gear: T-shirt, technical, short (Ukrops 10K 2016), shorts, Nuun hydration PRO Compression socks, Nike Epic React Flyknit.