MARIETTA, Ga. -- After about a year and a half, I returned to Red Hare Brewery to participate in another one of their great races.
Unlike when I ran in the Red Hare Chase 5K in September 2015, this race was held in the winter/spring and by a different racing company, Five Star NTP (which held the May 2015 race in which I had my first Master's win).
Despite the change I thought the race course would pretty much be the same, hilly for the first two miles and then screaming downhill for the finish.
Unlike in September, it was pretty cold this morning. I decided to not do two layers, instead depending on arm sleeves I picked up the year before at the Atlanta Track Club's warehouse sale (for $5, a great deal!). I also drove there an hour early to make sure I got a good parking space.
The race director announced it would be an "out and back" course, something I just thought he meant the loop that the previous race followed. When we started out I wanted to make sure I was running steady at about a 7 minute/mile pace to preserve myself for the hills in the middle part of the course.
The first time I realized something was different about this race was the fact that halfway down Cobb Parkway I could see one of the race leaders coming back up the road toward me. Then a few steps later I realized it was a literal turnaround after the first half of the race!
At this point I decided to run aggressively up the few remaining hills back to the start. I was passing people, including some who I thought might pass me back in the remaining part of the race, but no matter.
After the turn off of South Cobb Drive it was downhill and I was trailing a guy younger than me who was running pretty fast. I followed him for about a half mile and just pretended I was on a interval training session. He kept a few seconds ahead of me but my confidence increased in the last few meters before the finish because I could see I was gaining on him.
I finished in 21:13, which would be a 5-second PR for me, although later I realized my watch said 3.07 miles instead of 3.1 (and the course is not USAT&F certified). My splits were 7:00/7:05/6:46 with the last .07 miles at a 5:51/mile pace.
But I've since learned that with "PR"s even in non-certified courses, it has not taken too long for me to make or surpass that mark on a certified course.
I ended up with first place in my age group and of course, the post-race party that included six 6-ounce pours of beer and hot dogs from Whole Foods and wings from Taco Mac (I didn't eat any wings but I did win $5 towards my next visit at Taco Mac).
Once again it was a nice event and I look forward to participating in more races there!
Time: 8:31 a.m.
Temp: 30 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, short (Red Hare Chase 5K, 2015), Mizuno arm sleeves, shorts, cep compression socks, Saucony Type A6.
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