I'm not counting the Castaway Cay 5K as a race since it was miserable and untimed (not to mention free), so that puts my last race as the Liberty Mountain 5K back in April.
Not having a race to look forward to really zaps the motivation out of me, so I went out on a limb a couple weeks ago and registered for the Percival's Island 5 Mile Footrace even though it was in July. I'm always leery signing up for summer races since the humidity here is so terrible. But the lack of motivation won and I decided if nothing else I would just go out and have fun.
I picked up my packet Friday, getting there right at the start to be guaranteed my t-shirt (I was a bad runner and didn't register before the deadline) which came in a men's and women's option! I love when races have tech shirts but hate it when they are all unisex cut, they end up swallowing me. The women's was even pink!
The weather on race morning could not have been more perfect. It was in the 70s, and completely overcast with a light drizzle. Even though the humidity was 100% the clouds and rain kept us cool.
The race course is pretty boring. 2.5 miles out and back on the flattest part of Blackwater Creek Trail. The flatness is nice for racing (and rare for hilly Lynchburg) but there's pretty much nothing to look at except trees and other runners. There are two cool bridges to cross, but that's about it.
At least one of them if not both are old railroad trestles, hence the train on the shirt.
I ran the race with my friend Drew and we were able to keep each other motivated. I secretly wanted to finish in under an hour, but didn't know if it would be possible. When we turned the last corner and saw the that the timer said 58 minutes, I was ecstatic!
Overall the run felt great. Once I got past the initial mile of torture, we fell into an easy pace and kept it up almost the whole time. The only issue I had with the entire day is where the water stops were. They were about .25 miles before the turnaround which made them fall .5 miles apart. They were both too close together and too far from the start/finish. I would have liked them to be about 1.5 miles in so I would have wanted water the second time.
Percival's Island was exactly what I needed to get that "I LOVE RUNNING" boost that it had been months since I had felt. I'm resting today but I can't wait to see what this week's training runs bring!
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| Forgot to turn my watch on until we were already going.. but I finally snapped a picture of the famous LOVE sign! |
