Huck Finn 5K Race Report

I slept poorly again. I don’t know why the night before a 5K race I should feel as nervous as I do before a triathlon. There isn’t much to worry about. All you need are sneakers. I’ve run the distance easily enough and have been doing well enough that I feel assured I will at least set a new personal record (PR) if not break 29:00. I wake up every couple of hours, and then decide to sleep past the early time I have set to get up.

Some of the nervousness was that I was taking the girls with me, with the youngest one to run in the Kids 50 yard dash after my race. I am a little uneasy about leaving them for a half hour while I run, but am pretty certain they will be okay. They will have a cell phone and I will run with one.

I have a banana and a diet Coke for breakfast. I have a morning coughing fit, which is not unusual for me with the change of weather. It’s a chilly morning and I wear sweats and a hoodie with the plan to disrobe down to a tee-shirt and running pants when the race nears.

We park in one of the downtown parking garages near the highway so we will be able to get out of the city after the race. Many of the streets will be shut down for the races. They have three races going off at the same time – the marathon, half-marathon, and my event – the 5K.

Bushnell Park is bustling with runners, stretching a jogging about. I leave the girls with their instructions to meet me at the finish just before 29:00, and head across the park to the eastern end where the 5K will start. It is somewhat of a motley collection of runners. There are over 700, and a fair number of them appear to be recreational. There is also a group of pint-sized runners wearing green tee-shirts from a kids’ running program. It is my guess that most of the best runners will be trying the half or the full marathon today.

When the horn goes off the start is very slow, as the crowd of runners slowly goes from a walk to a slow jog to a faster jog. A woman ahead of me trips, but appears unhurt. Everyone steps around her. Me too. Sorry, lady. I keep on. It’s hard to find space to get any kind of speed up. It is also chilly. I’m glad I left my hoodie on, although I shed my sweat pants. I can see my breath. There are some people passing me, but I am passing at least an equal number of runners. It is nice to be running on familiar city streets. We run around the north end of the park and then up toward the capitol and then down Washington Street and then right onto Park, the Latino section of town. The streets are mostly deserted. Spanish music blares from a sound system under a telemundo banner, but there is just one man in charge of the system. There are some homeless men on the sidewalks. Just a few other spectators.

I hit the mile mark at 9:36. Maybe a little slower than I was planning. I haven’t really found anyone to pace me. Two of the green-shirted kid runners are ahead of me. One is barely past my knees – he can’t be more than seven or eight. People laugh at the difference in our heights. “Muy alto,” I hear someone say.

I am somewhat thinking, why am I doing this? I am running a little faster than I normally do and I am feeling a little strain. At the two mile mark, I am at 18:50. Doing okay, but still slightly behind the pace I would like. I am storing up a sprint for the end.

While I know the streets I am not certain of the running distances. I want to make a move, but not to soon. Hardly anyone has passed me for awhile so I know I am keeping an okay pace. We run behind the state legislative office building and then along the railroad tracks on a trail that leads us back toward the park. I slowly start to kick it up. I glance at my heart rate monitor for the first time and see I am going at 174 – much higher than I thought. Still, I can’t back off. In the past I have had no kick. I have one now, but I also am for the first time experience some pain – not injury pain, but fatigue pain, the battle between wanting to stop and to press harder. This is the internal battle. Run hard and you won’t regret it later. You can do it. But I’m tired. I really don’t have it in me. It isn’t worth it. No, it is, you can do it, you don’t want to say later you didn’t give your all. I keep it up. I am in need of cheering crowds, but there are only a few people where we round the bend. Still it helps. Just a little farther, they shout, good going. The end is in sight now and I can see the arches and the banner and the timing clock. I see the numbers 28 and then 30. I can do it, I think.







I just have to run faster and then I am sprinting – sprinting rather easily, up the hill and through the arches, hitting the mat in 28:54.



It is amazing how you can run 3.1 miles and be able to guess your time within 6 seconds.

And while I was clearly sucking for air, I ran so easily at the end, I am a little upset I didn’t start to run harder earlier. Still though I had a great time, I had a finishing kick and I sucked the pain up. At the end of a year of running, I am no longer a novice runner.

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Overall Results

Time: 28:54
Pace: 9:19 Mile

276 out of 705

13 out of 24 within 45-49 Age Group

Top Ten Clydesdales: Finish #8

Gain from 1st 5K in April: 2:20
Difference in Place it would have made: 276th instead of 390th

Gain from Last 5K in June: 0:50
Difference in Place it would have made: 276th instead of 323rd

Reason I had such a high finish place order(for me) comparatively: Better Runners all did Marathon or Half-Marathon

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WTNH Channel 8 in New Haven did a story on the marathon. Guess who they show crossing the finish line?

Chilly Conditions Make for Perfect Running Weather in Hartford