St Jude 5K

August 18, 2012

Frederick, MD
I meant to pick up my packet on Friday afternoon so that I could sleep in a little on Saturday morning. But it started storming on Friday and I didn’t feel like dragging the littles out in the rain, so I planned to get up early (and let’s face, sleeping in was a long shot anyway). The alarm went off at 5:30 and I got up and started prepping for a 6:30 departure. Packet pick-up was from 6:30-7:45, the race was less than 10 minute from my house, but anyone who knows me knows that I had to get there early. It’s just how I roll. Less than 2 minutes after we arrived I had my packet in hand and we were left with more than an hour to kill. If you need to kill time with a 2 year-old in tow though, Baker Park is the place to do it.

Best dressed runner in the field.

  Before we left the house, I told my daughter that I was going to run in a race and the she, Daddy and Landry would cheer for me by yelling, “Go, Mommy!” She immediately corrected me and told me that she was also running in the race and the Daddy and Landry would yell, “Go, Mommy! Go, Caroline!” Ummmm, welll umm we’ll see. And so I left it at that assuming she would forget about it.
But anyone who knows 2 year-olds is probably laughing now. Because she , of course, didn’t forget and kept insisting that she was going to run. I looked around, lots of people would be walking, lots of strollers, lots of kids running and decided what the heck.  We took our place at the very back of the pack and sent our cheering squad, Scott and Landry, up a couple of blocks to wait on us.
The race started and Caroline was a natural. She took off and loved every second of her first race. That lasted only a few blocks until I dropped her off at with her Daddy, but it was absolutely the highlight of the race for me. She loves to run and I would be so happy if she would grow up loving to race.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. The course was flat and wove around the park and through the surrounding neighborhoods. As usual, in Frederick, there was no crowd support. This is sadly, not a town that supports running. The residents balk at being inconvenienced by races. One letter to the editor after the Frederick Marathon a few years ago referred to “being held hostage by running terrorists.” It’s like that. So no cheering outside of the race start/finish area. There were also no water stops. Not really necessary in a 5K but it was the middle of August, so it wouldn’t have been unwelcome. Not a big deal though, there was plenty of water and gatorade at the finish, as well as the standard post-race offerings.

My cheering squad

I averaged an 11:30 pace and finished with a gun time of 37:50. I was slowed a little in the beginning by running with my daughter but I wouldn’t have broken any PRs regardless. That’s OK, it was fun and that is the most important part.

All in all it was a very nice race. Nicely run and organized. I will run again next year if it is held.


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