Friendly Kitchen 5k 9/10

On Friday 9/10 Heather and I went up to Concord NH to run the Friendly Kitchen 5k. This is a relatively small race run on the NHTI campus and benefits the Friendly Kitchen in Concord, NH. I decided to run this race because I had not raced in a while and I felt like I really need to get in a hard effort. I figured that a smaller race would give me the opportunity to get in a good workout and to build back some racing confidence. Heather and I pulled onto campus at about 4:30 pm and hustled to get ourselves registered and warmed up for the 5:30 pm start. We ran over the 5k course for our warm up and then headed for the starting line. My plan was to run a strong tempo effort and increase the pace throughout the race. I was hoping this kind of effort would put me near the front of the race and put me in position for the win. After a few quick instructions we were off and running.

The race actually went out very controlled with a large group of guys right at the front. This included many runners from NHTI and other colleges in there conference. As we made our way towards the trails I was anywhere from 1st to about 5th as I just tried to keep a controlled consistent pace. As we got to the trail I made sure I was in the top three so that I did not get caught in traffic. We hit the first mile in 5:20 and the group had really thinned out as there were only three or four of us at the front. We made our way across the field and towards the road, just before the road someone went down right besides me, the runner who went down never finished the race. Once on the road I decided to pick up the effort a bit as we ran into the wind and towards the Delta Dental Campus on the other side of Rt 93. I opened up a gap pretty easily and soon I was on my own. I hit the two mile mark in 5:17 (10:37) and made my way through the root canal (tunnel on the Delta Dental Campus). I got a good look at those behind me at this point and I had a decent lead of maybe 15-20 seconds. I made my way back over Rt 93 and I was on my way back towards the finish line. I picked it up a bit more and made sure I kept my lead. I made the last turn into the quad and Coach Walton yelled me my third mile split of 5:14 (15:51). I kicked in in a bit and finished up first in 16:24.

Heather also took home first place in 19:02. Overall it was a solid run for both of us. I got in the hard effort I was looking for and felt very strong doing it.

Results