Fidelity Rush Hour 5k

Nothing like starting right back after 3 weeks of no training with a little speed work! But Fidelity was sponsoring a 5k on Thursday night for employees supporting the YMCA Strong Kids campaign, so I could not miss it. One thing I love about working here is the fact that Fidelity promotes fitness - onsite gym, staff of trainers, fitness classes, miles of beautiful maintained running trails - so I will always be out there supporting in any way I can!

Like I said, I came into this week after 3 weeks OFF. And when I say off, I mean it. I don’t exercise during my annual off-time – I went to Italy and ate Gelatos every day with the kids. No kidding – I could eat that every day- which is what the Italians do I think!

In the old days, I used to take 6 weeks off over the holidays, but I’ve found in recent years that I enjoy training in Nov/Dec and 3-4 weeks is plenty of time for me to get that out of shape feeling and mentally ready to start training again. Plus I don’t want to be totally out of it once snow shoe races start. Those are painful enough being in shape!

So back to the 5k…Luckily, the recent cold weather has been replaced with beautiful fall temps. Race started at 4:30 which meant I could duck out of the office early (bonus!). They held this race 2 years ago and I finished 3rd overall (1st F) in around 17 minutes-yes obviously not a full 5k. This year they changed the course and I knew it would be much closer to the 5k distance. The course was an out and back, lollipop-shaped course with two loops around the lollipop.

My friend Gary was not running, but introduced me to his friend Curtis who was running and was targeting my same time – somewhere around 20 minutes. We lined up at the start and the air horn went off. A group of about 6 of us all went out in a pack. One guy pulled ahead right off – but I could tell that I would be seeing him again. One other guy went ahead as well, but I could tell I would not be seeing him again (funny how that is!). I just tucked behind Curtis in 4th place and tried not to get dropped.

On the two loops there is one little out and back portion – which was nice to see where everyone is behind you. At the first loop, there was one woman pretty close, maybe 15-20 secs behind – so I knew I could not slack. I just held onto my 4th position into the second loop. I could see the speedy guy getting closer, so I knew it was only a matter of time. At about 2 miles we all caught and passed him. So that brought me to third. I stayed about 20 feet behind Curtis the rest of the way going as fast as I could go without throwing up. Hopefully I helped put the pressure on him not to let up as I am sure he could hear my heavy breathing behind him the whole way!

There were no mile markers, so I had no idea what pace we were doing. The finish line was at the bottom of little downhill and I saw 19 min turn to 20 min as I made my way down the hill into the chute to secure my 3rd place overall and 1st F (sounds familiar). I had 20:12 on my watch (but results say 20:07). Someone with a Garmin had the course at 3.08, so pretty close to the 5k. I am extremely happy with that time given this is the first run I’ve done under a 7 min pace in almost 2 months! Yikes! I’ll take it!