Juana Run 8K Race Report

Rickshaw · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 1:48 pm

After last week's half-marathon, I threw myself straight into another race this weekend. It's a benefit for the local schools whose course winds through a maze of neighborhood streets. 8K is nearly exactly 5 miles. I hoped to run at about a 7:35 pace, based on the results of last week's half.

I arrived later than intended, and wasted too much time shuttling back and forth to my car to drop things off. I ended up having to run half a mile to the finish line, getting there just a couple of minutes before the start, already a little bit tired. Around 400 other runners packed onto a side street with me for the start of the race. Overnight rains left a lot of puddles that needed to be avoided throughout the course.

1. 7:35 - Feels too hard? I don't think I can hold this for 5 miles. Back off some.
2. 7:53 - Backed off too much?
3. 7:32
4. 7:50
5. 7:27
TOTAL 38:20

That's about a 7:40 average pace, a little slower than I'd been hoping. As a race, it was OK but not great. I'll think of it as one more step on the road to fitness.

After the 8K, they ran children's race for 5th grade down to pre-K. My 4-year-old daughter Alice was entered in the 200 yeard pre-K event, and was excited to be doing her first ever race. I think Dad was probably even more excited than she was. This was more formal than the kid's races I've seen elsewhere-- everyone had to officially register and wear a bib number, just like the adults.

Alice did great, and ran the whole way through, despite Dad's crazy cheering and cowbell-ringing. The only hiccup came after she finished, when instead of continuing through the chute to where they'd take the tag off her bib and record her time, she turned around and ran backwards out of the chute and over to me. Note for next time: position parent past the end of the finish area, not before it.