Race 23 - CASA for Kids 5K

Race 23 was a well run affair, hosted by Jerry Fennelly and Randy Kirkpatrick, both who put a lot of time and effort to please the runners. I didn't get much sleep as I was out til 1:30am dancing with my old high school friends. The class of '77 all met on Staten Island to celebrate our 50th birthdays. It was nice to see many of my former baseball team mates and friends but I was worried my disco dancing would slow me down.

I ran with John Liptak and Ken Vercammen so I knew the pace would be quick from the start. I went out in 6:38 (HR 145), second mile was 6:32 (HR 154) and the last mile was 6:25 (HR 158). I knew I was slower than my two previous 5k's but was happy with the effort. I passed about 6 people during the last mile and finished with a time of 20:18. It was a bit humid but that wasn't the reason why I was slower. I believe it was the 6 days in a row of running. I should take the day before a race off.

Ken finished in 19:24 while John finished in 20:25. Ken came in 1st in his age group while I came in 2nd. I couldn't stick around for the awards because I needed to coach my boys baseball game, only to find out it was cancelled.

Just as I was leaving I ran into the first woman finisher. I congratulated her on her win but she said she hated 5Ks because she loves running ultras. This woman has 5 kids and runs 100 mile races. I keep meeting interesting people at my races.