April Fools 5K Race Report

After last week's lackluster half marathon experience, I needed this 5K PR. My fragile confidence needed enrichment and my soul needed reassurance that this is my sport (and my stomach needed a rest). This race served its purpose.

I think I found out about this race in Dick Pond's monthly newsletter. The April Fools 5K is an inaugural race hosted by a local chiropractor that was capped at 400 participants. I signed up for it the day I set my 24-minute runch PR. This race did, in fact, sell out. I picked up my packet last night and I was impressed with how heavy it was. There was a lot of swag in the bag! It was mostly informational post cards, but I did get a tech shirt that I think was unisex, because even the small was too big and they didn't have an extra small. There were also a few more goodies in the bag, too.

Jenny has a machine that makes decals, so I got my craft on last night in preparation of this race. I think I look pretty professional! It was in the 40s, so I ended up wearing the arm warmers Kim gave me for my birthday, a tank top, shorts from the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon expo and a cute BondiBand they sent me for Ragnar. Had to try it out, of course.

Since this was a local race, Tim came along for moral support. We rolled in with time to spare, so I got stretched out by the professionals on site and warmed up. I froze my butt off waiting to start, chatting with a girl who said she was confused about how the race would work, since it was a three-loop course. She went on to win the thing with 21:XX on the clock. And she was 12.

The race began on time at 8 a.m. I started at the front and shot off like a rocket. A guy near me asked me in the first 1/2 mile if I was going for a sub-20 finish, because I was on pace for it. Oops. Too fast. I quickly settled into fourth place for the women, so I tried to just maintain and keep cruising.

In the second loop we started to enter the stream of walkers. It took some energy to dodge them and there were people with strollers, too, which were strictly prohibited, according to the race Web site. Or not.
By the third loop, I was ready to be done and was just pushing to finish. When I entered the finisher's shoot, I saw I was still in the 23rd minute, so I decided to kick it as hard as I could for a new PR. I finished in 23:37, which is an overall pace of 7:36 (I forgot to turn off my Garmin).

I knew I must have won something, so Tim went and got us coffee while I waited around - isn't he great? The post-race party was very small, but there were lots of granola bars, bananas, apple slices and cookies. There were also people there for stretching, which I took advantage of again. I initially picked up the wrong medal and didn't realize until we were on our way home and Kim commented on my post of the photo about being a dude. So we went back and got my real medal, then headed home.

I'm really happy about this race and feeling better mentally now than I was at this time last week (and physically, too). I'm proud of myself for setting a new PR at the beginning of the season. And I looked cute doing it, too!

Time: 23:37

Cost: $25

Pros: Bathrooms at the start, small race for a good cause, tech shirts, decent amount of post-race snacks, stretching stations at the finish, free and plentiful parking

Cons: Shirts are too big, loop courses aren't my favorite, I initially got the wrong medal (I should have checked it, though), the finishing shoot on grass felt really tough and unstable.

Would I do this race again: Yes. It was fun, cheap and easy to get to.