Runners took over the streets of downtown Ann Arbor yesterday during the Firecracker 5K. I got a 5K PR woo hoo! My time was 20:11.3, a 6:30/mile pace, which put me first in my age group and fifth overall for women.
First race of the year! This race took place downtown Ann Arbor with 1,500+ people. It’s great that all sorts of runners showed up, but with so many people I wish they had lined by speed. Slower people in front makes for some tricky maneuvering. There were lots of great hats and headbands in the crowd. I saw a Vibram FiveFingers runner, too!
Results: 22:39.5, 7:18 split. 12/954 women, 85/1597 overall. Third place in my age group woo hoo!
A couple of days ago, we had a good snow and snowmen popped up all over the neighborhood. I took my camera on one of my runs and snapped a few shots. The weather was -3F, but I’m lucky and the camera was okay, except for a little water on the lens.
At the start of my run, I was little bummed to see that the last snowman – my favorite with the pipe – was knocked over from the wind. On the loop back, he was put together again! Hooray!
Back in August, the straps on my Vibram FiveFingers ripped through and had to be replaced. It’s been about a month, so these straps seem to last around 250 miles. A couple of days ago I noticed the straps on my current VFF were getting worn through so I busted out the duct tape.
Outside of VFF eyelet
Inside of VFF eyelet
The inside of the shoe strap was noticeably more worn, but I figured I should wrap up both eyelets to keep the friction away from cutting through either strap, especially since I’m racing this Sunday!
The race is the Big House Big Heart race in Ann Arbor. There will be 10,000 people! Wow! That’s a total for the 5K and the 10k races, of which I’m doing the latter. The biggest race I’ve ever done was 2,500 people so there’s a good chance this’ll be my biggest race yet. The finish line is on the 50 yard of Michigan Stadium with the finishers being projected on the big screen. I’m awfully excited about it!
Benito plots in the background.
I ran in the Book It 5K race in Gallup Park this morning and ended up with a new personal record of 21:30! I didn’t feel like I was going that fast; on the contary, I felt like my time was going be in the 24 minute range.
The person taking my tag at the finish knew what my shoes were – she pointed out to the person writing down times that I was wearing FiveFingers. They are a rather curious shoe wear and I credit my speedy times to them!
Half mile in.
Around the 1.5 mile mark.
Vrooooom!
Finish!