Atoms 5K

On the morning of May 17, I hauled myself over to Annandale H.S. for their annual Atoms 5K. It was a well attended race as it was part of the GrandPrix series. It was also a nice, sunny day...though a bit cool at the start. It was honestly a very nice day to run.

I saw a few friends before the race began. Peter Blank was there of course as it was on his home turf. Also running was my co-worker, Michael Adeniji. He was given #1...not because he was the pre-race favorite but because of his name. But a lot of people didn't realize that so there were a few oohs and ahhs as he lined up for the start of the race.

The race began on a road beside the schools football field. We ran the length of the school grounds and then ran into the neighborhood. Roads weren't closed so there was some car dodging. Approaching the 1 mile mark we had to climb the toughest hill of the course. I thought about running up it and then reconsidered as I thought about the 2 miles still to come. The rest of the course was relatively flat with a few small rolling hills.

While nothing to write home about, I did end up running one of my best 5K's of the year, and certainly my best race since my surgery. My time was 34:36. I came in 91st out of 98 males and 155th out of 187 total runners. I'm hoping to continue this improvement and get into the 32's sometime soon. Ultimately, I want to be running consistently at 10 minutes per mile or less so I really want to get to around a 31 minute 5K.

Key finishers in this race were:
Joseph Tessema 16:12 (overall winner)
Michelle Cunningham 19:16 (female winner)
Karen Young 22:43 (50+ club, 8th female)
Ted Poulos 17:22
Bill Stahr 20:03 (Good race Bill!)
Jay Jacob Wind 21:54
Michael Adeniji 22:10 (slicing nearly 1 minute off of his first 5K time!)
Jim Scarborough 23:05
Peter Blank 23:22
Brian George 34:10 (I don't know him but he's the guy that finished in front of me. I'll get you next time Brian!)

Until next time, happy running!