The first Run for the Rainforest 5K was held on the morning of June 21 in Ballston. My friend at work, Femi, kind of talked me into running this one. I decided the day before the race to run it after looking at the course map. It looked like it ran on some of the trails that I have run on in the past, particularly Bluemont, so I thought I would give it a shot.
I got to the race site quite a bit earlier than usual since the web site said parking would be difficult. I signed up and went back to the car to stay cool. It was a very clear, sunny day and I wanted to put off getting overheated for as long as possible. I worked on a Sudoku puzzle while I passed time in my air conditioned car.
It was an odd race start. First, most of us went to the wrong starting point. Someone came and got us about 10 minutes before the start and we walked a few hundred yards to the correct starting line.
It was a big field...too big really to start on a bike path that could handle at most 3 people shoulder to shoulder. It looked like there would be quite a few walkers so I decided to hang out in the back so I wouldn't get boxed in or trampled at the start.
We only stayed on the path for less than 1/4 mile before we had to cross a major intersection. I was like "Hey, I know where I am. I've been to that McDonalds". A cop held traffic for us...I'm sure the drivers weren't happy to see us. Fortunately, since we had just started the field was still pretty tightly bunched so they didnt have to wait long.
We then entered a part of Bluemont park I hadn't visited before. It was a shaded path with homes beside the path. It was a little bit downhill so I was having a decent time.
After about a mile we got to the bottom of the hill and took a right onto a path that I have run many times. We ran by the caboose and the tennis courts and there was no shade at all. Man was it hot! I was gratefull to see the water table ahead. As I gulped down 2 cups of water I checked my watch and was disappointed with what I saw. I knew I wasn't running particularly fast and I also knew that we had to pay for that downhill we had just run. I decided that I wouldn't be setting any PR's today so I took it easy from that point on.
Interestingly, my wife arrived at Bluemont probably just a minute or two after I passed with her running partner. When I got home after the race she said that she saw a race at Bluemont and was surprised that I didn't run in that race. I told her I was at that race! Clearly we need to communicate a little better. :)
I'm glad I decided to not push too hard. The hills we encountered were even tougher than I remembered from my one time running on this part of the trail (North side of 66 back towards Ballston). I alternated running with walking and tried to catch a couple of people in front of me but it remained pretty much status quo for the last mile. It wasn't too bad when we had shade but it was pretty uncomfortable without it.
I finished with a time of 38:29(official time 39:04)...pretty darn miserable even for me. I came in 337th out of 383 finishers...like I said, there were a lot of walkers.
I saw Femi after I finished and he convinced me to stick around for the prizes. I really wanted the wine tasting but I was still happy to win a gift certificate for $20 off of personalized training with Mike Hamberger, who came in 5th in the race. I doubt I will use it but its always nice to win.
Notable finishers for this race were:
Robbie Wade 15:42 male winner
Kristen Henehan 17:23 female winner
(obviously, they didn't have any trouble with the heat or hills!)
Jay Jacob Wind 21:25
Michael (Femi) Adeniji 21:58 (still yet to beat Jay)
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