Festival of Lights 5K

I dropped out of the King Street Mile due to its time restriction of 9 minutes or less and instead ran the Festival of Lights 5K on Christmas Eve. Man, was it ever cold and windy. Temperatures were in the mid to low 30's and winds were gusting to about 50MPH. Several trees were knocked down and in the road on the way to the race and a priest was killed in the area about the same time as the start of the race when a tree fell on him.

The race was run at Bull Run Park. I had always wanted to run there so this was my chance. Plus, with a 3PM start I could run and get back home in time to celebrate the New Year properly.

I wore my new Garmin Forerunner 305 that Dori gave me for Christmas for the first time in a race. I struggled with reading it while I ran but I think it will be a big help to my running once I figure out how to use it properly.

I ran the first 1.1 miles at a 10 minute/mile pace. That kept me in a pretty good sized pack of runners until I took a walk break at 1.1 miles. Though the course was pretty flat, the wind and cold took their toll on me. Plus, I was bundled up like the character from the Michelin tire commercials so it was a little tough moving around. Anyway, the most interesting aspect of the course was the shooting range just short of the turnaround. There were quite a few people out shooting. I guess that shouldn't surprise me. Nothing brings in a New Year like firing off a few rounds. :) Anyway, I flinched everytime they fired. It was loud! I wanted to get away from there as fast as I could but we actually spent a lot of time by them since that is where the turnaround was.

I took a number of walk breaks on the back half of the course, though I was only passed by one runner and I passed another runner during this half. I finished the 5K in 36:35. That's not very good but I'll take it given the conditions.

I hung around for the prizes afterwards, which I usually don't do, but I had a good feeling. So much for that feeling. I froze my tail off and I didn't win a darn thing. What a fitting end to a tough year. I finished with 51 races for the year, none of them particularly good. Bring on 2009.