Today was the 5K race which was the first race in the B.A.A. distance medley and was the kickoff to Marathon weekend. It was such a good feeling to run a race again after all of the training runs the past several months. I had wondered if the fact that there were going to be 10,000 entrants running in this race was going to make the course very congested and slow the pace down. Luckily, it didn't. It was a bit slow at the start but once we got onto Beacon street it opened up pretty quickly. The race today was a bit of a dress rehearsal for Monday as part of the course included the last part of the Marathon. It was really cool to actually run "Right on Hereford, Left on Boylston". Making that "Left on Boylston" was a truly emotional point of this race. The Boston Fire Department had a fire engine with it's ladder extended and a huge American flag hanging from it over the street. As I went under it, all I could think of was the two firefighters, who passed away a few weeks ago, that were from the firehouse that this engine was from. Really powerful stuff. My thoughts quickly went to the events from a year ago as I was approaching where the second bomb went off last year. I tried to imagine what it would have been like for all those people around that area. It quickly changed again as I approached the Marathon finish and the site of the first bomb. I continued down Boylston weaving my way through other runners and then made the final turn onto Charles street. I put everything into it to finish strong. I ended up setting a PR for myself for a 5K finishing in 22 minutes 1 second with a pace of 7:00 min/mile. My race results overall were: I finished 770 out of 8,640 participants and 65 out of 451 in my division. I'll take that any day.
What an emotional roller coaster this race turned out to be. From start to finish. It is something that I will never forget. I can just imagine what Monday's race is going to be like if I thought this one was emotional!
Until next time, keep on runnin'!
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