Ran the Trail Of Lights 5K

I ran the Trail Of Lights 5K this evening, but I just about didn't make it.

I left a more than an hour before the race, but I should have known something was wrong when I hit the heavy traffic at about 45th street on Mopac. I was moving only about 35 mph on the freeway, so it took about an hour to get to Zilker Park, a ride that should have taken 10 minutes. I finally found a parking spot on a steep hill in Rollingwood, grabbed my things and started running for the start line.

I finally made it to the start area just as they finished the Star Spangled Banner. (I found a port-a-potty first, then went over to start the race.) Several minutes after the official start I managed to get moving with my part of the crowd. The going was slow, as I was in the walking section rather than the running section, but I made as good time as I could, without running over someone or falling on my face in a dark stretch of the course.

When I finished the run, I knew I'd felt strong during the whole run; unlike in previous years where I have had to walk for brief stretches to catch my breath. I finished in about 39 minutes according to the official clock. (My GPS later told me that this was one of my slowest races ever--no wonder I felt good!)

After I finished there was a huge line of people waiting for water. I went to another line and picked up some tiny sandwiches, but that made me really thirsty, so I just had to join the water line!

In conclusion I feel I did pretty good, but next year I will have to leave earlier so I can get a better start location. Perhaps 1 and a half hours early.

Finally motionbased has finished processing the GPS data, it is here. (It took forever, finally I had to download the data again.) My times were not as good as I would have liked. No wonder I was running so strong. I guess when you get behind someone who is walking it slows you down a lot. Oh well, I still enjoyed the outing--my first after the trip to Switzerland, where I gained 5 lbs.