This is the first time that I have ran the Red Regiment 5k. This is a race that has been going on for a quiet a few years now and it is at the high school I graduated from back in 2000. But, now that my wife is a teacher at this school, we try to do more of the high school events that we can to support the students at NortWood High School. The Red Regiment 5K supports the Red Regiment Marching Band.
Registration was pretty cheap. Preregistration costs $20 for adults, $15 for students, and $60 for a family of 4 or more. After April 30th, registration is $25. With the lower registration fees, you do get what you pay for. There was no chip timing, after race food and drinks was a bottle of water, bananas and apples. Also, you did get a cotton t-shirt.
This race was real small and I got to believe that it is due to poor advertisement. Obviously the band is trying to do it as a fundraiser, but I don’t thank that many runners are a part of the planning comity. Therefore, I don’t think they are going about things the right way to get the word out. I am pretty sure that there were less than 50 participants in this race. Which is ok, but I think they could do better. The only way I heard about the race though is because some band members knew my wife runs, and they were handing out a flyer at the Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival parade the week before. You also could only register the old fashion way, paper registration and mail it in.
There were two options for this race, and this part actually confused me some. They had a 5k run and a 5k fun-walk. The part that confused me was that if you are just doing the walk, you can just walk around the high school track while everyone else is running the course. But I guess when you don’t have chip timing to mess up by doing lap after lap, its not really a big deal.
Anyways, onto the race. The race started on the high school track. you actually do about 3/4 of a lap (in the opposite direction of what you would traditionally run) before exiting the track. Then you run out of the high school parking lot, through a neighborhood, onto a bike path, turn around, and come back. It was a simple course to follow. And pretty flat too.
So for this race, I was just going to go out there and run as best as I could. This was also, however, part of a 14 mile day in which I had already ran 11 miles. So my legs were a little tired and stiff from waiting to run my last 3 miles. The race started and I let all those guys wanting to have a fast start go. I just wanted a nice smooth start and not go out too hard. I was actually really happy with the way I ran this race. I went out at a nice pace of 6:31, followed up by 6:34 and then a 6:29 finish. I did well at not letting those guys getting a fast start get to me and caught a few by the time I got to mile 1. I finished in 3rd place overall.
And what did I get for third place? Nothing. Why? Well, they rewarded 1st place over all and then 1st place in each division. They also awarded 1st place overall with 1st place in division as well. But that’s not why I didn’t get an award. Despite getting 3rd overall, the 2nd place guy was also in my division, so 3rd overall, 2nd in division. Whatever, I don’t need another medal. No big deal.
So how small was this race? well, my 12 year old daughter Emma was first in her division and first overall female. Yeah, a 12 year old, who ran a 28:25 (a new PR for her) won the female race. I am not knocking her at all, I am proud of the hard work that she put in, but that shouldn’t win a 5k race. But we are not complaining. She won $50 work of gift certificates to a business in Nappanee that is part of the chamber of commerce. So, she has so far spent $25 of it on gourmet popcorn. More than likely she will use the rest of her winnings on more popcorn once she finishes what she has now. Not a bad day for a 12 year old.
Chloe also had a fantastic day. She ran with Tina and ran a new PR as well. Had the race gone the traditional way and awarded the age group award to the next runner who did not win an overall award, she would have been first in her division. I am sorry, I can not remember her time at this point because the only results that were posted were the age group and winning times, but she did run a PR by over 1 minute. As much as she keeps telling us that she doesn’t like to run and she doesn’t like cross country, she is really improving. Our goal for her in cross county (3K in middle school) is to just run the distance without walking by the end of the year. If after that, if she wants to aim for a certain time, then she can make a new goal. But for now, running a 3k without walking is a good, obtainable goal.
Daddy, Did You Win? 