race report: Power of Pink 5k
Two races in two weeks! I’m a bit surprised with myself for doing this, but Power of Pink is a race that my friends and I have run for four(?) years, and I couldn’t skip this year. The format changed this year. There is no more relay, and they dropped the distance from 4 miles to 3.1 miles. They also allowed men to run (in years past, the relay was for women only. It was SUPER FUN.)
So this year, it was me, Melissa, Carol, Aileen and Rain. This was Rain’s first time running this race (it always happens that we have 4 people and have to find a fifth person at the last minute.) We did get a discount for having a group of 5, which was nice. Aileen’s husband, Ryan, watched the baby for us, since the husband is out of town. I should also mention that today is Aileen and Ryan’s fifth wedding anniversary, so not only was Aileen running a race on her anniversary, but Ryan was babysitting! That’s love, folks. Love for friends.
We got to the race site about 45 minutes before the race start. We had to get our bib numbers and chips, and I wanted to be sure we didn’t run over any of the one-mile walkers. When we got into the gym, there were two signs – A-K and L-Z. We asked if there were two lines (because there seemed to be only one) and some woman told us there was only one line. We got back into that line, and a different lady (who actually was part of the event) asked if we were all A-K names. When we told her “no”, she told us to get over in the next line. Well, the first lady told us AGAIN that we were in the wrong spot. We almost smacked her.
We got our numbers and our chips, and then had plenty of time to hang out. New this year: less than stellar t-shirts. I have a couple of really cute shirts from this race. Actual tech shirts. And I wear them often. The shirt today? it’s just a plain white shirt with an ok logo. It is not a technical shirt, and I’m wearing it now – and it’s just about see through. Not cool.
The start of the race….there weren’t a ton of people this year. We quickly moved to the front of the group, which I’m so glad we did. While there was chip timing, the start was not chipped.
The first two miles were the same course. Instead of going through the community college’s campus, we made our way back through the hospital’s campus. There was a hill that was cut out – and replaced with a longer, more windy hill. It was brutal.
My first mile was 9:20 and my second mile was 9:38. My third mile was obviously much slower because my finish time was somewhere around 30:50? I can’t find results online. And I’m too lazy to find my Garmin (which was stopped a few seconds after I crossed the finish line.) My Garmin also showed that I ran a little further than a 5k.
Most of the course is pretty. I like the scenery. I’m just so over finishing uphill. When I did finish, I checked out the results, and noticed that Carol had placed in her age group. We figured we could stick around for that part of the awards, and get out of there right after she got her medal….and then they gave out the medals starting with the 80-year-olds and working their way backwards. Carol was 2nd in the 20-29 age group.
I am pretty sure this was our last time running this race. It seemed so much more disorganized this year, and I could do without the rude people. I thought it was a tougher course, even though they dropped a mile. And while I am all about running races without medals, I do love a good race shirt – and this year’s was probably my second least favorite shirt. (My first least favorite was from the Turkey Trot several years ago. It literally had a drawing some kid had done of a cow – a play on the Chick Fil A cow. It was horrendous.)
This was the sixth annual race, and I’ve run 4 of those. And now I think I’m done. Have you ever gotten tired of a local race?
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I haven’t repeated any races in a long time – I’ve changed distances though – so I’m not burned out yet. Since I’ve done all three GR Marathon races now, I might do the Detroit half next year.
i hate the local races that are swamped with jogging strollers. i think its great that people are taking their kids along, but get in the back and don’t make people pass you!!