Last year, the Cupids Chase 5k was one of my best and favorite races all year. Everything just went well for me. It’s always difficult coming back to a race that you do well, knowing you’re not in that sort of fitness, but that’s life.
My parents were in town, so my dad decided to run. We arrived at the race around 9 am, signed up, and talked to a bunch of friends. Since it was a local race, it was nice to catch up with a lot of people I haven’t seen in a while.
We lined off and with no warning, there was a go and we were off. During the first mile, I ran with a local, and we split about a 6:20. We’ve run together in a few races but not recently. Around .5, there was a huge ice patch across the course. I ran all the way around through the cold, wet, grass. It definitely cost me a few seconds but I wasn’t willing to risk it.
I hit the turnaround at 9:45 and thought, wow this will be pretty good. It was extremely windy around the turnaround and I just told myself, everyone is doing this. You can’t outrun the wind. The course was out and back, and I took the turn wider than I anticipated. Then I ran the second mile in 6:30. By this point, I was running alone. I like out and backs because I can see and cheer for all of my friends.
The final mile went back over the ice patch, which I seemed to take the longest route possible to go around it. Once again, I went up and around, through muddy, wet grass. My feet got wet with partially unfrozen mud. Not a big deal. There was a section around mile 2.5 that got extremely windy again, and I thought I was running backward. Somehow, I continued to inch forward.
Instead of just heading back to the start, we turned left and did a short out and back which made the course about .1 long. We did the same thing last year, but the halfway cones were about 1.5 not 1.55.
As I crossed the finish line, the shoot was deflating because of wind. When I saw the clock well over 20 minutes, I was kind of bummed.
Am I ecstatic about a 20:32? Not really but it is what it is. I know I haven’t put in the work to be faster, but I’m hoping for a consistent few months to do so. It was great to see so many locals and friends.
Thank you Patrick Rodeo for the wonderful photography!
Questions for you:
Did you do a Valentine’s Themed Race?