I did my second warm-up of the night and finished it off with some drills and strides. I was wearing my Nike Zoom Fly shoes for this race along with a headlamp attached to the bill of my hat. Since I had done this race in the past I knew there were some pretty dark spots along the course.
The pre-race pageantry is always special at the events put on by the Bakersfield Police Department and this one was no different. After the singing of the national anthem, I continued with some strides to stay loose until the race began.
I'm glad the race didn't start until 8 as that let the temperature cool down to a balmy 88 with no sun. A little warm but the fact that it was dark helped with the heat.
When the gun went off I went out fairly quick but soon settled down into a nice pace, slowly passing the runners that had gone out way too fast. I hit the first mile in a 6:17. I'm not sure what place I was in because there were a few of the fast 10k people running with us. As we neared the turnaround for the 5k I would be able to see what spot I was in. I counted 3 people ahead of me as I made the turn. I passed one fairly quickly after the turn and started chasing the guy in second place. It wasn't long after this that I had to deal with all of the traffic of the runners still heading out as I was heading back to the finish. My second mile was a 6:20, so pretty much the same pace since I had to slow for the turnaround. I gave high fives as I ran back past Robin and my friends. Soon enough I was passed the masses and concentrated on reeling in the second place runner. I caught him and with just over a half mile to go and pushed towards the finish. I could feel my legs beginning to tire and I had nothing left to catch the leader. My third mile was 6:24 and I pushed to the finish at a 6-minute flat pace. I ended up second overall with a time of 19:20, more than a minute faster than the previous year.
My Garmin screenshot after the Howlin" at the Moon 5k.
It wasn't long after I finished that Trevor, Andrea, and Robin finished. There was one problem, we couldn't find Tamara anywhere. We figured that she should have been done before Robin but we couldn't find her anywhere. We checked both the finish and the area with free Dickie's BBQ Sandwiches but no Tamara. Trevor and I headed back to the parking lot, grabbed our lawn chairs and we settled down to wait for awards, Tamara, and the raffle drawing. It wasn't long before Tamara showed up. Somehow she missed the bright lights and aid station at the 5k turnaround and ran the 10k. This would prove to be funny when awards time came along.
Everyone enjoying the festivities and showing off their mugs.
When the awards for the 5k were announced, Andrea ended up 3rd in her age group and got a mug. This was only possible because Tamara had run the wrong race thus moving Andrea up a spot. When everything was done I got first in my age group, Andrea got third in her age group, and Robin also got a mug for first in her age group. We think Trevor should have won an award too, but there were some issues with timing. None of us won anything in the raffle drawing so we headed to BJ's for some food and beers.
Enjoying our post-race beverages at BJ's.
I don't know why more people don't do this race. The course is flat and fast. The entry fee is 25.00. We get a shirt, awesome age group awards in the form of beer glasses, free BBQ sandwiches from Dickey's, and great raffle prizes. I give this race a 6 lager rating.
