Cooley Law 5k "Race" Recap

Way back in February of this year I signed up for the Capital City River Run Half Marathon with plans to use it as my A-race Half Marathon for the year. I had a score to settle with this race as last year I was unable to race it because I was coming back from an injury. Go figure. Fast forward not even a month from registering and I sustained the injury that would take me out of commission for the rest of the year to date. CCRR was the fifth and final race I had prematurely registered for this year and after missing the Martian Half (spectated), B.A.A. 5k (spectated), Cleveland Marathon (spectated), and CRIM 10 M, I decided I was not going to let this one get away from me, especially when it features a sweet long sleeve tech tee! Thankfully this event also features a 5k distance so I dropped down to the 5k and made plans to walk. Spike has been regularly "walking me," as we joke, so I knew I'd be fine to complete the distance and he even agreed to join me.

Pre-Race: Bright and early Sunday morning Spike and I suited up for the chilly weather and headed on over to downtown Lansing. The Lansing Center/Cooley Law Stadium area was all abuzz and despite my injury status and "race" limitations I couldn't help but get a little jazzed up. My one and only race this year was back in January and my last 5k race was in December of last, I have missed the race atmosphere!

Start Corral: For the first time in my life, and probably Spike's too, we lined up as far back as we could. I'm not going to lie, it was a wee bit demoralizing lined up so far back, but I kept telling myself that this was only a temporary location, someday I'll be lined up front again.

The Race: So the best part of this event is that the two races start facing each other about 100 meters apart on opposite sides of the road. When the horn blows both sides face off and become one until each side fades out going their respective directions. I was able to pick out a few familiar faces in the Half crowd to cheer as we waited, and waited, and waited to finally get across the start line. By the time we got there I forgot all about starting Hermes so you'll just have to believe me when I say that we totally negative split this race. We estimated that we shaved off about a minute or so each mile and somehow slugged our way to the finish in under 60 minutes!

So apparently our "power walking" looks only slightly ridiculous...

Why yes that is new YMX gear,
check back tomorrow for deets and a giveaway!

It got pretty crazy out there on the course, the Playmakers Over 50 Couch to 5k ladies were out in full force and we got to chat and encourage quite a few of them along the way. The race support and volunteers were great, humoring us as we ambled along proclaiming "there's still a chance to win!" A few times Spike had to reel me in for being "reckless" aka pushing the pace too fast, I certainly didn't feel reckless (although my leg would tell me otherwise later), but we did end up managing to pass quite a few people along the way. After forever, because 3.1 miles certainly seems forever when you're walking (major props to all you race walkers out there that do the longer distances!), we made it to the finish, hand in hand, smiles on our faces, thoroughly entertained by our little walk around the capital city area.

Coming down the finishers chute

Final Chip Time: 55:50 / 17:58 P
867/898 Overall - 93/96 AG

(In case you're interested my 5k PR is 22:19 while my 10k PR is 50:20, that's twice the distance in less time. Yeah.)

Stoked to be done sub-60!

Because I've never walked a 5k before this was an automatic 5k Walk PR!!! AND I somehow managed to avoid last place overall or in my age group! Woo hoo!!!

Post Race: I had really wanted to stay and cheer in the Halfers as I had a lot of peeps out racing but we had to leave straight away because of family obligations. I do know that most of them had a great race, with more than a few PR's on this picture perfect day.

Post Race Thoughts: Obviously this was not how I had envisioned this day would play out, but if I've learned anything this year it's that nothing is certain and the only thing I do have control over is how I handle the situation. As I said in my last post, I'm not done fighting, and I think we made the absolute most of a beautiful morning. I truly hope this is but the start of my return to running in the months to come...