Earlier this morning Rebecca and I ran a local 5K (3.1 miles) race here in Gainesville. It was called the Education for Life 5K. I believe this was its fourth running. There must have been about 200 runners, and for a change most of them seemed to be in the younger age categories. The course, which began and ended behind Westside Park on NW 31st Drive, also involved running along NW 8th Avenue, cutting through Loblolly Woods Park, and returning down hilly NW 16th Avenue (where Marty Liquori used to train). The hilliness and slopes of the course weren't the only challenges: although the race-time temperature was a pleasant 60 degrees, the humidity was a bit overbearing, being over 90%. I think that factor bothered me more than anything. This was Rebecca's first 5K race and she did a great job, especially considering the terrain and humidity. Way to go! For my part, I finished it at 25:53...pretty much maintaining my usual pace. While running with my daughter was fun, I was also gratified to finally have entered and finished a race after so many months of skipping other opportunities (some beyond my control, to be fair).
I felt that the atmosphere at this event was very positive, and volunteers were spread along the course shouting encouragement and cheering us on. There was even a pre-race group stretching/warm-up session. They also were good at providing refreshment after the race, and not only handed out awards to the age/gender category winners, but also randomly drew for some prizes from the at-large pool of runners. I'd like to try this race out next year. Here is the
event's website.
And here are some pictures I took...
