Eerie Erie 5k
I hadn’t ran since the Boulder 100 fiasco, so a 5k with the family seemed reasonable. We weren’t expecting the 5 year old to set land speed records so plenty of opportunity to take it easy. Two of my kids have done this race in the past as part of their school’s run club. There were enough of us from the school running that kids could run their own pace and have someone nearby to watch over them.
This is a fun race! It is set in the town of Erie, Colorado and held the Saturday morning before Halloween … hence the Eerie part of the race. People dress up in costumes, local businesses are represented, and they raffle off cookies. The shirts are pretty cool too being long sleeve techs.
We met-up with the kids’ run club coach. He made the comment he was going to see how fast he could go. I said I’ve never really tried that. My wife said I should as there are enough people to watch the kids.
Well okay then.
I can run my race and then come back out to run in with each kid. Nice.
This is a small local race with about 200 runners. We all lined up and a guy did a countdown … then yelled GO!
The course starts off an easy downhill and there were a few people passing me. We rounded the corner and started uphill. That’s when the mountain running seemed to start helping. I passed 12 people. That was either really good or really stupid.
If you’ve been reading here lately you know which it was.
I settled into a pretty steady rhythm. Things burned a bit, but I didn’t really care because I knew I wouldn’t be doing this more than 20-25 minutes.
No music in my ears except the sound of my feet hitting the ground. I kept wondering when I was going to see the first mile marker. Then up in the distance I saw it. Except that it was the 2nd mile marker!
Holy crap! This race is already almost over!
At that point I knew it was less than 10 minutes until the finish. Push on. Down a straight street and turn left. Remember that start that was downhill? That results in the finish being uphill. Excellent.
As I crested the hill, I saw the last quarter mile was downhill. I just pushed with whatever was left until I crossed the finish line. That caused a dry heaving coughing yacking party. I probably looked like a goon because as I was doing all that noise, I had the biggest grin on my face. Forgot how good that felt.
After downing a bottle of water, I headed back onto the course. At the bottom of the hill I found my 9yo daughter rounding the corner.
About a minute after she crossed the finish line, in came my 11yo son.
They had both set personal records by 4-6 minutes. Not bad year-over-year! Each downed a bottle of water and we headed back out on the course to find the rest of the family. Somehow we passed our 7yo as she finished.
We made it back to the bottom of the hill and waited. It was fun to cheer people on yet not so much to notify them of the hill before the finish line. The kids found it amusing when one runner responded with a loud “Ugggghhhhh!”. I know that feeling.
Bless my wife’s heart and patience, we saw her coming down the road and joined in.
My 5yo and 7yo decided to pick up speed once they saw the finish line.
From there, nothing was to stop my 5yo finishing her first 5k.
This is a great race for any family!
Oh yeah … the post-race food isn’t too bad. Bagels, yogurt, hot chocolate, candy.
