Heritage War Eagles Twilight 5K Race Recap

Monday was the 2nd Annual Heritage War Eagles Twilight 5K in Rogers.  This was a nerve-wracking race for me because it is my current 5K PR course from the race in 2009.  I wasn't super confident in my speed ability going into the race so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to run as fast as I wanted.

The weather was a huge improvement over the past few weeks with a cold front that dropped the temps into the 80's-90's versus highs in the 100 degree mark.  The race starts at 7:30 PM and is held to raise funds for the high school's cross country team. Race registration was super easy and the Rush Running team was out in full force for the race.  It was a pretty cool sight to watch the team head out together for a warm-up...the R jerseys just look so cool when we're all together!

Check out all the R jerseys! The Rush Running team represents!

The race has a downhill start and finish with a few minor inclines throughout.  There are some turns on the course but lots of long straightaways too.  I made an effort to not watch my mile splits and instead just try to hold on to my pace as long as possible.  I developed a side-stitch just after the first mile but was able to mostly ignore it until the very end.  I took walk breaks as I went through the water stops just to get the water in and take deep breaths...sadly it didn't help the stitch dissipate.

Just passing mile 1 1/2

The race has a great finish with a lap on the high school track.  The track is one of the nicest tracks, super bouncy and soft! I hit the track just behind my brother-in-law and had great motivation to pick up my speed and try to catch up to him.  Heading into the final turn I shouted out to him that I was getting close.  As we came off that last turn, we were together and working hard to finish.  I didn't notice the race clock on the scoreboard and had no clue of my time until coming out of that final turn.  The clock was still in the 27 minute range and I realized my time would be a lot better than I expected. 

Sprinting to the finish...Scott my brother-in-law in blue, his friend Matt, and me.

We sprinted to the finish and ended up with a time of 27:58 versus my PR from last year of 27:47.  Not bad for how I felt leading up to the race.  It was so much fun to hit the track and hear so many friends and teammates yelling out encouragement to me.  My sister had cheered to catch the boys (her husband and his friend!) Altogether another fun race and I'm really proud of myself. I'm also super proud of Scott and his friend Matt.  They are training for a 10K on Labor Day and improved their 5K time by several minutes from a few weeks ago. 

Post race and happy to be done!

Last year this race was super memorable...for my PR performances as well as the weather delay.  The original date of the race had crazy storms.  Because it is a school sponsored event, they had to postpone it a week due to lightning and storms.  The Rush Running team didn't get to enjoy the delay...we still had to put in a workout.  Mike had us do a 2 mile time trial in the rain and lightning with the aroma of the Tyson chicken plant keeping us company.  It was one of those workouts that you look back on and ask yourself what were you thinking! Then a week later, we returned to the school and I ended up with my PR performance.  I was really glad that we didn't have to contend with crazy weather or extra time trials this year!