An Evening Race For A Change Of Pace
Most organized races are held early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Those times work for me because I’m used to running first thing in the morning. That’s when I do all my training. So it seemed odd to be lining up to start the Clawson Freedom Run 5k at 7:30PM last Sunday. I wasn’t sure if the dinner I had a couple hours before would upset my run or how my legs would feel after walking around and being active all day. Fortunately I had no problems and actually raced my best 5k of the year.
The Clawson 5k gets a lot of young guns that finished in the 16:00-18:00 range and even a couple that ran a sub-5:00 pace to finish the 5k under 15 minutes. On the other end of the spectrum, there were nine guys in the Male 65+ age group.
The weather cooperated and was a cool summer evening with a breeze. It was a crowded starting line so it took about a city block to find a lane and get around folks that should have started further back. Once I found an opening I settled into about a 7:45/mi pace and just enjoyed the sights. The course runs through the neighborhoods around Clawson City Park which is my hometown so as I ran I was remembering old friends that lived on some of those streets and summer nights “cruising” the city.
Clawson has a large parade and celebration every July 4th so there was lots of red, white and blue decorations throughout the city. So I thought it was fitting to wear my red, white and blue Brooks Launch 7 shoes. Maybe they gave me a little extra luck because I was able to maintain my pace and finished in 24:10, which was 2nd place in my age group. Although there was one old guy faster than me, at 66 years old I’m not unhappy with a sub-8:00/mi pace.