Franklin Classic 10K and 5K

Val, me, and Catherine before the 5K

Friday or Saturday night, race director (and my Team Belladium teammate) Kat texted a few of us from the team and asked whether we'd like to race the Franklin Classic race her company was putting on for Labor Day. Although I would be just a week off of Ironman and I had done NOTHING for that entire week, I couldn't pass up the chance to race :-)

Val, Anna, me, and Cath after the 5K

Monday morning, I headed downtown early to register and run the first race, the 10K. I have my 10K race PR (46:36) from the Franklin Classic in 2009, and I also raced in 2010 (48:32). This year was a much different course, though, and I was in no condition to PR after Ironman, hence the 50:41 (8:11 pace).

10K course: 50:41

As you can see, it's pretty hilly. But they're all familiar roads, so I just wanted to have some fun. I started out somewhere in the middle of the pack and ended up in pretty much the same place.

I finished at 10 to 8 and the 5K started at 8:45, so I had almost an hour in between races. I had a little eat and drink, and then went back to my car to change shirts (it was hot and muggy already!) before meeting up with Valerie, Anna, and Catherine for the 5K. Again, we started pretty much in the middle of the (seemingly much larger) group and moved our way up a little. I tried to keep this right around an 8:30 pace, and somehow despite the slower pace it hurt more than the 10K!

5K course: 26:21

Cath, me, Val, and Kat after both races and after breakfast

After the races, I picked up a lady walking her bike and took her home. I've been trying to be aware of other people and what they might need, and any cyclist walking a bike is a big blip on my radar. I was driving home from Catherine's house and saw this lady walking her bike that had a flat tire. I had a pump but no tubes, so naturally I offered to take her home. She had a volunteer shirt on from the race and I had raced, so we had a connection and she wasn't a complete stranger. She'd said she was walking maybe half a mile, but I insisted her bike would fit and it wouldn't be an imposition for me to drive her. I didn't have to persuade long, and I found out she had two stress fractures on her foot and had very recently (like the last day or two) been cleared to bike without her boot. It ended up being nearly a 2-mile drive, so she would have been walking too long for her nearly broken foot. I was super happy to help :-)