Pumpkin Push 5K

October 27, 2007

23:03/7:25 pace
1st in AG

My race costume


Past Pumpkin Pushes:
2006
24:05 (Official gun time)
23:12 (my watch) ~7:28 pace
12th in AG (I was exiting the restroom when the gun went off! Argh!)

2005
23:54/7:42 pace (Official gun time)
23:10 (my watch)
3rd in AG

2004
23:10
3rd in AG

This run loops around Seward Park and includes a hill close to 2 miles into the race. It's nearly the same run course as for the Seafair Triathlon and the Furry 5K. I believe the course was changed slightly from 2004 to 2005 (from 2005 onward, the start line was moved up and the distance made up in the uphill portion and loop in the upper park - someone correct me on this if I got that wrong). I found this GPS photo of the race course (lifted it from someone's blog). Anyway, the course is all flat on the big loop, the smaller, inner loop is a steep uphill/downhill.

Many people show up in costume and I finally tried that this year. The photo above is what I ran in. Hot? Sure, but at least the wig/helmet/sword didn't bounce around and cause problems.

So it was nice to see the usual suspects - Ann, Val, Wendy, Gina. All seemed to have consistent races. Another tri buddy, Lisa H. had a great race with a 22:07 time (and an even better race last year, pre-injury, with 20:58 giving her a 6:46 pace). Luckily, we will only be in the same age group for the few races that go by 10-year increments.

In 2006, due to unforeseen delays (I had to re-register due to the race staff losing my race number), my necessary bathroom visit was pushed back way too close to race start time. Sure enough, the gun went off as I was exiting and I started at the back of the pack. I ran hard to see what my watch time would be, though I knew my official/gun time was worthless at that point. The first 1/2 mile was very crowded with the walkers and slowest runners all over the path, which limited my progress but by the time things started to open up, I wanted to make up for lost time as best I could. So looking for the silver lining here, it was kind of fun to run a race where I was reeling in people in front of me and passing them the whole race.


The morning was very pretty with sunshine and a little fog burning off and all the fall colors seeming to be at their peak.