Movin' Shoes Full Moon 5k

"Hot" black shirt.

 We were blessed with a cold spell this last week.  Temperatures dropped to the 70s during the day, and it was often cool enough at night to wish for a light jacket.  These was amazing temperatures for mid-July races.

The Full Moon 5k is put on by the Madison running shoe store, Movin' Shoes.  I've bought the last 4 pairs of running shoes there.  The shoe store puts on a number of races throughout the year including a Frosty 5k and a Elver Park 5k, but this is the first of their races that I've been to.  The race is limited to a field of 500 runners, which is plenty so that I was never alone on the course, but I also never felt crowded.  At only $20 race registration with technical shirt, blinking light and chip timing at the finish, this race is a much better choice in my opinion than the Electric Run.

The race starts at 9pm on a Thursday with packet pick-up over at Olin Park, which is actually about 3/4 mile from the start.  Barry and I parked down there, picked up our packets and t-shirts, hid from the storm cloud for about 20 minutes before we had a nice warm-up to the start.  I debated back and forth about a rain jacket.  There was a looming storm cloud that may or may not hit us, but when the rain never quite materialized before the start, I didn't bother.  It was just a bit too warm for a jacket anyway.  I did wear a hat to keep raindrops out of my eyes just in case.

By 9pm, the sun has set in Madison, and it's fairly dark.  Barry warned me of the speed bumps on the course with stories of when he tripped over one and then finished the race with blood dripping from his elbow.  The race directors provided us with blinking lights to attach to our persons, which I appreciated, but this I also left behind with the rain jacket.  It was darker than I had expected but the race directors lighted the course with blinking lights in the parts where street lights were lacking.

The course itself is beautiful.  We start on the west side of Monona Bay and run around it to Brittingham Park, cutting over to John Nolen and then back down to Olin Park for the finish.  Everybody who's ever lived in Madison knows that the drive around Monona Bay has some amazing views of the Madison Capitol and the skyline, especially at night in the summer when the bay glitters with the reflections of the lights.  The course takes us right toward and past this view.  These kinds of courses were designed as a love letter to Madison. 

As Barry said to me back in April after I set a PR for a 10k and then ran a much slower Crazy Legs 8k a week later, "some days you've just got it and some days you don't."  Despite my reluctance to run earlier in the day, once at the start and warmed up, I felt like I had it.  I felt like this was a race to set a 5k PR.  I told Barry that I've stopped trying to run with him as he always pulls me out too fast.  I set the pace that I felt comfortable doing at the start, always keeping in mind that I had 3 miles to run.  I also decided to throw strategy out the window.  It was only a 5k and I knew I could afford to go out fast in that first mile.  Because of this, I still kept with Barry for most of the first mile.

Number 262, for the 26.2 marathon distance.

I crossed the 1 mile point as the timekeeper shouted out 8:08 to me.  Whoo, that was fast.  I knew that I couldn't possibly keep that kind of pace for all 3 miles, so my aim was just to not slow too much.  I crossed the second mile marker as someone told me 16:50.  That's much slower, but I might be able to do the next 1.1 miles in slightly less than 10 minutes for a PR.  I knew there was a hill coming up, but I didn't try to conserve energy for it.  I aimed to gain time on the flat parts and expected to lose pace on that hill.  Unlike the longer races, I was mostly getting passed by other people.  Even so, when I saw that finish line, I managed a faster sprint than I had thought I was capable of and passed 3 or 4 people that I had been trailing behind for the last mile.   26:28 when I came through.  That's a 5k PR.  Next time, I'm aiming for under 26 minutes. 

Now that I know I'll be in Madison for the fall, I'm starting to look at a race schedule.  In particular, I'm thinking about another marathon and I think I could be ready by mid-October to early November.  I was looking at some closer ones like Haunted Hustle at the end of October or Madison Marathon in November, but I've ran parts of both courses when I ran their half marathon event, and I disliked both courses.  I hated Madison Marathon's out and back on John Nolen at the end.  The Haunted Hustle has killer hills at the end.  So now I'm thinking of either Ashland Whistlestop or Rails to Trails in Norwalk, WI.  I'll have to look at the other races in the fall and put together a schedule.