Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Ted and I ran the Alameda Education Foundation (AEF) Run 4 Education 5K in Alameda, a day after running the extremely difficult Wildcat Half Marathon. Prior to the race, neither one of us was sure what to expect from the 5K.  How would our legs recover after a hard effort the day before?  Ted shared his thoughts about the run already, but I figured I would whip up a review as well.

The course began across the street from the Sushi House, ran up Shoreline, turned around by the bathhouse, and flew back down to the start/finish line.

The gun sounded and a group of 10 people flew off the front of the race, with a couple of others pacing their way up to the leaders.  I ran with the leaders for less than a mile before I was dropped out the back of the group, as I’m clearly not fit enough for a 21-minute 5K. My legs were screaming just a half mile into the race, but I kept trucking forward.  I cleared my first mile in less than 7:30 – a pace I normally don’t keep when training – so I was honestly unsure what would happen later.  As expected, I began to slow down a bit as we left Shoreline and headed into the Crown Memorial State Beach land. The rest of the entry can be found after the jump. After we reached the turn around, only one person passed me before I reached the finish.  The lone person who passed me ended up finishing 15 seconds ahead of me, as I completely fell apart in the last mile.  I was looking at my watch and seemed to be on pace to finish in 23:30 (or less), but eased back and didn’t go full blast until I saw a chance to break 24 minutes.

The top 10 finishers included two 10 year old boys and a 14 year old girl, with Gavin Hill (10 year old), finishing in 20:02.1.  Ted was 10th overall, while I was in 13th place.  Not a bad effort a day after a hard race, but still have some work to do before I can tackle a 5K in less than 22 minutes. I slotted in at 23:59.7, which is faster and better than I expected, especially a day after Wildcat.

There was a single car out on course so we had to start and finish on the Shoreline pathway, though one lane was closed to traffic.  There were only a few volunteers out on course, but they were friendly and shouted words of encouragement as runners jogged by. A review on the Active.com Web site questioned why more age groups aren’t added into the event – and that’s done mainly because this event is about the children.  (That’s why 14 and under or 19+ were the two age groups, as there weren’t any teenagers from 15 to 18 present at the race.)