2009 police pumpkin chase: race report

i've run the police pumpkin chase 5k in new canaan many times over the years. it's a combination trail (1/3) and road (2/3) race that runs through and around waveny park. typically, in years past, this race was the second leg of a halloween double - the morning would start in wilton for the halloween hustle 5k and end in new canaan with the pumpkin chase. this year wilton moved it's race back a week (now it conflicts with the nyc marathon). so a classic halloween-themed double is history.

luckily, in place of the wilton race, the race scheduling gods dropped in the great train race! sunday morning kicked off with a point to point run from new canaan to wilton (spirits of the halloween hustle, anyone?). in between the two races, my laptop decided to create havoc in my otherwise staid life - the monitor suddenly crashed, and has refused to display anything remotely resembling data since! so when i arrived at waveny park for the 5k i was in a decidedly gloomy mood.

but the good(?) thing about gloomy moods is that they can fade fast. seeing most of the usual suspects for a second race in one day soon had it in the distant past. roy, rob, kate, emmy, and dawn (no don; but he ran the great train course back to the start to double up on the miles!) were all there for the 5k. one hilarious coincidence - roy, rob, emmy, and i all had on a pair of orange boston build-up socks! jim did too, but we didn't realize that when kate took the above photo!

as for the race, we had great conditions! while it was a bit warmer at mid-afternoon, i was really digging the sunshine! i didn't have any particular time goal in mind - basically looked to get in a solid tempo run. i was surprised when we reached one "mile" mark in 7:09 - because i had expected it to be the 1 kilometer mark! this course traditionally been marked off in kilometers, so that was a twist! i missed the second mile marker (and third as well), and finished in 21:57.

i was surprised, no shocked, to learn (from kate and emmy) that i had won my age group! not only was that time 2+ minutes slower than my pr for that course, but when i ran that pr it didn't even break into the top 5 of my age group that year! but never look a gift ag award in the mouth! it was great to win - and just proves that sometimes (no always) it's about who shows up and runs the race!

here are some race photos.

next up: this week is the nyc marathon expo, the international friendship run, and the nyc marathon - woo hoo!!