Elephant Stampede 5K Race Report

No, no, they didn't name the race in my honor since I came to run it today in Seattle, near the University of Washington!

The 10th annual Elephant Stampede 5K today was put on by St. Bridget Church Parish and it benefits a school in the achingly poor parish of Namitembo in Malawi, Africa. Because of the support towards this event in years' past, teacher housing, new water supply system, a community center, a secondary school and a high school have been built as well as building additional classrooms and upgrading current facilities. 2006's proceeds were going towards building a trade school where villagers can learn crafts and skills to become more self-sufficient.

I blew off driving two and a half hours for the Komen Race for the Cure 5K in Portland, Oregon as sleep was much more needed -- and enjoyed I might add. I had gotten breakfast at about 9 a.m., came back to the hotel, checked out by 11:30 a.m. and made it to the race site by 12:20 p.m. for a 1 p.m. race start.

I really wanted to do the Terry Fox Run today in Vancouver, but I really needed to get out of the city for the weekend. So I still got to help a good cause one way or the other.

Start time temperature was 66 degrees with a good breeze blowing in off of Lake Washington. The race was held in Warren G. Magnuson Park, which is very close to a large N.O.A.A. facility.

Everything that I checked online showed that pre-registration had been $20 with an additional $5 required the day of the race. No problem. When I showed up and filled out the on-site registration form, however, it was $25 and $30! I just chuckled and kept writing out the check (#8919) - thinking to myself that they sure do know how to raise money.

After going back to my car and putting my bib number on, I went to warm-up and check out the course a little bit. I had some doubts about whether I should be running this; however, I didn't have anything better to do -- and I didn't want to get back here any sooner than I had to.

The other funny registration item was a thing on the form asking if you wanted a time or not. There was a box to check that said, "No, I'm doing this for fun!" It actually said that if you wanted a time it would mean that they would have fewer dollars to give to the charity because the timing was an expense. (They were using a handheld cross country timer and a tear tag system - just like at Run The Woodlands 5K.)

Since they didn't have the 3-mile marker set, I walked off 528 feet from the finish line so I would have an idea where to try and make my last strong push from.

The race didn't get started on-time (about 15 minutes late) and any of the public address announcements (using a hand-held megaphone) could only be heard by less than 30% of the people because that is how far I was up in the pack because of the abundance of walkers and folks with strollers. (Some of which I had to contend with for the first 500 yards. In fact, I went out faster then what I wanted to early on because of that -- plus there were 3 little tykes that kept running in front of everyone from left to right.)

So how did I do today after running a 15K yesterday at my half-marathon PR pace?

Well, I have to say that I was pretty pleased -- 29:15.27! (And, yes, I believe that the distance was right and that the mile markers were on the money.)

Mile 1 -- 9:04.46
Mile 2 -- 9:28.54 (18:48.22)
Mile 3 -- 9:47.53 (28:35.75)
Last .1 -- 54.74

Final -- 29:30.49 - 15.22 = 29:15.27

My left hamstring that's been tightening up on me a little bit didn't seem to bother me -- meaning I felt like I could really plant strong with my left leg. The course was flat with some changes in terrain - meaning some light gravel in places. It sort of reminded me of Sarah's race, the Yuri's Night 5K, at Challenger Seven Park in Webster -- but without the large hill that she sadisticly puts everyone through.

So other than the cool weather, what has been part of the change? Not sure other than the fact that I have cut out the sodas completely. I haven't even had a diet drink since last Monday at about 1 a.m. Its been all water with some orange juice in the mornings and chocolate milk after both of my runs Wednesday night and Saturday morning.

But with times like these, I'm pretty pleased and they sure are a confidence booster.

And they will come just in time as I get a schedule to start working from -- and working with somebody to help me get to where I want to be -- and that is as close to 4:30 in the marathon that I can get. (I realize that I'll need to get to the 2:02-2:04 half marathon time to realistically have a shot at 4:30, but that's my goal. Now it's time to see if I can hit it.)