Rock Solid Run Solid Stampede 5K Race Report

First of at least four races this week is in the record books!

The 2nd annual Trinity Valley School Rock Solid Run Solid Stampede 5K is a pretty good event. They have a 1-mile event that starts at 6:30 p.m. and the 5K follows at 7:00 p.m. (The 5K started a little late - no more than 5 minutes - and really wasn't annoying whatsoever.)

The Trinity Valley School is a member of the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) -- the same league that The Woodlands John Cooper School plays in. (Before I got involved in the running community, I used to cover Texas private and parochial high school athletics from 1994 to 2001.) The school sits on property that gives some incredible views of south Fort Worth (and just north of the community of Benbrook).

The run was a very hilly one. I mapped the course using MapMyRun.com and can be viewed here. The toughest 5K course that I have ever run is the King of Jester 5K in Austin (and I don't believe that it is held anymore.) Nonetheless, this would take a top five in my book.

You get a downhill that drops about 20 feet (758 to 739), but at the half way point for mile 1 you've climbed to 777 feet (according to the map).

You return all the way to 720 feet (above sea level) before you get to the 1.25-mile point, but begin another uphill that takes you back to about 758. You go down and back up twice before hitting the mile 2 marker. After the mile 2 marker, you smooth out a little bit before the turnaround and then you get a gentle downhill until a sharp uphill at the 2.5-mile mark. Then it is back downhill to the lowest point at 717 feet and then the 50 feet climb in two-tenths of a mile - before finishing down the stretch.

MapMyRun.com calls the course 3.16 miles, but I think that it was right on the road at 3.1 miles.

My splits were like this:

Difference -- 10.48
Mile 1 -- 9:23.18
Mile 2 -- 10:08.91
Mile 3 -- 10:33.54
Last .1 -- 56.19 (31:01.42)

I went into oxygen debt a little bit during the race, took a couple of short, quick blows, but otherwise feel like I did pretty good. I know 31 minutes isn't a really good 5K time, but this was a tough course. I would say with the constant up-and-down that it is tougher than the Huntsville Half Marathon 5K course. And I would probably say that my recent fitness would have allowed me to go under 30 minutes on the same Resurrection Run 5K course - still far away from my low 28-minute 5K but I'll get back there.

In the first mile, there were a couple of 4th-to-6th grade boys that wanted to walk repeatedly but I think they kept running because I would consistently pass them (just running steady).

My legs feel pretty good. (Maybe 2 Tylenol before the race is helping with that a little bit.)

One of the post-race treats -- other than the pizza -- were strawberries (lots of them!) Yum! I know that I have four or five of them.

Plus when you grade this race, I drove about four hours to get here too. (Wait. That's normal for me though.)

I'm staying in Fort Worth for the evening and I will run the Zoo Zoo Run 10K in the morning.

Here's what I did at that race last year (and it was very humid):

Mile 1 -- 9:53.63
Mile 2 -- 10:24.45 (20:18.08)
Mile 3 -- 10:08.63 (30:26.71)
Mile 4 -- 10:05.75 (40:32.46)
Mile 5 -- 10:33.52 (51:05.98)
Mile 6 -- 10:11.90 (1:01:18.88)
Last .2 -- 1:58.40

Overall -- 1:03:16.28
Official Chip -- 1:03:14.5

We'll see how it goes. This is just like the Montgomery County Triple, but a little longer on one race (plus I'm throwing in at least an additional one tomorrow).