Saturday, April 16, 2022
It has been a while since I have done a 5k race so you can probably understand my hesitation in doing one during what would be warmer temperatures. However, a friend convinced me that this would be for a great cause. This race provides camps and other services to fire burn victims and have been doing this in the Tampa area for the past 11 years. So, with that in mind, I signed up.
The race began at the Tampa Firefighters Museum on Zack Street which has a lot of great memorabilia of firefighter history. I made it to the race about an hour before the start which gave me a chance to jog a mile to warm up and meet several friends. Yakim and Steve Kapnac were also running and even Robert made a surprise visit to wish us well. After the National Anthem, we promptly started at 8:00am. The course was well marked and safe. It was nice that for the first two miles it was primarily a downhill run. This helped me to maintain a quick pace of about 7:35 throughout the race. There were two turnarounds/u turns on the course but primarily it was a straight out and back. Mile 1 and mile 2 went pretty smooth and there were volunteers handing out water at the halfway mark. As we made the last turnaround before mile 3, the sun started to hit hard! Everyone was starting to show the effects of the warmer temps. My primary focus was to get this race done before it got much warmer. Following another straightaway of running we made a last sharp left and headed to the finish. It was only then that I glanced at my watch and saw that I was approaching a PR! Final time was 23:11, my best time! However, this had to be the most competitive field I have been in as that time only placed in 7th place. Overall, I ranked 44 among about 250. The winner clocked in at about 16 minutes! (Talk about FAST!!!!!). Quite a few high school track/cross country kids there. This was an enjoyable event and went very smooth. A fun time to spend on a Saturday morning!