Haunted Graveyard 5K

It was a perfect night for racing. The temperature was in the 50s, it was sunny and no wind.

At the start of the race, all of the adults were stuck behind children. For some silly reason, all of the young kids lined up right on the start line. When the horn went off, all of the adults, including me, were dashing in the grass around the kids. I heard a woman who was watching the race comment, "All of those runners are cutting the course!" OK lady. How do you suggest that we get around a line of 5-6 kids without running in the grass to pass them? Knock them over? Sorry. I won't push a kid down.

After passing the kids, I could get into a nice running rhythm. The course is run through the city's largest cemetery. It has a lot of hills. I was so surprised at the speed I was running down the hills. At first, I was afraid I was going to bite it on the asphalt path. I was able to keep my footing and continue on. Slowly, I started to pass runner after runner. It felt really good to be able to pass so many people on this hilly course. I really enjoyed it when I passed people running up hills. I also worked on keeping my speed the same going up hills. My hill training has helped me so much this year. I'm so glad I incorporated it into my training.

Besides working hard on the hills. During the race, I would randomly pick up out runners in front of me that I wanted to catch. I was able to catch quite a few of them and pass them. Heading into the turn and straightaway, I was next to a guy. Once he saw the finish line, he just took off. I wanted to stay with him, but he got away. I wasn't sprinting as fast as the guy I was just near, but I did sprint away from a runner that was behind me. They were really close to me because I could hear them breathing when we made the final turn. There was no way that this person was going to pass me. I just took off and out kicked them.

I finished the race in 25:30:10. That time was a 20 second improvement from last year. I thought that I ran this race four years in a row, but I skipped 2009. The awards only went two deep and unfortunately my name wasn't called. The results from the race should be posted today and I'm looking forward to seeing where I finished in a huge group of runners.

Haunted Graveyard 5K finishing times:
2008: 33:50:92
2010: 25:50:10
2011: 25:30:10