Race Report of the Milton Harvest Festival 5k, Milton, Pa. (9/20)

I know, I know, I'm writing a race report for a small-town 5k, but it was a fun weekend so I felt compelled.  I was going home to not only spend some time with the fam, but to also be joined in the race by both of my brothers, Matt's girlfriend, my mom and step-dad.  My grandparents and dad would also be there to cheer us on so it was quite a family affair.  It was also exciting for my brother, Ryan, because it was going to be his very first running race!  He really started running quite a bit early in the summer and had been getting himself up to about five or six miles on a long run.  We were all playing up the rivalry between Matt and Ryan most of the week.

I once again took the train into Harrisburg and hooked up with my brother, Matt, who lives there.  I didn't get much sleep the night before and couldn't sleep very well on the train so I decided to forgo the run I had planned on Friday evening because I could hardly stay awake.  In the back of my head, I was thinking that this would be a good thing because the race was the next morning.  I know, it was only a 5k, but I still wanted to do as well as I could and I felt that running on Friday would not have had a purpose aside from just throwing in some junk miles.  The 2007 edition of the Harvest Festival 5k was my very first running race and I managed an 18:24, good for a ninth place finish.  After having run an opening 5k leg in a duathlon in May in about 17:30, I was thinking maybe I could come close to tickling the 17:00 mark.

We drove into town on Saturday morning and hung around for a good hour before the race.  Before we knew it, we were lining up at the start line.  I had thought that it would have been cool for all of us to line up together at the front to start the race, which seemed like a good idea until the race director announced that, "if you're not planning on running under six-minute miles, you probably shouldn't be at the front."  That pretty much left me standing up there alone and everyone else randomly scattered throughout the crowd behind me.

The air horn sounded and I jumped off the front right away.  I was trying to be conservative and not spend myself in the first mile like I did last year.  While this might have worked somewhat, it still did not stop me from jumping out quite quickly.  After about a half-mile of leading the race, the eventual winner (with a time of 15:39) blew past me and was putting road between us at an alarming rate.  The second mile seemed to drag on endlessly and was very mentally difficult to try to hand onto my pace.  A little over half way through the race, another runner crept up to me.  I tried to hitch myself onto him and ran shoulder to shoulder with him for about a quarter of a mile before I couldn't hack it anymore.  He began to slowly inch away from me.

Rounding the corner into the last half mile, I got a bit of a second wind, especially because I saw that fourth place was not so far behind me.  I made two or three hard surges that successfully discouraged further chase from him.  I hit the line with a good five seconds in hand over him with a final time of 17:52.  I was a little disappointed at this time, as it was way off my mark, but I think I realized that it's more difficult to run on a course that's pan flat (like this one) as opposed to one that rolls a bit.  Either way, I guess a 32 second improvement over a year isn't so bad for such a short race.  I fully realize that, had I shown up at a 5k that had drawn some talent and posted that time, I would have easily been ejected from the top 10.  But I won't complain about getting another podium finish.

After I had finished, the race for second in the family was heating up.  Matt and Ryan had been running together for pretty much the entire race.  Matt even admitted afterwards that, if not for Ryan pushing the pace, he probably wouldn't have run so quickly.  Ryan hung on until about the last hundred yards when Matt dropped the hammer and opened up a winning margin of fifteen seconds.  They finished 21:15 and 21:30 respectively.  I was impressed.

The rest of the day was pretty hectic with family pictures being taken from 2-4, followed by another run in the evening, dinner and bowling.  I hit the road again Sunday morning and put in five miles to bring the weekly total up to 40.  Flash forward to 8:30 and my arrival back in Pittsburgh for some wine and fake chicken salad with Kayla.

This post would be over normally, but there has been a change in my late season plans.  I will be running the Pittsburgh Great Race 10k this weekend, but the Steamtown marathon is out of the picture.  The original plan was for my dad to come out to Scranton for some awesome race support, but that's gone out the window.  So instead, it looks like the Harrisburg Marathon will take its place at the beginning of November.  I think this is a more favorable option because its a much shorter trip for everyone involved and it gives me just that little extra time to prepare.

Well, thanks for tuning in!  Check back soon.