The Races Rejoined (Part 2)

Early on Saturday April 19 I completed another 5k alongside my girlfriend marking our 4th one done since March 22, 2025. This meant we had completed in order:

• Keel Farm Hard Cider 5k - March 22, 2025
• Driscoll's Strawberry Classic (5k) - March 29, 2025
• Tampa - Race for Education - Tampa (5K) - April 12, 2025
• Tampa - MacDill's Paws 4 Heroes 5K - April 19, 2025

As April 12 arrived it was time to head down to the Race for Education which offered a course map that looked extremely fun.

This looked like a race with a simple run up & down the road turning around at intersections with a bridge in the middle. This was a competitive race with the winner clocking a 5:39/mile average pace which took my 7:46/mile pace and demolished it.

That winner was 15-19 years old and I'm 32 so I can look back and remember the high school days of pushing 4 minute miles, but those days are over. I guess Kansas City didn't have as large of a running community, because I'm convinced every single weekend in Tampa has a race. Maybe that'll cool down when the blistering heat arrives in the summer.

Out of all the previous recent races - this race was my favorite course. Police closed down the road with patrols guarding every single intersection thus blocking cars from accidentally plowing over some runners. When you have so much space with running and a simple course - the confusion of where to turn/loop is over - its just a race between yourself and the course.

I started too quick following people I had no business following, but I relaxed into a pace I could keep at around 7:40/mile. I slowed down as I was hitting the final mile, but I could tell my pace was already 20 seconds faster than my last 5k.

Sure enough I finished at 24:06 and broke my 5K record, which is no where near my pre-surgery record, but it was depressing looking at my best mile & 5k that I set 15 years ago so I reset all my personal bests in Garmin to track again.

This event had vendors everywhere and two parking garages to park in which made the arrival & walking around pretty seamless. Plenty of oranges, bananas, Gatorades, water and snacks to eat - leading to an excellent race.

With that race over it was just time for another week of work before the MacDill's Paws 4 Heroes 5k. I was excited for this race, because the best time last year was only a 6:38/mile pace so I knew it was not as competitive as the other races. This would hopefully allow me to aim to place in the top 10 overall.

It didn't have a course map, but instead the above video to learn the course. I must have watched this video 5 times before the race and it still didn't help me. Unfortunately for me my watch clocked 3.1 miles and I was at least 1/2 a mile away from the finish line so I knew I messed up somewhere.

For those wondering how you mess up a race and go the wrong direction, imagine the race director on a bicycle leading the race. Imagine two people behind the bicycle pushing around a 6 minute mile pace - with myself floating around a 7:30 mile pace way behind them. Before we even hit the 1 mile mark I had lost vision of any runner ahead of me, but yet was not being passed before I took a wrong turn.

So naturally when I was supposed to run the entire backside of the race I curled back up and did 2 loops of a figure 8 following the crowd of people on their 1st lap. When I was running the opposite direction of the guys I started the race with I knew I messed up bad. I just continued on my wrong path and finished the race at 3.46 miles instead of 3.1 miles.

Getting to the finish line and expecting to be in 3rd place, but seeing roughly 20 runners there already felt bad for the competitiveness in me. My time in theory should have beaten my goal of 24 minutes, but instead I'm looking at a 26:57 time. An especially bad time because I slowed down hard when my watch hit 5k so far away from the finish line.

I took my Garmin watch which recorded the race up to the timing booth and asked them if they'd be willing to remove my time or take my Garmin recording at 3.1 miles (24:13). I didn't really want my bad time associated with me, since I ran a bit more than needed.

The guy was very friendly and instead took my Garmin's average time on my watch (7:47min/mile) and used that to change my time. Of course my average took a dive when I was upset that I messed up, so probably isn't reflected of my actual time, but I'll take that any-day over a 27 minute 5k.

So as the results came out I was very happy to see my time was closer to what I actually ran rather than what was originally captured by my bib.

With 4 races under my belt over the last two months - its clear I prefer the road races that have no loops or confusing turns. Anytime a race has the fast runners lapping the slow runners it leads to confusion and more. I'm sure I'm realizing why those races don't tend to have a more robust list of fast competitors as they are all probably aware of that as well.

All in all - a weekend start with a 5k always turn out to be a great weekend. My goal is to race the big races as we push into 2026 with the races like the Gasparilla 8k, TPA 5k, and the Skyway 10k (when it returns).