Longer version:
This is the third year for the Rock CF Pure Detroit 5K and we've done it every year so far (2016, 2017). It's held in the New Center and Boston-Edison neighborhoods of Detroit, which is right up the street from us. We have an "in" for a parking spot right off the race course, so we headed up shortly after 8 am and had plenty of time to get our bibs, run our shirts back to the car, sunscreen up, and people watch before the horn went off right at 9.
I didn't have a plan except to jog nice and slowly, walking if my knee didn't like that. The heat index was already well into the 80s with full sun and zero wind, so I wasn't setting any PRs anyway. Not long after the start we saw someone on the ground struggling to breathe, but people were helping and an ambulance was on its way. It was definitely a day for taking it easy.
Overall, the race was pretty unremarkable, in a good way. We chugged down the street, negotiated the turnaround, stopped for water, and chugged back. Some little kids sprayed us with water guns near the end, which was funny. We were able to pick it up near the end and cross the finish line strong. Hooray!
Best of all, I barely noticed my knee. It started to get a little grumpy right around the 2 mile mark, so I scaled my speed back even more. I was prepared to walk, but it seemed to settle down and I was able to run the whole race except for the water stop and squirt gun stop.
We hung out a bit, bought another t-shirt for my husband, drank some water, and waited for the course to clear out so we could make our escape. We were home by 10:20 and I made pancakes and bacon. Perfect!
And we got some pretty cool swag, too. All in all it was a great race, a great cause, and a great morning.
I'm so glad your knee (mostly) cooperated! I'm sure it was good to get out to a race again, and it was probably smart to take it nice and easy no matter what in that mugginess.
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