WICKED RUN PRESS: 3rd Annual Sweat Your Thorns Off Virtual 5k

I signed up for my first virtual 5k through the blog, The Boring Runner. I’ve seen a handful of these virtual races, where a group of folks sign up and agree to run a race in different areas. Not sure why I signed up now.

Maybe it’s because Adam at The Boring Runner seems like a fast, dedicated runner, and a funny as hell dude. In fact, he likes to make lot of jokes where he ~~rubs peanut butter on his feet and has his dog lick it off~~ writes hilarious passages and then does a strikethrough. He seems like the kind of guy I would ~~greet at my front door with a shotgun if he ever said he would~~ love to date my daughters some day.

His Virtual race was pretty flexible, with a nod and a wink if you run it on Sunday instead of Saturday, so I was all in since I was taking Saturday off. But then I figured, I am doing at least a 5k on Sunday during a trip to the Toledo zoo.

Sweat Your Thorns Off/Toledo Zoo Virtual 5k.

My first quarter mile was about a 20 minute mile pace through the parking lot. I started just fine, happy to get my legs stretched after an hour’s drive, and was pretty sure I could make it to the finish.

Oh no! Forgot something! And my pace picked up drastically to a frantic 7:30 per mile pace when I had to run back to the car since I forget my Detroit Zoo membership card, which allowed for 50% off the price of admission. I passed many other participants at this point, who clearly hadn’t tapered adequately, and I returned to the zoo’s main gates slightly out of breath with my wife and kids waiting there for me and cheering me on.

The first mile ended with an uphill as we walked up a bridge, and then I continued on my 20 minute per mile pace.

Yes, my 5k was tremendous. The Toledo Zoo was second to San Diego but still an incredible place. Here's some of the great crowd support you'll find:

At about 2 miles in, I stopped for some much needed aid of a turkey sandwich, coleslaw, and of course nibbling on my kids French fries.

I finished the 5k strong, and down the final stretch, other participants were whining like little 6 and 8 year olds (my own kids) but all of us felt it was an incredible event. I finished in 5 hours, 22 minutes, and 4 seconds.

*On Sunday, I ran 10 hilly miles, 9 of them at 7:50 pace, which will probably help a bit more with my Ing NYCM training, but it was certainly not as exciting as Saturday’s 5k

Thanks to Adam at The Boring Runner for putting this on.