Sole Burner 5k - Race Report

Like most of my races lately, I registered for the 2017 Sole Burner 5k within a couple weeks of the race. Not that I didn't intend on running the race, but like most races, it fell in the middle of my work rotation, meaning I would have to work the night before and the night after. I have also been training for the Bellin 10k later in June, so I figured a 5k wouldn't hurt and would actually fit nicely into my training. Also, the Sole Burner has been a long standing event in downtown Appleton for many years and benefits the American Cancer Society. This year, many friends, family, and coworkers throughout Outagamie County put together a "team" to raise money for a couple of law enforcement family members effected by cancer. So it wasn't hard to convince me to run a race with some friends from work and my girls were also running the children's run for a teacher who lost her life to cancer some years back.
　

Training for This Race

As I just mentioned above, I was really using this race as a training race for the Bellin 10k, which I was currently focusing on. And this race fell just a couple weekends after the half marathon. So, my training for the Bellin was just getting started.

Prerace

Prerace...what prerace? I ended up getting stuck at work later than I was supposed to, which is totally the nature of the beast in law enforcement, so you learn to just expect a wrench in the plan. But, I ended up getting out just with enough time to bust ass to Appleton and park about a mile from the start line, run to the race site as my warmup. After getting to City Park, I got there just early enough to watch my two oldest daughters run in the children's run. After the children's run, I had a few spare minutes to do a final warm up.

Nutrition Plan

My only nutrition plan for shorter races is to take a couple Hammer Anti-Fatigue Caps with a couple Hammer Endurance Aminos about an hour before the race takes off. I then take a serving of Fully Charged by Hammer Nutrition roughly 15 minutes before the event.

Miles 0-3.1

My ultimate goal for the race was just run my best effort. Mentally, I wasn't fully in the race. I obviously wanted to PR, but had a pretty good feeling that just wasn't going to happen. First off the Sole Burner is notorious for a steep hill at around mile 2.75 or so. But, with any race and with any runner, every race you enter you have the hope for a new PR. But, ultimately, I just wanted to get in a good, strong effort to judge were my short distance fitness was at to get an idea of what I could expect at the Bellin 10k. Once the race took off, I was actually feeling pretty good and found a groove early on. The Sole Burner is a pretty popular 5k, with about 2,500 participants. It has a lot of high end runners and I had estimated, that if I were able to run a sub 18 minute 5k, I should be able to place in the top 5 or so. So, realistically, I had no expectation of winning. After the first mile, I was in about 10-15th place. Right were I wanted to be. I continued to stay in about this position for the next mile. As the race continued, I passed a few overly ambitious runners who took off out of the gate too fast. But, now with 2 miles down, I keyed in on a guy ahead of me by about 400m and made it goal to catch him and finish ahead of him.  I continued to push and as we approached the hill I spoke about which is also known as the Hill of Hope, I decided to burn my last match and push hard up the hill.  It was at this point in the race that I passed the guy I just mentioned.  By the time I got to the top of the hill I was spent, but could see the finish line.  I tried to just hang on for the last quarter mile.  As I came to the finish line I saw the race clock showing 17:30's and thought, "holy shit!?"  I finished 9th overall and 3rd in the Male 30-39 age group in 17:46.

Post Race

After the race, I hung out for a bit and chatted with some friends, but I didn't want to stick around too late as I had to get home to get some sleep before heading back to work later that night.  So, after about 15 minutes or so, I started jog back to where I parked and headed back home.　

What's on Tap

With the Sole Burner checked off, it was time to focus on the Bellin 10k.  I knew things were going in the right direction after I nearly set a PR after a night of working, nearly missing the race, and with the hills.  I did not have extremely high expectation for the Sole Burner for several reasons, but after I finished in 17:46, I knew I could do good things at the Bellin.