By One of the best things about racing on vacation is having the time to write a race recap right away! I finished the Naples Firecracker 5K a few hours ago so my muscles are still feeling it and everything is really fresh in my mind. I’ve been in Naples, FL for the last few days, visiting my in-laws for the Fourth of July holiday. It’s been great to spend time with family and put a hold on work for a few days. Of course, I haven’t hit pause on my half marathon training and today’s 5K was a great indicator of where I’m at fitness-wise.
This 5K was certainly a patriotic one, people were decked out in their best red, white & blue (which naturally, I forgot at home). The race started and ended at Fleischmann Park near downtown Naples and ran two loops through a flat and relatively shady residential area. That shade was definitely appreciated given the high temps and even higher humidity.
I was definitely surprised by the amount of people lining up to run, the running community here is bigger than I thought! Another thing I loved was how many teenagers and tweens were racing. Proceeds from the race benefitted the Gulf Coast Runners’ youth programs and they were all out there running!
5Ks are such a tough distance for me to figure out and while I’m still not quite where I want to be, this race was way closer to a PR. The start was really crowded and jumbled so I probably worked harder than I needed to that first mile, but still felt fairly controlled. I just tried to hold it the last two miles as the heat started to climb, overall pretty happy with my splits and time (a whole minute + faster than The Heights 5K last month!).
- Mile 1: 6:50
- Mile 2: 7:02
- Mile 3: 7:12
- Final .1: 0:31 (6:03 pace)
That performance earned me a 21:43.4 (although according to my Garmin it was 21:37.5) which was good enough for top 10 female and first in the 25-29 age group. This was also my last race reppin’ the 20s age group…I age up in less than two weeks! We didn’t have time to stick around for awards because Kyle had a golf game to catch (and marriage is all about compromise), but I was able to download this fancy certificate!
Did you race today? How’d it go?
Loving life on the run. 