St. Mary’s Belltower 5K Run
The Belltower Run holds a special significance to me as the race route passes by our first house. It’s a small race of maybe one hundred participants that is held in association with the St. Mary’s Parish Festival. I arrived an hour early, registered and headed out for a two mile warm up run through the old neighborhood.
I finished my warm up near the start/finish area and met up with my family. I even got a “daddy” squeal from our youngest…which always makes me smile. Even though I was sweating a bit, she gave me a hug.
The time came for the runners & walkers to assemble at the start for instructions from the race director. Our youngest wanted to stand with me in the street but eventually settled with hanging out with mom and her sisters on the sidewalk.
The race started and we headed downhill for a block then a quick left turn then a longer downhill section. I did what I could to not get pulled out too fast and as the route flattened out I began reeling in other races who had went out too quickly.
Glancing at my watch at the one mile mark confirmed that I was out too quick as well as it read 5:58 versus my intended 6:20 or so. I kept the foot on the proverbial “gas” and soldered on knowing I was going to pay for it coming back up the hills we had just run down.
Shortly after the 1.5 mile mark the route turned onto our old street and I took a long look at our house. It’s changed some in the past few years but it still has may happy memories in it for me. Switching back into “race mode”, I could see my daughters up at the next corner waving to me. I mustered a grimace of a smile and a quick wave and turned up a short hill.
At this point I was really starting to feel the effort as I’m mustering a pace that’s about two minutes faster per mile than what I usually lope along at for training. I passed two miles in 12:30-something which confirmed that I was beginning to slow. That said, there was a guy ahead of me that I was slowly reeling in. I pulled within a few strides of him and we were joined by a younger runner.
Having the youngster along must have lit a fire under the guy I was reeling in because the two of them began to pull away from me. Thinking about it a bit more, I think I was pretty much “done” and couldn’t quite keep up. Regardless, we ran up the hills we had run down at the start of the race and headed to the finish line.
Admittedly, I was glad to have reached the finish in 19:32 as I wasn’t real sure if I would have been able to get myself under twenty minutes or not. I caught my breath and said hello to my family before heading out for a slow two mile cool down.
After a change of clothes, I headed back to check the race results and noticed that I mustered 3rd in the 30-39 age group. Glancing at the other runners listed on the results I did a double take as I noticed my buddy’s last name. Turns out his son ran the race and turned in the winning time in the lower 17’s. (His old man couldn’t run a 5K that fast so the speed must be from his mom.)
After the awards were handed out, I headed to the festival food tent for a burger, fries and a gatorade. I then found my family amongst the other festival goers and we settled in for the fireworks display.
