Upload / Capture
What’s better than earning a medal at a race? How about two medals! Ohio Team ER won the coed team division award and I placed 3rd in my division. I had two goals for today’s race. The first was to place in the top three in my division. The second goal was to finish under 23 minutes. I am happy to say to achieved both goals. I finished 42nd overall with a time of 22.54.
After my previous 5K in March which I wasn’t happy how I felt or my slow finish time I really refocused my training and committed to working on my pace. I also got more disciplined with my nutrition and lost 15 pounds. It was very rewarding to see all of my hard work pay off. I beat my time from last year by 30 seconds. The course for this race is challenging with lots of hills. Today I ran faster and felt better doing it. I’m still not back to where I want to be but I made a lot of progress.
The course begins and ends at the Kent State Wellness Center and features a scenic loop through the Kent State campus. It was a chilly morning but the wind wasn't too bad so once you started running the weather wasn't much of a factor.
It was fun sharing today’s running experience with so many Team ER members North Water Brewing Run Club members, and other running friends.
All participants received t-shirts and mini race bibs. I really like the mini bibs. They are so easy to wear. The post race ceremony was top notch with a buffet that included bagels, fruit, granola bars, Capri Suns, and chili. The sound system was much improved over previous years making it very easy to hear the awards presentation. I would like to see this race offer finisher medals. They could also improve on the design of the T-shirts. The T-shirts are a better quality over the last few year's shirts but they could be more creative with the design. The race description states performance shirts but they actually provide basic cotton T-shirts. I suggest they do indeed offer performance shirts or change the race description to T-shirts.
The past few years the race advertised team divisions and awards but did not follow through with them. this year they actually did and our team was excited to win the coed division.
Overall this year's race experience was much improved over the last few years with the small simple changes that they implemented. Well done Kent State!
Thank you to all of the volunteers who showed up to make the race happen today!
Login to your account to leave a comment.
We Want to Give it to You!
