Akron Fresh Market Foundation 8K Review

This morning was the Acme Fresh Market Foundation 8K. The first race of the Akron Marathon Race Series.  I was not ready to race. It has been a challenging last 2 weeks physically, emotionally, and mentally.   I didn’t want to run but I did.  It was very humid and was forecasted to rain but luckily it didn’t.  

I toed the start line with no expectations other than to get to the finish line.  Today I was running not racing.  Today I wasn’t focusing on pace or strategy I was just going to run.  The unexpected happened.  I was running loose and free.  Today running felt easy.  I wasn’t pushing hard or stressing about my pace. Today I was running for me.  It wasn’t my fastest race but much faster than I could have imagined. I even finished 4th in my division out of 47 with a time of 38:34.  My watch data showed I averaged a 7:38 pace for 5:05 miles.  An 8K should be 4.97 miles. I thought I was running tight tangents so I wasn’t or the course was a bit long.  Either way I surprised myself I didn’t expect to run at that pace. 
Sometimes running is about trying to outperform the competition. Other times running is about outperforming yourself. For me today running was simply therapy.   

All participants received banana themed t-shirts and finisher medals along with a selection of snacks from Acme Fresh Market plus 2 drink tickets.  No Chick- fil-A this year which was a bummer.  I am not a fan of the t-shirts and the banana theme.  I always prefer tech shirts.  The design was a little too childish for my taste.  The return of the stadium finish was a huge improvement over the last few years.  Using the stadium for pre race staging was awesome.  I never once waited for a bathroom which is unheard of at a huge race!  The course was changed slightly from previous years and although there were still plenty of hills seemed a little faster than previous years.  Overall the changes to this year's race made for a experience much better!

 Thank you to the Akron Marathon and all the volunteers who worked so hard to put on a great event today. 
Today was a much needed boost of positive energy that I really needed.  Running heals in so many ways.