-At 9 AM I was in the 2nd Annual Teal There’s a Cure 5K (3 mile) Race @ Marcellus Park in Marcellus, NY. The money raised for this goes towards Ovarian Cancer research & awareness.

-Believe it or not, I actually arrived pretty early-I know, shocking isn’t it? 🙂 I wanted to beat the rush and didn’t want to risk my car overheating-especially on a hot day like this. Turns out I didn’t have to worry-I basically drove in without any problem. This was the 1st time I’d ever been to the park and it’s really nice & clean.

-There were over 300 runners and walkers and over $15,000 was raised. There was a speech before the race giving thanks to the sponsors & participants, as well as some facts about Ovarian Cancer. The National Anthem was played via a CD player & that had to be the strangest version I’d ever heard. I thought someone had put in the wrong CD initially 🙂 It was about a minute or so before a lone piano played the anthem.

-So I got up to the front and at 9 AM the race started. I kept a pretty even pace-5K should be easy for me now right? Well, I have to say that this course had a lot more uphill running than I anticipated. That and the heat were different than previous races. I still managed to sprint a little at the end. I came in 74th place at 30:58. I basically averaged 9:58 per mile-not bad! The person who came in 1st did so in 19:27. And just so you don’t think only the young can place up high, in 5th place was a 45 yr old guy who came in at 22:36-that’s about 7:11 per mile. Something to aim for 🙂

-I forgot to bring my camera to the race, but luckily my boss at work was here and took some shots w/ her Blackberry. Her daughter has Ovarian Cancer and is undergoing treatment. I hope she pulls thru.

-Next week is the Boilermaker, but I’m not ready to run 9+ miles yet. Next year. Not sure when my next race is, but I’ll still be running almost daily on my own. I’ve made it a habit now. Till next time….

-BTW-Ch. 10 News here was there filming and I was briefly caught in the beginning of the broadcast. The link is below. I’m standing behind a guy towards the middle who’s wearing a yellow shirt. I have shades on and my head is looking down cause I’m setting the stopwatch on my cell phone 🙂

Teal There’s a Cure 5K Race
Location: Marcellus Park, Marcellus, NY