Resolution Run 5k race report

A fun race a 6pm on New Year's Eve, with a free jacket thrown in! It's got a start/ finish line and a clock, though there's no chip-timing or official online results afterwards. As if that stops me from getting competitive..

I wore last year's orange jacket just to be different, this year's blue is a good look too though. It was started by a police helicopter hovering above - the race raises funds for it. Pretty certain that the paths would be clear of ice, we got off to a flying start. The one guy dressed for spring took off, and it was clear he'd be first within about 10 seconds.

The route did a quick 180 around the courtyard by the ymca, prompting me to say "where the hell are we going?" He and the lead bike with the blinking lights was so far in front, the lead group of us wondered briefly about one of the turns. The pace of the group settled down a bit, and I felt I could comfortably go quicker, so I passed by on the left, fully expecting most to stick with me. After the turnaround at the 14th street bridge, I noticed I couldn't hear anyone else, and once I passed under the c-train bridge again I found I had a 30 or so metre lead.

I would have looked at my watch but it was too dark, and I couldn't hear its pace alerts as I had a hat on. With the satisfaction of being second, and first place literally out of sight, I backed off slightly as I went up the ramp to Prince's Island Park, directed by a one-man-party course marshall yelling "happy new year"!

It was a nice finish with quite an enthusiatic reception, I finished in around 21:10 with my garmin saying I had done 5.1k. So perhaps a 20:30 or so.

Like the caption says, I came second! Though it's only been 2 months, I must have missed racing more than I thought. Now I'm really looking forward to 2012 :)
The headcam vid turned out quite well, probably due to the music again.