Jonathan Anderson – Purple Stride 5k – Sunday, April 9, 2017

A very close friend of mine, his wife was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My wife decided while we went down to visit my parents in Va Beach, to do this purple run for Purple Stride 5k. The race would be on the boardwalk in Virginia beach, flat with absolutely perfect low 50's weather. I have been working on distance stuff to prep for Ragnar Cape Cod, and figured to see how the old wheels were working on a short course. Why not. We entered as a family, much like previous races, where I race, then run back to the family and finish with them. I estimated around 150 participants, with bibs, not including the walkers and untimed runners which more than doubled that amount. The issue would be it was an out and back, so coming back I knew there would be traffic. And traffic there was. They could not close the boardwalk so there were people everywhere. 9am start. I did a mile warm up and felt good. I figured, shoot for 20 and would certainly place in my AG. Kissed the kids and off to the start line. Drank a cup of joe and we were doing brunch afterwords so no food before the race. No biggie. Lets get the first one out of the way and keep on keeping on. Gun goes off. I start strong and figure keeping around 6:20 pace would put me where I need to be. Then the people. I could not get into stride with all the people, it was slow, fast, slow fast repeat. Then at the halfway mark turning around, we had to not only dodge all the tourists, but the throngs of people who were in the event. Sheer madness. I saw the family on the back side, which was nice but really had to focus on getting a rythym. It was also noticeable in all the front guys as less than 2 minutes separated all of us and the guy who was leading was pushing it. I was racing but was also enjoying it for my friend and family. It was fun. I finished fourth with a time of 21:11 not great but I will accept it for the opening of the season. In addition, my family (parents were there) which was nice as my mom has been to very few races. I avg 6:49 mileswhich with the weaving and how the race unfolded I will take as a victory. Will easily get my time cut significantly on a course with less people where I can just open the throttles but this was fun, great weather, and 4th is a good opening.