Sun, Oct 8, 2017 - 5K - 00:24:37
5K Run for the Great 10K Berlin Relay Race with Hannah
After the Berlin Life Run on September 9th in which Hannah and I ran together and got a 00:29:07, she wanted to do another 5K, so we signed up for The Great 10K relay version where I would run the first 5K and she would run the second 5K.  
 
On the morning of the race before the sun came up, I could hear rain hitting the window, but by the time the sun was up, it was only lightly raining, and by 10:00 there was no rain and the sky was party sunny, a perfect day for a fast run. Hannah wanted to run faster than a 29:00 and my goal was to make sure I didn't pull my hamstring again and so wanted to do a steady 27:00, so we were looking to finish with a 56:00.  
 
Hannah and I got to the 5K transfer area about 11:15 where she waited, and I jogged to the starting line from there, getting there with about ten minutes to go, and then started at 12:00 with cool air and the sun shining, perfect weather.  
 
The race was very crowded and it was hard to run as fast as I wanted for the first 1K, but I eventually found some army runners who were plowing through the left side and followed them. My leg felt fine and I noticed my 2K time was under 10:00 and my 3K time under 15:00 so I kept the pace up and finished with a 24:37, my second fastest time in three years. 
 
When I came into the 5K transfer area, Hannah was able to switch the leg-strap chip from my leg to hers in about two seconds and then took off like a deer into the zoo. After watching her disappear into the crowd, I had a quick breather, then took off again down the canal running back to the starting line to try to get there before she made it back. I was not alone in this endeavor, probably about seven to ten other runners were trying to make it back to the start to see their relay partners finish, one man on a bike, a good idea actually if we ever run this relay race again. 
 
I made it back to the starting line just two minutes before I saw Hannah break out of running crowd in one of her classic sprints into the finish line with a 28:10. Both of our times were much better than we had planned and added up to a 52:47, definitely a time to remember, so we had it engraved on the back of our medals.