Pumpkin Run 5K 2009

Saturday was our 4th Pumpkin Run, this time in a new city, Van Nuys, and also it fell right on Halloween. Andrew emails me earlier in the week with this:

PREVIOUS PUMPKIN 5K TIMES...
'06 Andy 25:36
'06 ECM 31:21
'06 Andrew 24:32

'07 Andy 24:22
'07 ECM 34:34
'07 Andrew 24:36

'08 Andy 24:43
'08 ECM 31:19
'08 Andrew 21:55

MY 2009 PREDICTION...
'09 Andy 23:45
'09 ECM 29:59

See you on Halloween!
---Andrew =)

So he's predicting a PR, and I'm thinking, I haven't run for 2 months! Been busy with house repairs. But actually all 3 of us PR'ed! It was below 50 deg F when we got there and windy. I was freezing! But it got to be a comfortable 60 deg F by the time the race started. Some guy was doing a warm up starting sprint before the gun, and he was just turning around to get back over the start line when the lady pulled the gun :) He looked very surprised when everyone started running at him! The run this year was an out-and-back. I did like it a bit more than the Legg Lake location just because it wasn't as muddy. There were still geese, but now that I think about it, we didn't get as many views of the lake here like we did Legg Lake. Seems like the park we were at this year is new or has had a lot of recent renovations.

I started with a 7 min mile, probably a bit fast. It was a bit of a crowd when we got started, but thined out before the 1 mile mark. I throttled back a bit, but knew that I had to keep it up to get a decent time. Andrew had such lofty predictions, and plus, it was $30 so I didn't want to just jog the thing :O. I was following a guy in a yellow shirt for the 2nd mile. Saw Andrew after he made the turn - high five. I made the turn - high fived Emily. Seems silly, but I was motivated thinking, "I'll never be able to run this mile again." Sure there will be other miles, but never that one again, you know? So that kept me going and as I approached the finish I couldn't believe I was under 23 minutes!

Some (I would say rude) guy was running with two little white yappy dogs on two long leashes. It was dangerous for the other runners because they had to dodge him! But I will say that those two dogs were really haulin - they beat me by a mile, and Andrew says he just passed the dogs in the home stretch. They love to run, apparently! Interesting note the guy he passed was Hornstein. Horng passed Hornstein :P

Results:
Andrew a.k.a. Hornginator:
5K time: 20:57 (PR)
min/mi: 6.8
div 2 Male place: 6/13 = 46.2%
gender place: 20/78 = 25.6%
overall place: 21/155 = 13.5%

Andy:
5K time: 22:43 (PR)
min/mi: 7.3
div 2 Male place: 9/13 = 69.2%
gender place: 34/78 = 43.6%
overall place: 42/155 = 27.1%

E:
5K time: 28:37 (PR)
min/mi: 9.2
div 2 Female place: 7/12 = 58.3%
gender place: 29/77 = 37.7%
overall place: 87/155 = 56.1%