media pa | The Little GSP

Good morning! Well, by the time I post this blog it will probably be evening, but I am typing this from the car at 6:54am on Sunday morning as Matt and I are heading out to Wisconsin on a very important mission. I’ll tell you more about that in my next post! 🙂

Today’s post is a recap of the DelCo SPCA’s Bark in the Park 5K that I ran on Saturday at Rose Tree Park in Media, PA. As the name implies, this was a dog-friendly event and runners were encouraged to race with a dog. I originally planned to run with Matt’s parents’ super-speedy GSP, Bella, but Bella wasn’t available so I switched things up and ran with Hershey the chocolate lab instead.

Hershey is a sweet, loving 4 ½ year old pup who is extremely laid back and eager to please. She is not a runner (she’d much prefer to sleep all day!) so I was a little apprehensive about taking her to a 5K. I ran a mile with her the day before the race to make sure that she could physically run and then showed up at the race Saturday morning hoping that she was ready to go!

When the race began Hershey shot out of the starting area with an uncharacteristic pep in her step and we happily ran our first mile together with her heeling impressively well at my side. Good girl, Hershey! Then the second mile came around and Hershey realized that this was not just a short jaunt in the park. She slowed down significantly and by the second lap around the park’s cross country course I was running with my left arm extended out behind me, giving my running buddy an encouraging “come on, Hersh!” every minute or so. Hershey never wanted to flat out stop but it was very clear that she had a different idea of what a comfortable 5K pace was. Oh well!

We dragged our way around the second lap and focused on dodging the participants of the 1 mile walk that had started at the same time as the 5K. The walkers took up an enormous amount of space on the course with their dogs wandering around at the end of their leashes, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a race was going on at the same time on the same course. I don’t know how this could have been remedied, but it was certainly not ideal, especially since I had a dog of my own which made dodging the walkers that much more difficult.

After about 21 minutes Hershey and I finally came into view of the finish line but we weren’t done quite yet (much to Hershey’s chagrin). We ran past the finish and followed a poorly marked loop up and down a few more hills before turning back to finally cross the line. We finished in 26:25*, good for 18^th place overall out of 155 runners and 4^th female. I don’t know how many dogs were ahead of us but I think Hershey did a great job in her first 5K!

*The official race time clock was ticking away in the 29s when I finished and, according to the official results, my time was 29:32. I had both a stopwatch and Runkeeper recording my 26:25 finish so I am positive that the official time was not correct!

The Bark in the Park event benefited the Delaware County SPCA which is a great cause, but the 5K was poorly managed and I probably won’t go back next year. The race started 20 minutes late, parts of the course were virtually unmarked (especially that last loop to the finish), and the combination of the 5K runners with dogs trying to pass through the mob of oblivious walkers with dogs during the second lap of the course was just crazy. All of this plus the wildly inaccurate timing made Saturday a strange racing experience. Luckily, I was running purely to have fun and I think Hershey and I definitely accomplished that!! 🙂

Miles since last post: 37.4
Days since last post: 8
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.87
2014 TOTAL MILES: 1458.6

Related Posts:
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/18/14)
• Martin’s Run 5K (10/5/14)
• Haverford Township Day 5K (9/27/14)
• Run A Muck 5K-ish Trail Race (9/20/14)
• Talk 5K Trail Run (9/13/14)
• Pickle in the Streets 5K (8/28/14)
• Radnor Red Steeplechase 5K (8/17/14)
• Riddlewood Swim Club 5K (8/3/14)
• Swarthmore Lions Independence Eve 8K (7/18/14)
• Cam’s ‘Moonlight’ 5K (7/10/14)
• Media 5 Miler (6/20/14)
• Radnor Conservancy 5K Trail Run (6/1/14)
• Rocky Run 5K Trail Run (5/30/14)
• Run for Victory 5K (5/18/14)
• Elwyn 5K (5/3/14)
• St. Tim’s 5K (4/26/14)
• Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
• Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
• Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
• Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
• New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13)
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-a-Muck 5K (9/21/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

On Friday night I ran the 34th annual Media 5 Mile Race in the borough of Media, a walkable (runnable!) little town located 12 miles west of Philadelphia. Matt and I lived in Media for a few years before buying our house and although we cheered runners on in the past this was my first time actually running in Media’s biggest race of the year.

The race was well organized with bib pick up on Wednesday, port-a-pottys available on random street corners around town, and polite, happy crowds. The local police closed down the streets that the race course followed well in advance of the start time and the people living along the course set up chairs, signs, water stations and, in a few cases, sprinklers and hoses to prepare for the two 2.5 mile laps that the runners would make through their neighborhoods.

With 1,600 runners, the Media 5 Miler was my largest race to date. (I know, still not that big compared to say, Broad Street’s 40,000 runners, but it was big for me!) The sheer number of runners made the start a little difficult. There were no corrals or pace groups, meaning that all of the runners were gathered in one huge crowd extending back from the starting line. When the starter said “GO” it took several seconds for the crowd around me to even start moving. Luckily the race was chipped so my official time didn’t begin until 29 seconds later when I actually crossed the starting line, but all of the runners around me basically shuffle-walked the first quarter mile or so before moving into a slow jog (with constant people-dodging) through the first several turns of the race.

Crowd at 0.6 miles – that’s me in the orange shirt!

Spectators before the race

The crowd of runners finally started to thin out when we hit the first big hill around the 1 mile mark. Matt and I had jogged the course on Wednesday so I knew the hill was coming (and I knew that it kept going up around the next turn!) and I felt mentally ready for it. I high-fived a runner wearing a giant pickle costume on the way up the hill before finally falling into what felt like a normal pace at the top of the hill. At the end of the first lap we looped back around to State Street and I spotted Matt on the sidewalk taking photos. Here I am smiling for the camera.

I just spotted Matt in the crowd

Running down Media’s State Street

Run run run!

The second lap felt a lot harder. Those hills that I had confidently powered up during lap 1 suddenly seemed like mountains and I trudged up them at a slow jog. Luckily I felt a little better by the time I got to the top and before I knew it there was just a mile left to go. I told my legs to go faster and somehow that worked (!) and I managed to make my 5th and final mile my fastest split of the race. Woohoo!

Happy post-race photo

Runkeeper Stats – Media 5 Mile

My official chip finish time was 42:57, just 10 seconds off of my PR from March. I would have really liked to beat my March time, but considering how I was stuck in major foot traffic during the first mile (something I definitely didn’t deal with in March) I think Friday’s race was a better overall performance. I’m really excited about my last split… 7:54 on Friday vs. March’s 8:36 (!) and I know that I could have comfortably run a much faster first mile if I had had the room to do so.

So guess what this means? That I’m signing up for another 5 mile race, of course!! I’ll be running in the Swarthmore Lions Independence Eve 8K on July 3rd, this time with a much smaller crowd and more 5 mile experience to fall back on.

Miles since last post: 101.5
Days since last post: 22
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.79
2014 TOTAL MILES: 822.8

Related Posts:
• Radnor Conservancy 5K Trail Run (6/1/14)
• Rocky Run 5K Trail Run (5/30/14)
• Run for Victory 5K (5/18/14)
• Elwyn 5K (5/3/14)
• St. Tim’s 5K (4/26/14)
• Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
• Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
• Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
• Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
• New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13)
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)