Good Day For A Run

I ran my second sub-20 5K in Cape May, New Jersey

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On October 15, 2022, I broke 20 minutes in the 5K for the first time. 

On October 15, 2023, I broke 20 minutes in the 5K for the second time. 

Should I try to find a 5K to run on October 15, 2024? 

My time at Good Day for a Run’s Down the Shore 5K at the Cape May Winery just barely broke the 20-minute barrier– my official time was 19:59. I don’t care– I can still claim to have run a sub-20! 

That was a huge confidence boost going into my goal race of the fall running season. 

The race was a really long time coming. Back in 2020 when the pandemic was still raging, my girlfriends and I took a weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey. Staci and I had run Good Day for a Run’s Red, White and Blue 5K near her house the summer before, and she saw that they had a 5K scheduled to take place at the Cape May Winery in September 2020. I can’t remember if we signed up before COVID hit or after, but Good Day for a Run was holding socially distant races in some places if certain guidelines were met, so we were optimistic that we’d be able to run the race. Well, it ended up being canceled at almost the last minute. I think there were restrictions on how many people could be in the winery. (Glad those days are over!!) 

Anyway, we made plans for another Cape May trip in September 2021 and talked about running the race then, but COVID struck again! Staci’s daughter came down with it and we had to postpone the trip to November. And then none of our schedules worked to accommodate a Cape May 2022 trip. 

This year, only Staci and I could go to Cape May, and we decided to finally run the race! My goal was sub-20. I didn’t think I’d beat my PR of 19:37, but I wanted to beat 20 minutes. 

The weather on the day of the race was pretty good – in the low 50s and no rain (it had rained most of the day before.) It was windy, but not as bad as I thought it would be (quite honestly, after the Philly Marathon last year, it’s going to take a lot for me to be fazed by the wind.) Staci and I got there around 8 am for a 9 am start, which gave us plenty of time to find parking, use the bathroom, and warm up. Just before 9, I lined up at the very front of the pack and before I knew it, we were off. 

What happened next was basically a blur, as all 5Ks are. The course was very simple and flat – the best kind of 5K course! We left the winery, ran a mile and a half down the road, then turned around. Easy! Well… not easy. It was a 5K, so I entered the pain cave within the first half mile, ha! I passed one woman very early in the race, probably in the first tenth of a mile, and just stayed in the lead. Once I made the turnaround and headed back to the finish, a lot of runners started calling out to me that I was the first female. That always pumps me up! 

While the race was primarily on the road, the last quarter mile of it was on a gravel path that wound through the vineyard. This part of the race made me nervous because I was obviously running hard and fast and by that point I was totally gassed, so I was afraid of tripping and hurting myself. Because of that, I don’t think I ran as fast as I could have on this section. 

I made the final turn and then saw the finisher’s clock and it said 19:55. I’ve never had much of a kick at the end of races, but I sprinted like hell and made it across the finish – but did I actually break 20? Or did I run 20 minutes on the nose? 

The race announcer called me out as the first female finisher (I was 5th finisher overall) and then said, “And did she get in under 20? She did! 19:59!” I threw my hands in the air and screamed, I was so excited. And then I grabbed a bottle of water and sat down for about 5 minutes and waited for Staci to finish. She PR’d with a time of 33 minutes! 

I won a medal and a bottle of wine from the Cape May Winery – a great prize! It was delicious. 

This Saturday, I tackle my goal race, the Ocean City Half Marathon at the Ocean City Running Festival. My goal all along has been sub-90, but the weather forecast is not in my favor. It has been unseasonably warm all week and this Saturday is expected to be around 80 degrees all over the region – and the half marathon doesn’t start until 9:15! Yikes. It is what it is, though. I am also signed up for the Richmond Half in two weeks and then Rehoboth the first weekend of December. I am still optimistic about Ocean City and I think I have a good shot at a PR – which would be sub-1:33:19. Bring it on!  

When it’s not such a good day for a run: The Red, White and Blue Mountain 5K

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The race director for the Red White and Blue Mountain 5K minced no words as we all lined up at the start.

This is one of our toughest 5Ks, he said. It might even be the hardest one we have. If this is your first 5K, well, hopefully this doesn’t scare you away.

This race, held over Fourth of July weekend at the Blue Mountain Vineyards in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania, was hardly my first 5K– I’m guessing I’ve run upwards of two dozen 5Ks at this point in my life, maybe more. And I was still a little intimidated by his warning, especially since I had hoped to run somewhere in the 21-minute range. I’d spent the last two months working more on my speed, going to the track every Wednesday night to grind out 200- and 400-meter repeats. 5Ks are tough for me, and I’d like to be able to pump out 21:xx 5K times more consistently.

This was not the race for such a lofty goal. Far from it.

And I came nowhere close to that goal. In fact, I ran my slowest 5K time — 25:26 — in at LEAST five years, maybe longer!

Shockingly, I was still fast enough to win my age group. I also finished fourth female and missed out on an overall award (which was a bottle of wine!) by nine seconds.

I still got a complimentary glass of wine afterwards, so I’d call that a win regardless of how I placed or what my time was!

The race was organized by a company called Good Day For A Run, which puts on a lot of races at wineries and breweries, as well as numerous holiday-themed races. My good friend Staci, who lives about 45 minutes away from the vineyard, found out about the race several months ago and asked if I wanted to come up and run it with her. I love races, I love wine and I love hanging out with Staci, so of course I was sold.

What made this 5K so hard? It was in a vineyard, that sounds really cool!

Sure, running through a vineyard does sound like fun — in theory! In reality, the terrain is uneven and it’s hilly as all hell. I did not look up the course ahead of time (I rarely do that with races anyway) so I didn’t realize quite how hilly it was going to be. I haven’t done one bit of hill training since Boston, and while I’m sure my track work helped a little, doing some dedicated hill work would have been much more beneficial!

There were very few flat stretches in this race, and most of the course involved weaving in and out of the rows of grapevines. So you’d run down one row, then make a very sharp turn, then run up the next row — and so on and so forth. I’ve never done a race with so many switchbacks, which basically force you to slow down or else you’ll slip and fall turning the corners. It was also tough to make up time on the downhills, because the ground was uneven and I was a little afraid of falling.

But the uphills were brutal. Brutal! Running uphill is always a challenge, but the heat and the humidity added an extra layer of difficulty. The race started at 9 am, and it was in the low 80s with high humidity. There was also zero shade and every uphill on the course was directly into the blazing sun. I said to Staci afterwards that it would have been better had the race started at 7 — of course, then we would have had to get up super early, so that would have sucked.

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Dying on the inside

I knew after about a half of a mile that this was going to be a rough race. I rarely stop and walk in 5Ks, but toward the end, I was stopping for a few seconds at a time, then running again. Fun fact, my average race pace was 8:12/mile. That was the same pace I ran in the Rehoboth Seashore Marathon, when I qualified for Boston. And I ran the last mile in this 5K at an 8:42/mile pace. My average pace in the Boston Marathon was 8:41/mile. Speed is all relative, of course, but it’s pretty clear that this race really chewed me up and spit me out.

One great thing about it — it finished on a downhill! However, it was a steep enough downhill that sprinting down it didn’t seem like the best idea. I was so happy to cross that finish line and grab a bottle of water from a volunteer (I was not ready to think about wine quite then, haha!) then I stood at the finish line and waited for Staci and got a video of her crossing the finish. She also thought the race was an ass kicker and we talked about doing it again …. If the weather was around 60 degrees!

In the future, if I am going to choose a “goal” 5K, I need to look at the course first and also consider the weather! It’s not like I’m incapable of running well on hills or in the heat, but I think the combination of the two really did me in.

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Very glad to be done!

What’s next for me?

Well, this weekend I’m running the Seashore 5 Mile Run in Rehoboth with my brother-in-law Justin. I ran this race last year and know it’s pancake flat (as are all races at the beach!) so I’m hoping my track workouts pay off. I finished in 40:08 last year and won my age group, but was annoyed that I wasn’t under 40 minutes. I’d like to be around 38ish minutes this year, but if it’s hot as Hades, who knows what I can pull off.

Then on July 21, I’m running the Ellicott City 5K with Rip It Events. This race is another hilly one– the second half of it is basically all uphill. I ran the 10K version of the race last year and finished third overall, so we’ll see what I can do in the 5K. I’ll be happy with any time in the 23-24 minute range, but maybe I’ll surprise myself!

There is still time to sign up for the Ellicott City 5K/10K
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