The inaugural Depot Dash 5k was this past Saturday at Preservation Park in Thompson’s Station Tennessee. It was nice having a trail race in our home town even if it was a shorter race distance than I normally run. I also had the pleasure of running with my youngest daughter.
We signed up for the race before receiving the middle school soccer or church schedule. So my youngest had a soccer game Thursday and Friday followed by a lock-in at the church Friday night. I picked her up at 6:45am to ensure we had time to park, pick up our racing packets and stretch.
It was fun to recognize several faces and actually meet some I follow on Strava. My daughter and I even had time to visit a few of the booths. At the starting line they said faster runners up front and I was already there talking with my youngest who slid to the back. We had already decided to run our own races.
When the whistle blew 6 of us took off. It was a pretty fast start considering we were headed right into a hill. After the first hill we descended a short while and headed right into the trails. Being in my community I am very familiar with the trail and enjoyed the next mile. We exited the trail to a grassy section that led to our turn around section. As I was passing the trail I had just left, I saw my daughter looking strong. I encouraged her and kept moving. We came to the 2nd big hill and I was sitting in 5th place. Feeling pretty tired and my hip not at 100%, I decided to walk up the hill. Once I was at the top, it was pretty much gravel road to the finish. Walking up the hill did not allow me to catch 4th place. Well, after I finished I walked up the trail some to encourage the other runners and I see my daughter coming around the corner. I encourage her to keep pushing it and she picked up the pace not realizing there were two ladies behind her. Well my daughter ended up being 1st female over all, 5 seconds ahead of 2nd and 10 seconds ahead of third.
It was a great race and a great day.
Country Road Runner 