Carlsbad 5000 Recap

I received an e-mail a few months ago about the Carlsbad 5000 and thought to myself at the time, "I should run that." It's a Rock N Roll event and I know those are always fun! Then I forgot about it, put off registering but the week before, after learning several of my friends were running it and a serious case of FOMO, I signed up.  The Carlsbad 5000 also offers a All Day 20K option, but since I had waited to register, it was sold out.  I will be adding the 20K to my race schedule next year.

The Carlsbad 5000 has race day packet pickup, which I love.  I love running up in Carlsbad, but it is a little but of a drive for me, so this saves me from making the drive twice.  I headed up there early and found parking right away.  I met up with Smitha and we headed over to get our bibs.

But first, let's talk a selfie.

There are 4 waves to the Carlsbad 5000-- the first one starts at 7:00am and the rest are staggered by time. My wave wasn't starting until 8:45am, so we had some time to spare.  Smitha and I met up with friends, took pictures and all the pre-race fun was had.  As the time neared, we headed over to the corral for our start.  They had the National Anthem before every wave, which I thought was nice.  I didn't have a plan going into this race-- it's called "the world's fastest 5K" so I secretly hoped I might PR, but I just went into it with the plan to run.  

ProCompression Ambassadors Keeping it Tight

When it started, I made my way through the crowd, starting off a little faster than I intended to, which would come back at me during the third mile.  Carlsbad is a pretty city and this race didn't disappoint, especially during the miles with the beach views.  I was surprised by the crowd support for this event-- it's a 5K, but there were more crowd support than usual at 5Ks.  (although they may have also been there for the All Day 20K event)  The 5K seemed to go pretty quickly-- it's an out and back circle type of course and before I could figure out where I was on the course, I was entering the finishing line.  When I checked my Garmin, I had finished in 28 minutes, which I thought was a race PR for me, so I was excited!  (I checked later and discovered I missed my race PR by 20 seconds, which means I'm be aiming to PR my next 5K) I met up with the crew again and we headed over to the finish line festivities to get our race shirts and other post-race shenanigans. 

I generally don't partake in the post-race beer garden, but when local restaurant Pizza Port has a special race brew, you know I had to try it.  (They had an IPA and Mexican lager-- both were good, but I definitely preferred the IPA)  After hanging out for a bit, we all decided it was to head our separate ways and go home.  Overall, it was definitely a fun morning.  Running is always more fun when you get to see friends and run on beautiful courses.  And the medal!  

I would be remiss in my recap if I didn't give huge shoutouts to the rockstars that are Smitha, Linzie and Carlee.  Smitha volunteered overnight for SoCal Ragnar and Linzie & Carlee both ran it!  How awesome are they?!?!  I am so inspired by all three of them!

What's your favorite post-race activity?

Until next time, happy running!
Jenn13.1