Dawson's Run 2016 Race Review

On Saturday, Jeff and I participated in Dawson's Run! It's a local 5K fun run held in Joplin, MT in conjunction with the Joplin Car Show activities. The race was started to commemorate the passing of a local boy and money raised goes to fund a scholarship awarded in his name. This is the fifth anniversary of the race being held, and the fourth time Jeff and I have participated, and we were celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary on the same day as the run. If you're interested in reading my review from last year, you can find it HERE.

This race is very no-frills and a great community building event. To sign up, you just message their organizer on Facebook and they reserve a t-shirt for you. You pay on race day when you pick up your shirt, and it's only $15.

There was a great turnout for the race this year, and the weather was pretty much perfect 65 degrees, partly cloudy, and not much wind. As the race was about to start, everyone gathered at the start line and the Jada, who is Dawson's mother, addressed the crowd. As in previous years, listening to her speak, and the emotion in her voice as she thanks everyone for coming and honoring Dawson, gets me a little choked up, too.

This is a flat and fast course, and I knew my triathlon training has put me in pretty good shape, so I went into this race focused on wanting a PR. As the race began, I gave myself a goal to try to come as close as possible to 8:00 miles. Fueled by Jada's emotional send off, I was off quickly right as the race started. After weaving around a lot of little kids in the first quarter mile or so, I was in some space and settled in to a pace. I kept the race leaders in my sights as motivation. When I looked at my Strava app at the first mile, I was right at 8:00. So far, so good.

I just tried to keep slowly catching up to the leaders ahead of me, including two kids that I coach at North Star in our track program, and another good friend of ours. I never did catch any of them, but it really helped my pacing and motivation to think about trying. At mile 2, I saw I had slowed a bit, down to 8:12, but I was still definitely on track for a PR. I made myself hold on to what was for me a faster speed.

When I crossed the finish line, I stopped my Strava, and saw that my time was 25:00.00, but my distance was only 3.0 miles-- not 3.1. Jeff and I measured the course with our car last year (and it was the same this year) and we had exactly 3.1. He said that he looked at his Strava and it showed that 3 miles was just ahead of the finish line, so he thought the course was probably three miles and like fifty meters or so. In other words, it may be just short of 5K, but it's pretty close. Even if it is short, I would have still had a PR for a 5K distance. My old PR was 26:10. Overall, a drop of about a minute. Official or not, I'm going to claim it! I'm pretty excited! One of my big goals for 2016 was to be under  25:00 in 5K, so i'm SOOOOO CLOSE! Better find another 5K to sign up for! :)

I ended up the second-place female after one of my young track and field athletes- an incoming seventh grader. I am so proud of her for running and finishing a strong race! She definitely has a big future in longer-distance track. The young man that I coach was the second place male, and again, has a bright future in distance running. Both are really great kids, too! Jeff was also happy with his time, which was very close to what he ran at Governor's Cup the previous weekend.

They did a great job with the t-shirt design again this year. I like the color of red shirt this one is printed on. The football logo is on the front, and the "Running with Buddy" script is on the back at the hem.

Overall, as always, Dawson's Run was a great success. It is one of my very favorite runs because so many local people come out to do it and it's just a really great time. It was also a nice way to start our Anniversary Weekend! Already looking forward to next year's run! :)