5K Race - Firecracker/Chinatown (A+)

CHINATOWN, L.A. -- How about that. What a cool race to kick off the Year of the Rat. This Firecracker run is an LA tradtion that I've often wanted to be a part of. So now I am.

Hilly as all hell and bending all around Elysian Park, the Firecracker 10K is the big draw...30 years old with this running. I (wisely) opted for the 5K as the second run of the year in the 2008 plan. I actually thought about doing the 10K, but when the first hill went up 250 feet in the initial half mile, I thought...eh, the 5K was probably wise. (Results here...25:24 official/167th of 1,600/15th in division...JDP gets 25 even/151st of 1,600/13th in div)

I pushed hard. So did JDP. The time looks like a downright disaster...25:24, slower than I've run in three years at least. But effortwise, I was very pleased. I rolled up the hills and floated down, picking off the unwise folks who decided to push hard up the first couple.


Gameplan worked out...was passing people the whole way. But...never really caught that steam where I felt like it all felt good. But the way I look at it now, there was never any flat on the course, so it was hard with a new stride to figure out exactly what the heck was going on. This was a tough course that wound around toward the stadium entrace, going over the 5, around the police academy training areas and whatnot. Turnabout at the Elysian Park entrance. It was something.

But fun as all get out. Chinatown comes alive during the New Year celebration and this was downright cool to see. They fire off a couple thousand firecrackers to ward off the bad spirits before the race (seriously, maybe 200,000 in all) and had those cool dragon costume dancers all over the place with drums. Both races were well populated. We'll see exactly how many when they post the results. I guess my overall feeling about this race will depend on where I finished in relation to the field, because I feel like I ran a good race thought the time was ass. Either way, lots more work to do. A great race all in all...lots of fun.