1st Annual Fort McHenry 5k Tunnel Run

We did it! Jamie and I completed our second 5k run...

and Stephanie finished her first 5k run! What a perfect day for the run, the weather was gorgeous…sunny and comfortable. I hadn’t realized that this was the first time they had ever done a run through any of the Bores of the Fort McHenry Tunnel. I’m happy to say I was a part of this event! We ran to support the Maryland Special Olympics.

Tolls Before the race

I was lucky enough to have my mom there to cheer us on! She was very nice and held/watched all of our bags for us while we were running. She also took most of the pictures for us! Thanks mom, I love you! The race started at 9am and everyone started to gather around the mysterious starting line around 8:45am. A blow horn sounded and the race began!

I was a little worried about the race course because a little over half of the course was up hill and the rest was down hill. Picture running down into the tunnel, up out of the tunnel, turning around and running down back into the tunnel, and the last mile or so is uphill. We did not have time chips to capture individual times so I have a very rough estimate of my time. Based on my time (not sure where the starting line was so guesstimated it) my “rough” splits are as follows:

1st mile – 9 mins

2nd mile – 7.34 mins

3rd mile + .14 – 10.96 mins

Like I said, who knows for certain when I started and when I finished according to time. The finish line was a little confusing because the women had to go to the left and men to the right. The girl in front of me literally stopped at the finish line which confused me because aren’t you suppose to run through the finish? That slowed me down some, area was very narrow and there wasn’t room for passing unless I had intended to plow her over, which I wasn’t! Although the thought did cross my mind. The time on the clock at the finish line was 28:08.

Here’s me (pink shirt/blue shorts) just a little while after crossing the finish line.
Overall, I felt really great in this run. My first 2 miles were awesome! I felt pretty good my last mile considering it was all up hill. I kicked up my pace a little too soon and petered out some towards the last stretch. I truly believe the training I’ve been doing the last 3 weeks (easy, long, tempo, repeats) really contributed to my endurance and pace. Granted I don’t think I beat my last 5k time, but I think I finished in the same time or right around it. I feel AWESOME because the majority of the race was hills and that is WAY different than running mostly level ground. I just know that if there wasn’t that last hill I would have creamed my last 5k time. I was well on course to a personal record. Another time!!

Jamie and Stephanie finished the race not to long after me and they were FANTASTIC!

Race mascots!