Race Report: Fight the Fire 5k

Well, God was willing, so Ashley and I were back Fighting the Fire again in Stillwater this year! Spending the first Saturday of October running a low-key 5k, perusing the town farmer's market, and enjoying the autumn awesomeness along the St. Croix River is quickly approaching 'tradition' status for us -- as long as we're located within driving distance of Stillwater, at least!

The biggest difference from last year's race was the weather. With temps hovering in the low +30Fs at sunrise, we decided that it was (reluctantly) time to bundle. I think I decided to go with three, increasingly-warm layers up until the start, along with some gloves and a toboggan that haven't seen the light of day since...eh, probably May now that I think about it. Anyways, as Ashley likes to say: "Cardinal rule for dressing for the cold in Minnesota: Never be concerned with overdressing."

Said bundling, in action:

It's go time...

While most of the day had skies filled with low clouds (the casually gray kind, not the darker threatening ones), we did catch a glimpse or two of the sun en route:

Good morning, Franklin Ave!

Once we arrived at the start, we quickly found ourselves caught up in the fun, quirky, low-keyness of the event that is the Fight the Fire 5k. And that has, on some level, become part of our Fall expectations of Minnesota...

Example of quirky low-keyness #1: Two of Stillwater's finest firefighters kindly shepherding us into our parking space for the morning...what's so quirky about that scene, you ask? Well, the entire parking lot was nearly vacant at the time...and remained so all morning. For a race of only 40-50 strong, conserving parking spaces seemed a little strange. You never know though, things could take off next year. The early morning southern hospitality will always be a pleasant surprise though!

Example of quirky low-keyness #2: The many volunteers, who ever so very helpfully got us checked in and t-shirted, but who for the life of them could not tell us what time the race actually got going. Even posing the question seemed like such an anomaly to one lady. Her facial expression: "Why on earth would you ever want to know, or even think to ask, such a thing?" I momentarily wondered if maybe we had traveled to Peru where time and schedule are highly speculative (at best) or nonexistent (at worst). After four or five "Let me ask so and so's," the ranking firefighter on the scene was finally able to help us out. Can a race get any more low-key than when the volunteers treat the event like an afterthought? Gotta love it...

Anyways, the running part of the race also lived up to expectations. After a couple miles of warming up (literally), I ran the next five kilometers in 18:28 (6:10, 5:50, 5:50?), crossing the line 1st overall and in just enough time to hop back to the car and get a few pictures of Ashley coming in (~29:30, I think):

Coming down the home-stretch...

...and the finish!

The real prize!

Running for two!

And, like last year, we headed into town afterwards . . .

Stillwater Farmer's Market!

St. Croix

Still following Cardinal Rule #1!

Well, God willing, we'll be back again next year -- hopefully with a little entrant for kids run! They start running by 7 months, right?