TBI Warrior 5k Recap

During the preparations of my vacation to Kansas to visit my family, the possibility of running an additional 5k during my time there was mentioned.  It was described to me as a fundraiser to help a classmate of my nieces, after hearing that, I was all the way in!  I would also be remiss to mention that my nieces and nephew were all in too!  So, with that being said, we all signed up for the TBI Warrior 5k.

The race was held on May 21st at 9am... I was thrilled with the 9am start time, in addition to it being very close to my sister's house.  While I do wake up for races at 3:30 without much complaining, it isn't my favorite thing to do, I was excited about being able to sleep in a bit.

I had started "stalking" the weather immediately after Running With The Cows... I was hoping for a much cooler day than the previous weekend. We were fortunate with the weather, as the storms came through overnight... and the weather was a bit chilly, leaving us with temps in the high 50's, cloudy, with a nice breeze!

Race-day eve ended up being a relaxed day.  We vegged out most of the day and made homemade individual pizzas for dinner and watched a movie before picking out our gear for the following morning.  I think picking out our race day attire was pretty easy for my nieces and I as we all had matching Spandits! that I had bought for us for this very occasion.

TBI Warrior 5k Recap

Race day morning felt like a leisurely morning. Even with packet pickup being on race day morning, we didn't need to get on the road until about 8:00.  We met up at my sister's house around 7:45, and were out the door by 8:00 am.  Once we arrived at the race site, we had plenty of time to pick up our packets, pin on our bibs, use the restrooms (real ones), and take some pre-race snaps.



Before the race began, we were called to the start line and given the course overview.  The course ran mostly along the high school cross country course, with a double loop around the middle school.  We did run along the parking lot and a paved trail for part of it too.  After that, it was time to line up and soon the gun went off.





I started out slow... my main goal was to not fall in the wet grass.  The course was wet, and had several puddles to either run through or side step.  It was mostly flat... but it wouldn't be a course in NE Kansas without a few hills.  I thoroughly enjoyed the race and had a lot of fun not being pressured by a time goal.  I even managed to crank out a perfect negative split/progression run with splits 9:27/9:07/8:47. The course measured out a little long on my Garmin as 3:30, I finished at 29:58.

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I asked my niece Hannah, who likes to run and write, to put together a recap of her race... enjoy:

TBI Warrior 5k Recap

On Saturday, May 20, I participated in the TBI Warrior 5k.  To support a fellow classmate we raced on the high school cross-country course.  Despite the lower temperatures and the wet course it was an enjoyable race.  The turnout was small, only 74 runners overall.  Yet, with a semi-tough course I did rather well.  I finished with a time of 32:30 ending in a well rounded sprint.  After we had all finished and caught our breath my siblings, Aunt CAV, and I enjoyed some homemade ice cream that followed a series of group photos taken by my amazing mother.

After I finished up with my race... I ran the course backwards until I ran into my squad and cheered them on to the finish.  We were given waters at the end, which was so welcome, and as Hannah mentioned there was homemade ice cream to indulge in as well.  Our medals were included in the race packet.

This was a really fun, hometown sponsored race.  I enjoyed the community feel of the race, although I was a bit disappointed at the meager turnout, hopefully the weather scared a bunch off and they "virtually" ran it.  There wasn't much I would change about it... maybe some bananas at the end... and rethink where those hills/uneven ground hit during which portion of the race.  I would definitely put this on my race calendar again if I'm in Kansas for it.

Special thanks to my amazing sister for all the great photos of race day!

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I'm linking up with HoHo Runs and MissSippi Piddlin’ for the Weekly Wrap; and with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My no-guilt life for Tuesdays on the Run