Twist & Shout On The Charles River 5k - 8/30/12 - 23:23 (7:33 min/mile)

Time freakin' flies my friends. I cannot even believe we already had the fourth of the five-race "Let's Run, Have Some Fun And Be Fit" Summer Series... The Twist & Shout On The Charles River 5k was Thursday night!

My dad and I did this same race series together back in 2005 when I started running, but due to injuries he hasn't been able to run in ages, but for this race he decided to volunteer. Why not, time to see some old running buddies of his ... and we got a free ride out of it. ;)

Well since we actually had to park the car and there is limited limited parking at these races - we cut it CLOSE to getting to the Start Line in time for the run.

Additionally, this is an old school race without timing chips/etc so once the clock starts your time is based off that - no matter what time you actually cross the Start Line.

So I usually try to get as close to the front as I feel comfortable going, but since we got there so late - I was much farther back than usual.

Which led to a TON of bobbing, weaving and running on the grass for the first 1/2 a mile or so. It was also a task running on the grass and avoiding the large divots, dodging the tree branches and not tripping on the tree roots. It was like a mini trail run at the beginning. ;)

But I really didn't mind since I love these races - great fun atmosphere!

As I got myself back up to where I would normally be running and actually seeing many of the familiar faces, I remembered one of the bridges was out - finally after years and years it was deemed unsafe - so we had a slight detour, which actually didn't alter the flow of the run at all.

On my Runkeeper, I was averaging a 7:13 or so pace, which is what I normally shoot for in the Summer Run series so I was excited. I knew it would be altered at the Finish because of the timing they use, but I was happy with how the run was going.

Especially since on Wednesday morning I had to cut a 5 mile run to a 5k, I was glad to be running painfree!

After that the race was pretty much the same as the others. ;)

I tried to really dig deep and push it when I got within 1/2 a mile of the Finish.

I knew the race would be longer than 3.1 miles because of the detour, but I have run the course so many times I still knew when it was time to kick it up a notch. :)

According to the official results - I finished in 23:23 (7:33 min/mile) - I would probably take off at least 30 seconds for the time it took me to get to the Start Line, but either way I am happy ... I came in 164th out of 917 overall and 32nd out of 515 females.

Either way I was stoked to be done :P It was wicked humid.

I got my Harpoon IPA and went to the usual meeting spot to wait for the rest of my crew!

Mmm... beer! :)

My dad (one in red) was actually helping with the beer distribution and "overseeing" the keg issues:

Well, the final run of the series is just 3 days before my birthday and I think my dad will be volunteering again! YAY!! :)