Race Recap: 4th of July Parade Run

Date: Friday, July 4, 2014
Race: 4th of July Parade Run, Redwood City CA
Distance: 5K
Race: #32

4th of July has to be one of my favorite Summer holidays. What better way to celebrate America than with some sunshine, BBQ and fireworks! I celebrated my 4th of July with what else? A race of course!

I ran the 4th of July Parade Run in Downtown Redwood City. The Parade Run is a family friendly race supporting the Redwood City School District. The course goes through Downtown and is a flat, fast and easy 5K. It attracts more than 1,000 runners and is a favorite with the local community.

I was looking forward to running this race since I hadn’t raced in June. I also debated whether to do this race since I hadn’t run in a while. At the last-minute, I finally decided to register and run it.

The race was scheduled to start at 8:45 which was ‘late’ in my opinion. On the plus side, we didn’t have to get there at the crack of dawn. We quickly found parking and I picked up my bib and t-shirt. Since it was the 4th of July, I brought a small flag and decided to run with it to show my patriotism. I worried that it would get in the way but because it was small it felt fine in my hand.

I love these holiday-themed races because everybody gets into the spirit. I saw plenty of families and runners of all ages sporting their red, white and blue! Myself included!

 

I easily found my way to the starting corral and waited. After listening to a recording of the National Anthem, the gun went off and we were off! The sun burned through the clouds and I started to feel the heat as we made our way around the course. The course is a 1 mile loop that follows the parade route. We had to go around it 3 times. I worried that I might either go one too many times or miss a loop! Even though we had to go around and around, it was still fun to soak in the beautiful morning and the smell of the BBQ at the nearby food stalls. Since the parade would start after the race, there were many spectators along the route. It was nice to hear many of them cheering us on. We also got to hear some patriotic songs along the route. One my favorite moments was hearing Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA as we were running. How appropriate for this patriotic race!

I repeated the “Start Smart and Finish Strong” mantra in my head and just enjoyed running this race. Seeing the families, hearing the music, and occasionally waving the flag made me realize how lucky and thankful I am for the freedom that I have to be able to do this.

At the last mile, I was feeling pretty good and decided to pick up my pace. I sprinted to the finish line and proudly waved my flag! Yay! AMERICA!

Photo credit: My Fave who patiently waited at the finish.

Official Results: Not bad! Even though I didn’t finish under 30 minutes, I am definitely proud of these results.

After the race, I collected my food freebies; bananas, Vita Coco and Nesquik Chocolate Milk. We didn’t stick around for the parade because we had to head back to watch the World Cup. Did I get pancakes? Sadly, NO. Why?! One, I am giving up sweets for a while (insert EXTREMELY sad face) and two, I was saving my appetite for our 4th of July BBQ! I had a great weekend spending time with my Fave and family. We ate lots of yummy BBQ. I guess we didn’t get enough because my Fave fired up the grill and made us dinner on Sunday. It was a perfect way to end the 4th of July weekend!

How was your 4th of July? Did you run a race? See you at the finish line!