Race Recap: Moon Valley Grasshopper Bridge 5K

The 6th Annual Moon Valley Grasshopper Bridge 5K took place last Saturday, September 24th in the Moon Valley area of Phoenix, Arizona. This year's event, consisting of a 5K and 1K, benefited Phoenix Children's Hospital and  the Jaydie Lynn King Foundation. The race has been on my "run it someday" list, after hearing Running Through Phoenix sing its praises. This year the event happened to fit my schedule perfectly and I was curious as to if my speed was improving any (as I'm still not doing any speed work) so I signed up the week before.

Thank You Volunteers!

The course starts near a church, meanders through the neighborhood onto Moon Valley Park's grassy field, where it finishes a bit after crossing Grasshopper Bridge. The course is flat, with a variety of surface areas that reminded me of high school cross-country meets in San Diego. There were several friendly volunteers of all ages, with a strong student contingency in their yellow and green T-shirts. There were also youth playing percussion near the start and finish areas which added to the excitement of the start and called runners back to the finish near the end.

Pre-race Entertainment

Lo and behold, I saw Running Through Phoenix, himself, at the race start! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of his smiling face because I had put away my camera by then, but believe me, he was smiling! After the National Anthem, some words from charity representatives, and a moment of silence for Sally, we were off. While my Garmin was all ready for me to push "start" before the National Anthem,  I glanced down to push the "start" button to find a blank screen. What?!  I guess enough time lapsed for the Garmin  to automatically shut down by the time we actually started to run. I am not good at setting a Garmin while trying to run fast, so I just ran by feel. I felt slightly uncomfortable the whole time, which probably meant I was doing fine. After a strong push at the finish in an effort to break 25 minutes, I thought I was going to vomit for about 5 seconds. The feeling then went away. No finish line vomitting - hooray!

This Year's Race Shirt

Chip Time: 25:43

I didn't break 25 minutes, but it is a new PR by a few seconds. All-in-all, I was happy with my effort in a distance I am still trying to master.