Bunny Run 5K 2010

By Jason Rose

5-k’s are not fun. Especially not when you’re gassed after 4 minutes. April 3rd was a great day for the out & back 5k Bunny Run in Concord: 830 am start, temps not too high, 2.9 miles of flat with .1 up and down. $12 entry fee gets you a white tech shirt (but it does have a running bunny on it…no, not that kind of a running bunny). They also have a free 1-mile fun run for the kids before the 5k, so all in all its a great value.

A marathon gives you time to think and ponder your race plan. A 5k is just 20 minutes of suck. Hit the first mile at 6 minutes flat and you’re not in good shape if you were thinking 6:30’s. Guess that’s what happens when you don’t run a 5k for two years, don’t practice running that fast, and eschew Garmins. I didn’t think it was possible to want a 5-k to be over moreso than a marathon or ultra, but yes it certainly is. Dragged myself in at 20:49, good for a PR of over a minute believe it or not, altho there was a stretch from mile 1-1.5 that felt like a 10:00 pace. Something like 280 runners participated and for that 15 minutes of awful I was rewarded with my first ever age-group hardware (3rd place, but I’ll take it!). It’s a clear plexi-glass-ish thing about the size of a large hockey puck that wouldn’t fetch a nickel on eBay, but it’s all mine and it’s on my hutch as we speak!