Chick-Fil-A 5K Fitness Classic – Louisville, KY (March 7, 2020)

Race: Chick-Fil-A 5K Fitness Classic

Place: Louisville, KY

Date: March 7, 2020

Time: 39:51

Well, during all this quarantine time, I have finally gotten around to writing about the final race that I ran before everything shut down.  It was the first leg of the Louisville Triple Crown of Running, which had been saved from extinction and re-branded with a new company overseeing it.  The City Run 10K and the Allstate Hot Chocolate 15K/5K would both be moved to virtual races during the pandemic.

Covid-19 really messed up this year’s race plans.

If you read my blog on the 2020 Publix Atlanta Half Marathon, you know that I was working my way back from another hip issue (it’s always my hips).  I had physical therapy the day before, but was cleared to run this however I wanted to…but carefully.  I knew my friend, Melissa, was signed up to run with one (no husband or baby in tow)…so I asked if she wanted someone to run with that morning.  I would go at her pace…and hopefully help to motivate her all the way to the finish line.  I love when I get to run with my friends, and maybe even help them reach their goals.

Cathy and I woke up early that morning to eat breakfast and dress warmly (it was C-O-L-D) for the run.  I, once again, decided to deck out in my BibRave gear (this time the 1/4 zip top…because again…COLD) and found some fun leggings to wear that morning that were also warm.  I have a few with lining in it…so…I went with one of those.

We headed out and went to pick up Melissa to drive into Louisville, find a parking spot, and get to the start line.  We managed to do all of that without too much hassle.  I was wearing my MRTT/SRTT jacket before the race and a member of the group came up and said she’d just walk with us as she was a part of the group too and was trying to get to where the picture was being taken.  We told her we would probably not get to the photo op in time…so instead we just took a photo together.  She went to go find her friends and Melissa and I got called over by our friends, Chris and Christy.  YAY!

Christy asked how fast I intended to run this course, and I told her that I was racing with Melissa that morning.  We hopped into a corral…shed our extra clothing…listened to the national anthem…and waited to be sent off.  And when we were…I fell right in step with Melissa.

She was on a mission that first mile.  We blazed up East Market, but the bitter air really hit us when we rounded the corner onto S Brook Street.  It was here my neighbor, friend, and sometimes training buddy, Kristi Roach, saw me in the crowd and said HI.  I had a short conversation with her and turned around to find Melissa behind me, having a hard time breathing as the sudden rush of cold air to her lungs kicked off some asthma.  YIKES! We eased it back to see if she could get her lungs to respond and get acclimated.  We still managed a decent first mile…even with the slow down to wave and thank Course Marshal Stephanie heading into the first mile marker.

We hit it, and we took a short walk break to let her catch her breath and get those lungs expanding.  It wasn’t a long walk, and when she was ready, we picked it back up and started in on our second mile.  I could already tell the walk break did her good, because she was looking so much stronger and better afterwards.  I let her know that, and apparently a homeless man on the side of the road told her I was lying.  Dude!  Whatever!!  Honestly, she pushed back and came back and was doing awesome.  I spotted the water stop just ahead of Mile 2 and asked if she wanted water.  She nodded and I ran up ahead to snag a cup for each of us and passed it off to her.  We took a short water stop walk, and when we were done, we were back on.

We hit the second mile and now we were into the home stretch.  One more mile to go.  This was a new course for this race, so I had no idea where we were going…I was just following everyone else.  As we always do, we took our final walk break at the mile marker just to attempt to get lungs working in Louisville’s polluted city air.  When Melissa was ready…we were back on.

Unfortunately, it was here that a course marshal said, “That’s it…walk it in.”  Melissa said, “Nope…just on a walk break!”  And the course marshal said, “OH…I’m an interval runner too.”  MEH!  How about not making any comments on whether people are running or walking, and simply just encouraging them to get to that finish line.

We made the turn onto the final stretch.  Here I heard music behind me and turned to see Melissa Joyce!! So I went and said “HI” and told her she looked great.  I rejoined my running best friend, Melissa, and we hit that final stretch hard.  We hit Mile 3 and she glanced at her watch and got a little upset that she didn’t hit a goal she had set, but she put it behind her and we took it into the finish line together.  I think she beat me by a second.

We made our way through the finisher’s area, getting our medal and our free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, which we gave to Cathy for breakfast.  They were out of coffee, so we didn’t get that for ourselves…but we tried.

I did get to meet up with Stephanie and another BibRave Pro who was visiting (and not racing) and got to chat for a little while.  But it was still cold, and Melissa needed to get home to her family…so we eventually made our way back to the car, which we parked at Slugger Field.  We took some photos together before calling it a day and taking her home.

This was a fun and flat course, so I know a lot of people got PRs.  Hopefully, racing will restart at some point and maybe next year, both Melissa and I can hit our own PRs.  We’ll just need the weather and our bodies to cooperate a little more.  But, I couldn’t have imagined running this race any differently, even if it ended up being my last in-person event before the shutdown.  Being with my friend and seeing her from start to finish was the perfect way to do this race.  Sometimes, we run for ourselves.  Sometimes we run for others.  Sometimes we run with others.  I was proud and happy to have been able to run with one with Melissa.

So, my official results of the Chick-Fil-A 5K Fitness Classic are that I finished in I finished in 39:51. I was 2868/3846 finishers overall. I was the 1458/2196 female finishers. And I was 238/338 in my age division. I can’t wait to take on this flat and fast course again next year.