Today I ran in the Fort Mardi Gras 5K in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Fort Walton Beach is a city of 21,000 on the pan handle.
The weather was great: about 65 and overcast. Not too hot, not too cold.
We started about 10:15. We had to make sure our watches were started because, unfortunately, this race was not chip timed.
From the start, I felt pretty good. I got going at a good pace and kept that pace throughout.
I'm not sure, but I think I took first place among the old guys. I didn't see any guys in my age-range ahead of me.
Unfortunately, the race was only about 3.02 miles, not a true 5K, so I don't have an actual 5K time. I ran the 3.02 distance in 28:38. I'm going to assume my 3.1 mile distance would've been 29:30.
I can't recommend this race in the future because of the negatives I've mentioned. On the positive side, there were a lot of people, and to have a race around the middle of February is good timing.
