Standing Stone 5k Race Recap

On Sunday September 24th I ran the inaugural Standing Stone 5k.  This race was located in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, near my college alma mater, so I heard about it through some targeted facebook ads. 😉

I had originally registered for the half marathon but the weekend of the race was very hot for the end of September, clocking temperatures in the 80s. By Saturday, I started to entertain the idea of switching to the 5k. Since the races didn’t start until 2:30pm, I went with my college roommate (who coincidentally was in town), to Huntingdon the morning of the race – and spent the morning getting brunch (at the awesome Stone Town Cafe) and exploring campus and Huntingdon.

Huntingdon has some gorgeous vistas!

The temperatures kept inching up throughout the morning, and that pretty much cemented that I had to change races. I just hoped I wouldn’t regret it.  Switching races was very simple – I just asked when I picked up my bib and it was no issue (though I wasn’t expecting a refund of the price difference).

The race started a bit late, with the half marathoners heading out first, and the 5k starting at 2:45. I felt a twinge of jealousy as the half marathoners took off and I saw the 2:30 pacer, but as soon as we started I had no regrets. It was 84 degrees, humid and mostly sunny.

The 5k course was nice, though it had a pretty big hill in mile 2 where I decided to walk. My splits were a bit all over the place, because the first mile was mostly downhill, the second had the hill and some walking, and by the third I was pretty spent from the heat.

All. over. the. place. And measured a smidge short too. But no big deal, I knew this wasn’t going to be a PR day for me.

The crowd support was really great for a small inaugural race, with cheerleaders cheering us on at the start and the finish.

And free race photos too!!!

I am proud of my finishing time of 31:28 given the weather (though it’s a minute per mile slower than my PR).  And, it was good enough for first in my age group and top 50% of women and overall finishers. Benefits of a small race! 🙂

My dad finished shortly after me.

The finish line had tons of water (luckily) and boxes of food for finishers, which was an awesome perk. We also got medals! We hung around for a while watching the half marathoners come in and they looked really exhausted.  I doubt anyone had as fast of a race as they hoped.

Overall, I thought this race was well organized and had a lot of perks given its inexpensive price. I hope they do it again next year, and I hope its cool enough to do the half marathon too!