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Planning My Virtual 5K Run

My brother was nice enough to sign me up for my first public 5K race as a gift this past Christmas. The Milwaukee Marathon 5K race was scheduled for April 11th until it was cancelled and converted into a virtual race in the early days of the US pandemic. "Virtual race" means that each racer is to pick a time and place that is convenient for them to run, run the distance they signed up for at that chosen time and place, and submit their finishing time (on the honor system) to receive a certificate of completion.

I decided early on that I wanted to run my 5K sometime around when the race was originally scheduled. I also wanted to do it somewhere different than where I regularly run to make it feel somewhat special. This weekend I took to planning the details.

Using plotaroute.com I searched for areas I hadn't run before that seemed ideal. For me, an ideal route has to meet as many of the following criteria as possible:
  • Is nearby
  • Is relatively flat
  • Doesn't cross any streets
  • Is pretty to look at
  • Loops back to the start
  • Is easy to navigate for the first time so I don't accidentally run too little or too much
I started by looking for uninterrupted segments of the parkway I already run that are further away, but I couldn't find anything easily loopable that didn't cross over any busy streets. I briefly considered running in a residential area so that traffic would at least be at a minimum and I'd have the right of way, but the idea of driving to someone else's neighborhood for a run just didn't feel right. I then started looking for 5K routes submitted to the website by other users. Lo and behold, I finally found a route that seemed just right:
The "Hart 5K" route is nearby, relatively flat, doesn't cross any streets, is in a park (pretty to look at), loops back to the start with an easy turnaround point (a street), and is in an area I know pretty well. That means it hits every single one of my criteria for an ideal route!

The only potential hurdle is that it does cross over some train tracks (twice since it's a loop), which as you can imagine could be problematic if I end up running when there's a train crossing. As such, I decided to run early in the week so that if a train messes up my run I can attempt the run again on another day. Also, because the weather for the week looks like there could be rain, I've decided that I should probably make my first attempt today.

My fastest 5K run time so far has been 28:38, with my best estimated 5K run time being 26:48 when I ran nearly 5 miles last year. I don't necessarily expect to come close to either of those times since I haven't had as much time to train or run the route as I did for those, but I'll be satisfied with anything under 30:00 given my average pace on my recent runs. Wish me luck!

Stay healthy and sane.
-Ryan
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Thanks for sharing!

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