Favorite Defunct Races #5

McCandless Rotary 5k This race made me enjoy road racing. After having a thorough beating the week before at Brentwood in 2000, I was understandably concerned that running in college was not a wise idea. Before giving up, I figured it was worthwhile to take a shot at another race, one that was a little less competitive on the high end, with less pressure. I found the McCandless Rotary 5k on the Runners High Web site and made a trip to Wexford to run it. I wore my blue West Penn Relays t-shirt from 1997, the asics blue and yellow harrier flats and a gigantic pair of white shorts I had wound up with after gym in high school. I looked like, as a former Richmond coach would put it, like some "goon from the dorms."

Knowing the race was a lot less competitive than Brentwood, I had no fear hanging with the lead group. I wasn't sure if perhaps I could break any of these guys, and I certainly didn't have the confidence from my short road racing experience to try. I just kind of ran along with them until I tired out at 2.5 miles. Then I lagged around in no-man's land until Matt Manfred, a Hampton alumnus, caught up with me and I outkicked him to the finish, winning my age group for the first time.

It wasn't a terribly interesting course- around a movie theater parking lot, then a short loop on Ingomar Road, run twice. It was flat, pleasant and low key enough for me to get excited about racing again. The weather was mild, despite the mid-July timing. I ran it again in 2001, but in 2002 it was off the schedule, replaced, I assume, by the North Allegheny 5k XC race. I couldn't justify helping those clowns.