A Sort of Homecoming
My first race out of the Syracuse area was a return home—and to my old home. The Rochester Ugly Sweater 5K, organized by Willow Racing and actually held in Honeoye Falls, afforded us the chance to stay with my parents in Honeoye. After we arrived at the family home that morning, I was happy to learn that my father, who often joined me at bike races in the 80s, would attend the race.
We knew much of the course well; we lived a few miles from nearby Mendon, and my sisters and I were students in the Honeoye Falls-Lima school system until the end of my freshman year in high school before we moved to Honeoye. The towns are understandably often confused.
Parking and post race festivities was at Flaherty’s Three Flags Inn, with the race starting in the lot between Vest Pocket Park and the old stone mill by the falls. It was a cold, windy day, and the sidewalk between the restauraunt and the start line was treacherous with ice. Dad and I had to pick our way to the start line carefully.
As with the Syracuse race, many of the runners and walkers were festooned with all manner of Christmas garb. The atmosphere once again was festive, perhaps more than it had been at the Syracuse race.
The course took use briefly onto Main Street before a right turn took the race across Honeoye Creek, giving participants a chance to view the town’s signature waterfalls. A second turn on to Ontario Street and the first long street of road. I’d lined up toward the front of the field to avoid any potential chaos and briefly matched pace with the leaders in the opening portions of the race.
The leaders started to pull away on Ontario, and I anticipated a wave of others passing me in the first mile. A few runners passed me, but the I didn’t sense many behind me. A quick glance behind revealed a sizable gap to the next runners; we’d dropped the field, and for many of us, the race turned into a solo effort.
I usually aimed for negative splits, but I’d decided to maintain a steady pace with a high cadence, and with few runners around me, it was easy to settle into a steady tempo.
The wind chilled us as we moved from the relative shelter of the town for a portion of the race. I managed to chase down a few competitors, but the road was surprisingly empty consider the race had a field north of 200.
York Street brought us back to Main and the final tenth of a mile. Main was fully opened to traffic, making the final run to the line dicy and narrow, but I made it to the finish without too many problems. My father estimated that I was in the top twenty or twenty five, though I suspected more had finished ahead of me.
The lock laces held; there was no repeat of last weeks shoelace debacles, and as I had a better sense of the finish line, I timed my final burst well. I finished with a time of 25:35 my third consecutive PR.
I finished 21st, so my father’s assessment was accurate.
The field in Syracuse stretched out, but a steady stream of us finished the race, often separated by a second or less. Before it broke up, the lead group in Honeoye Falls simply ran away from the field.
This was fortunate, as a large group or stream of runners merging onto Main Street would have been dangerous; in fact as runners started arriving in groups, they were directed onto the sidewalk which while safer, had some slick spots. No one went down, but I was probably fortunate to have finished when I did.
A post race bowl of chili at Flaherty’s was a pleasant way to end the race.
Location: Honeoye Falls, NY
Cost: $30
Swag: Shirt, medal, post race food
Events: 5K
Field: 264
Result: 21/264@25:35; 8:15; 3/15
Shoe: Hoka Cavu 2
