Prairie Fire 5k - Wichita, KS

We were in Wichita on the second weekend in October to see old friends and participate in the Prairie Fire 5k. A Sunday morning race, we arrived on Friday evening to spend some time in the city I called home for over twenty years. Our stomachs were growling as the sun went down and my natural instincts, long dormant, took control of the situation. I knew that a quick left onto Hillside and a couple of short blocks down on the left was the pot of gold at the end of our long 11.5-hour rainbow ride out of Tennessee.

Worth the Drive

After filling up on burgers and hot dogs, we did something I never remember doing while living here: visiting the Keeper of the Plains statue up close. I was caught off guard by the number of tourists we encountered flocking to this attraction! I never realized anyone except school children came here. Of course, according to the statisticians at the Wichita Visitors and Convention Bureau, my family and I were tourists, too, and our presence at the Keeper Plaza was yet another indication of the effectiveness of their savvy marketing and good business acumen. Great job, guys!

The Keeper of the Plains

Saturday morning we headed downtown to pick up our race packets. It was a beautiful day so we explored the area while I reminisced about dragging Douglas as a high schooler in the 80s and working as a bartender in what is now the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in the 90s. The downtown is clean with wide streets and sidewalks. Unfortunately, downtown also includes a good deal of vacant commercial space.

Site of Race Packet Pick Up

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Musuem

As seen on one of the many vacancies downtown

Saturday afternoon and evening was spent catching up with friends before our predawn wake-up call on Sunday. Though the morning was cool, it certainly could have been colder this time of year. With the high forecast to be near ninety, I was thankful for the early morning start. The half and full marathoners took off shortly after the scheduled 7:20 start time, and we started running about thirty minutes later.

Moments before the start of the 5k

The course immediately took us over the Arkansas River to McLean Boulevard, where we ran north to Douglas Avenue and back across the river. From Douglas we turned north and basically looped behind the Keeper statue before heading south on McLean and back to the start/finish line. The course was, of course, flat (duh, it's Kansas) and very fast. I felt like I was making pretty good time but refused to look at my watch. I guess I was afraid I might start slacking if I knew I was faster than my normal pace.

Though there were 609 finishers in the 5k, I ran alone for nearly all of the last mile. Flat courses can be good and bad. They're great because there are no hills obviously, but, by the same token, you can see far, far ahead. With hills, you can set small goals and fool yourself in the process. Example: If I just make it to the top of this hill, I will likely see the next [reference marker] is not far away. On a level course, you can see your reference point nearly a mile away, but it appears as if it's ten miles away. In this race the final turn was just beyond Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. From there, it was a chip shot to the finish line. I could see the light standards far off in the distance, and it looked like a twenty-minute ride on the bullet train to get there.

Lawrence-Dumont Stadium at last!

It seemed like the road was getting longer the more I ran, but I finally made it to the bridge taking us again across the river for a fast, slightly downhill finish. There was a good crowd of spectators around the finish corral cheering on participants as I hurried to close out the loop. I finished in 23:04, a 7:26/mile pace. This represents my best time ever in a 5k and was good enough on this day to capture 3rd place in the men's 45-49 division.

This was a fun course to run, a course almost tailor-made for folks new to running or returning after a long absence. The city hosts this event in both the spring and fall, so it's not too early to start planning your trip to Wichita now!

3rd Place in the men's 45-49 bracket, 5k