With a (Bonnet) Spring in my Step: Bonnet Springs 2024:

  March is another double race month and so here I am with my second race the Bonnet Springs 5K. While some of the material sent stated that this was the first year it was being run by the local running club they technically put it on last year as well even though it wasn’t on their official calendar last season.

Bib pick up was once more a simple in and out at the venue the afternoon before. Later on in the evening I started having a serious headache and I hoped I didn’t have a repeat of last year. Thankfully as I layed out a few differing outfits to pick from depending on race day weather the headache subsided. 

The outfit I did end up choosing was once more princess inspired (I feel as if that’s been a trend with the past few non Disney/Gasparilla races) with a pair of lite purple Old Navy capris, my Champion ‘Rapunzel’ costume top, a Tangled Inspired Bondi Band, and my Crowned Athletics “Golden Dreamer” Baseball cap (along with my Saucony sneakers)

We arrived at the venue twenty minutes before last year at 5:55 expecting for a spot close to the Family Lawn however while last year they were parking from the front and working the way to the back this year they parked from the back and worked their way toward the front.

I sat in the car for a few moments and made a quick restroom stop before finishing the walk to the lawn which I reached at 6:16.

There were a few various lawn games set up as well late bib pick up on the lawn however I just kind of meandered around listening to a few podcasts and taking a few pictures.

As of 6:35 cars were still entering the lot and so I sat on a bench where I did a weather check. At that moment it was 64 feels like 65 with a 40% chance of rain predicted for 8am. It was better than the scattered thunderstorms predicted the evening prior however it’s Florida so…fingers crossed. While I sat I pondered if I wanted to toss together another curated playlist before deciding to just put my 15K playlist on shuffle.

I had two tiers of Goals…. My IDEAL Goal was between my 42 min PR and 48 mins… my REALISTIC Goal is between the 52 mins of last year's time and the 56 mins of Promise Run.

The past few weeks I’ve been having fitbit issues so it will be interesting to see how off the mileage is between markers on my phone…

At 6:47 I walked out to the staging pleased that I was in group 7 out of 9 and not sitting on top of stroller city.

By 7:00 I was off…

At 0.55 miles we turned from the road/parking lot onto the main trail where we’d be doing a lap and a half by races end. This was 0.06 miles sooner than last years time stamp…remember those FitBit discrepancies…

At 0.74 the first runners began to pass in the parallel lane doing their second loop…again this was earlier than last year though that could easily amount to me being slower or other runners being faster vs technology.

I reached mile one with a time of 1.01 and an elapsed time of 16:14

Just a few seconds slower however with mileage tighter to a mile then last year.

At 1.60 I passed the finish line area as I crossed past the family lawn (0.05 mileage discrepancy from this point last year) and at 1.71 (a 0.06 mileage discrepancy) I passed the water station. I still had half a bottle so I declined and with a wave to my person spectating me I was back into the park to begin the back end of the event.

I reached marker two at 2.04 with an elapsed time of 33:50 again seconds over last year.

At around 2.45 I stepped off course for a moment to dump my water bottle into a recycle bin before getting right back at it and reaching my PR threshold a minute or two later.

I hit marker three in 3.08 with an elapsed time of 51:46 which was a whole minute slower than last year and once more with a mileage timestamp that was way off.

I crossed the finish with a mileage stamp of 3.19 (last year it said I moved 3.30) and a final time of 53:35 this time matched with my official time however my mileage per mile was 30 seconds faster via my fitbit then officially.

It was obviously a ways off from an official PR but it’s my 2024 PR as while it was also a tag longer than last years event it was better than promise run and my unofficial Gasparilla PR splits.

 

CHALLENGES

 

RUN THE YEAR PROGRESS: 400.12/2024 miles moved

  

Upcoming races

• Springtime Surprise 5K 4/19

• Springtime Surprise 10K 4/20

• Mayfair 5/11

• Watermelon 6/8

• Watermelon 7/13

• Watermelon 8/10

• Wine and Dine 5K 11/1

• Wine and Dine 10K 11/2

• Gasparilla 15K 2/22

• Gasparilla 8K 2/23

PRs

• 1M {15:26} 3K {30:59} 5K {42:46} 8K {1:13:59} 10K {1:42:52} 15K {2:19:09} 10M {3:01:51} HALF {3:54:55} FULL {7:08:15*} *virtual full run in increments