Fredonia Flag Festival 6K Race Report

On June 11, 2011 I ran in "The World's Only 6,147,777 mm Race." I'll get to what that means in a little bit. My hometown of Fredonia, KS has the annual Fredonia Flag Festival. Why does my hometown have a flag festival? Well, Fredonia has a 40 x 60 foot American Flag that flies on a 100 foot flagpole atop the South Mound. You can see the flag from miles away and it really is a gorgeous site! Sorry that the picture above is a little blurry, but you get the idea. Every year the Flag Festival raises money to maintain the flag (you wouldn't think a flag would cost a lot of money, but it's a big flag)! For the last 3 years, they have incorporated a race into the festival. I have ran this race the last 2 years.

Now to the explanation of the 6,147,777 mm race. Why not a 5K? Well, to be creative, they decided to signify the date that congress adopted the American flag which was 6/14/1777, hence the 6,147,777 mm race and why the flag festival is held around that same time every year. The race comes out to be about a 6K and 3.82 miles is what my Garmin clocked it at this year. It was a nice, warm June morning and I ran with my friend, Sarah. Running with friends always makes races more enjoyable! Our time was 42:23 and the pace was 11:05 min/mile. There were 2 water stops along the route, which was really nice since it was pretty warm that day. They also had water and fruit at the finish line - bananas are my favorite after a race! It's a small race (about 20 people maybe), but the town is small too. I think every year they will continue to get more participants and it will keep growing!

I was only a few weeks out from my Rock-n-Roll Seattle Half Marathon, so my training plan had me running 10 that day, so I actually got up extra early and ran 6.32 miles before the race. Then with the 3.82 for the race, I got my 10 miles in for my Seattle training! Win-win situation!

This is definitely the smallest race I participate in, but I'm there to support my hometown and it's great to be able to run with my friends who I don't get to see all the time! I can't wait until next year's race!