Yum, that glazed doughnut at the finish line tasted awesome. The coffee wasn’t bad, either. I can see why this race is so popular.
I got an email several weeks ago promoting the 2024 Top Pot Doughnut Dash 5K at Seattle’s Green Lake Park on Sunday, April 21 and decided that this year I was not going to miss it. I’ve now run 263 road races, but never this one before. Turns out, this 12th annual event was being held for the first time in four years — No. 11 was in early 2020 and No. 10 in 2019. The previous three (2021-23) were apparently scuttled due to the pandemic.
The Top Pot Doughnut Dash, which benefits Seattle Children’s Hospital, is named after a small, Seattle-based chain that leverages “a secret 1920s recipe” for its scrumptious doughnuts.
Race organizers said 1,600 runners and walkers signed up to do this year’s race, although the number of finishers totaled 1,309. It’s possible that the overall figure included entrants in the kids’ dash, a shorter race held separately after the 5K run. Regardless, Green Lake Park was overrun with participants and spectators. The porta-potty lines were so long that I barely made it to the starting line on time.
Though this was my first Doughnut Dash, I’ve run more than a dozen races at Green Lake Park — mostly the Love ’em or Leave ’em Valentine’s Day Dash that used to be held here every February before the pandemic. But I hadn’t done a race here since the Green Lake Gobble 5K in November 2019, so it was good to get back to this unique venue where running feels like a religion.
A different starting line for this event
Traditionally, the race starting line has been at what I consider the park’s south side, on asphalt near the Green Lake Small Craft Center. Some of the past 5K races occurred on the park’s inner trail directly around the lake, a 2.8-mile loop that required an extra spur on the course to get to 3.1 miles. More of the events, however, leveraged the surface streets surrounding the park for a combined inner-outer loop that covered 3.1 miles and negated the need for an extra spur.
Sunday’s Top Pot race featured a different starting and finish line — situated on a grass lawn inside the park’s west edge, near the Green Lake Community Center and basketball courts. I’d rather not run hard on grass for fear of reinjuring my bad left ankle, but I managed to avoid any problem. A plus for this course was running a good portion of it on the new street-side bike trail constructed in recent years around the park — it is curbed off to separate runners from cars.
I spent a lot of energy weaving through and around people in the race’s first mile before I could relax and just run. My time was a lackluster 44:39 (14:22.3 per mile), which got me 861st place out of 1,309 finishers. I came in 7th out of 13 in my age group. Full results are here. My two previous 5K races this year were faster, but I still enjoyed running among all the fitness-minded folks who devoted a Sunday morning to this event.
For the record, my best time for a Green Lake race is 25:48 in 2007 and my best time for a 5K anywhere is 24:32 (Bumblebee 5K at the 2005 Holiday Bowl in San Diego). Both came before I underwent surgeries to repair my left ankle, making me more of a jogger now than a runner (but happy to still be running!).
Shout-outs and a personal update
A shout-out to Microsoft and runner friend Jackie Soo, who finished more than 10 minutes ahead of me, but joined me in the coffee line (that’s her holding up the race t-shirt below). Jackie did 5K runs on both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Congrats! Another shout-out goes to Nancy Trejo, who I did not see at this race, but who earlier completed her race No. 400. Nice job, Nancy! That’s quite a feat; I’m only at No. 263 and don’t expect to make it to 400.
Alas, I have sad personal news to report: My sister in Portland, Ore., died recently. RIP Bernadette Enbysk.
In other news, my wife and I have purchased a condo on Whidbey Island near Langley and will be moving there from Bellevue sometime this summer. Also, I have come out of retirement — sort of — to work part-time as a writer and editor supporting F5, my previous employer.
The annual All In for Autism 5K run in my hometown of Bellevue is this Sunday, but after running it in each of the last two years, I am skipping it. I feel guilty about this, but I need to get ready for the return of the Emerald City Bike Ride through West Seattle on May 5. After that, I am planning to run the Beat the Bridge 8K in and around the University of Washington on May 19.
Thanks for reading!
Monte's running commentary 