Before any 5K race, it is common to see people stretching, doing deep knee bends, windmills, jogging – the typical runner’s warm-up routines.

Some runners might even run a dozen strides to get their muscles and lungs in racing mode.

Then, there are those athletes who turn it up a notch, or 10.

Jacksonville elite runners JC Hanley-Pinto, Joy Murphy and Kim Pawelek climbed aboard their bikes at 5 a.m. for the May 2nd Shrimp Fest 5K, rode 47 miles to Fernandina Beach, and finished 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively in the female division of the race.

“We hadn’t ever done the race before, and we like to support area races, so we decided it would be fun to ride our bikes and do it,” said Pawelek. “It actually was a nice ride, we got to see the sun come up over Heckscher Drive – it was a cool sight. We did this once before for a race at World Golf Village, but this was further.”

Pawelek almost didn’t make the race, getting a flat tire approximately two miles from the starting line, changing it, and arriving after everyone was lined up and listening to final race instructions. By the time she was ready to go, the rest of the field was a couple of minutes into the race. Thus, Kim passed about 200 female runners (and a bunch of males too, because I was one of them) to post her first-place age (35-39 women) group win.

“I can tell you, it doesn’t feel too good when you get to a race and you know it’s about to start and you’re not ready to go yet,” she said.

More impressive than the biking and the fact she passed so many runners to finish with an official time of 20:37 (the clock did not consider her late start), was the fact that Kim was only 12 days from competing in the Boston Marathon, where she had finished 32nd among women with a 2:52:16. She also registered late for the Shrimp Fest 5K and thanks Greg Supianoski for even allowing her to sign up after the official deadline.

“It wasn’t my normal routine to get ready for a 5K,” said Kim. “I usually run two miles, do a few strides and go,” she said.

While the ladies were riding from Jacksonville, AIR runners David Vigh and Steve Devlin were also involved in a super warm-up of their own. The pair normally run a 16-20 miler every Saturday, so they decided to add the Shrimp Fest to the end of their workout. So, after running 12 miles through Fort Clinch, they lined up and ran the 5K.

They not only ran it, they both finished second in their age groups, David (40-44) with a 18:00 -- a 5:48 pace -- and Steve (45-49) with 19:26.

“Doing the race was really out of laziness,” Steve explained. “We haven’t been doing enough speed work, so we figured this would force us to pick it up some. It was a chance for both of us to run hard.” David was humble about his race time and age group finish. “I think any good runner would be surprised at how long and hard you can run when you’re tired. As long as you’re not out of gas, and just tired, you can call on your body to do a lot,” he said. “You can do a lot more than you would think.”

Both David and Steve said they were disappointed that AIR elite Bill Beaumont was out of town and unable to run the (ah, huh) warm-up and then the race. “I know if Bill was here, all three of us would have done it,” David said.