This is the third year for the girls only run, and my third year as well to participate. It turned out to be a glorious spring day. The sun was shining brightly and cool breeze blowing. The 8AM start temp was about 53 degrees. It was a little chilly in the shadows with the wind blowing. This is one of first few days we have had excellent weather. It has been unseasonably cold and RAINY here.
There was a good turn out for this race. We (the girls) are encouraged to dress in costumes with prizes given for the best. I did not dress up, but I did wear my running skirt. Several of the ladies from my running group also ran. I had a nice visit with all of them before race start. Seeing as we have a standing Saturday morning "date" with each other for our long runs anyways; so nothing seemed out of the norm there!
It's race time......my friend Dayna & I lined up towards the front. My only goal was to at least beat last years time of 29:33. I felt good running, and I had a decent pace going. The route was pretty much in our Saturday "run hood" area, so everything was familiar. You talk about mind over matter; when we made the second to last turn back towards the finish line, which is what I like to call the "home stretch" for our run group runs. We had to run by the park we meet at, and this would be our start and stop points every Saturday. My mind was like "hey, you are supposed to be stopping here, why are you still running??" From there, I had another 1.5 miles to go. At least I got to see my trainer & owner of BCS Fitness, Brad and his kiddos and Andi from my run group along this stretch! Nice to have them cheering me on. I really didn't pay attention to my Garmin along the way, so I wasn't sure how I was faring time wise. I pushed it at the end and finished strong. I forgot to look at the race clock at the end, but I could hear the announcer cheering the other runners on after I had finished and was getting my water to "hurry to come in under 30 minutes". That's when I checked my Garmin and saw my time was 27:35....well that's a super 5K PR! I obviously was fast because my husband missed me coming in! Darn no finish pic! Hopefully the race photographer shot will end up decent. My friend Dayna came in a bit behind me. She ended up getting second in her age group with a 29 minute + finish. How awesome is that!! We enjoyed our water from champagne glasses. The race had chocolate fountains with strawberries too. I did not partake in that....too much sugar right after running does not suit me well. I had my breakfast bar in the truck to eat on the way home. Off I go....
I agree, it was weird to have to continue running past our park! You are getting faster and faster - congratulations on your new PR!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Shelley! Congrats to you too for meeting your goal & running without a break!!
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