Race Recap: Holy Trinity Sole to Soul 5K - 19:47

This morning, I woke up feeling rather meh, with the legs a lil’ cranky from my Yasso 800s I did on Thursday. I seriously considered turning off the alarm clock and going back to sleep. But of course I didn’t, and I somehow found the motivation to get up, get ready and head to the race. After slamming my go-to vegan pre-race meal of toasted Ezekiel bread with Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter, banana, water and some orange Gatorade,  I took a quick shower to warm myself up, it was FREEZING in the Stout household this a.m.! I quickly threw on my race gear, then I was out the door!

The race was literally 4 miles from my doorstep, so I arrived in plenty of time to do a 28 minute warm-up, and still had time to hang with some of my buddies: Kimikay and her hubby Mike, Raymond and his bromance Jeffrey and was finally able to meet my tweep Jessica aka @MojaMala2 and her main squeeze.

This was the first time that I got to meet a tweep face-to-face. Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous! I have been following Jessica’s blog for a while now, and her Boston Marathon 2010 recap has gotten me SO pumped up for the upcoming race! After meeting Jessica, I got to thinking, I bet this is what people who do the whole online-dating thing feel like when they meet in the flesh. It’s like a blind-date, but not, because, well, I’m not trying to date my tweeps or blogger friends, obviously. But you are still officially meeting someone for the first time, even though you feel like you already know them because you are connected via social media outlets. Social media is seriously thebomb.com.

After some stretching and laughing, it was time to race! I did a few striders and felt like a TOOL as I was the only person to do so, and then the start bell rang! The start was a tad congested with a ton of kiddos! The race raises money for a local Catholic school, and it was awesome that so many kids and family were out participating in the event. However, I didn’t quite know what to do! I’ve never been at a start line with so many youngsters, I didn’t want to barge past them and risk knocking one of the lil’ 50 pounders down! So I was a tad reserved at the beginning. After a minute or so the group started to spread out and I had a lil’ more room to feel comfortable. I didn’t think my first mile was going to be very fast but low and behold, I knocked out a 6:15. Um, hello legs!

The second mile went by in a flash, I barely remember it, but I recall looking at my split and I had a 6:20! Then I got excited, with some quick math equations in my head, I realized I could definitely go sub-20:00 if I held onto my pace, and even had room to slip a tad.

The last mile was tough, not gonna lie, and I was getting frustrated with the old man in royal blue running tights. See, I played cat and mouse the entire race with this guy. I think he may have been doing a fartlek workout, but it was seriously annoying to catch up to him, only to have him zoom past me 20 seconds later. This exchanged happened at least 5 times. In the middle of my thought process of obsessing about beating this old man, I immediately stopped thinking about him, because the closer I got to the 3 mile mark, I began to realize that I was going to pee my pants. Yep, that happens sometimes. In high school, it was seriously a badge of honor if you peed yourself mid stride in a race. It was the sure-fire sign that you gave it all you had, because your body lost all control of its functions and you urinated down your leg. You think I’m kidding. This experience hasn’t happened in YEARS, but when the urge struck, I knew I was about to do something I have never done before. You ready for it?…

I. FINALLY. BROKE. THE. TWENTY. MINUTE. BARRIER. IN. THE. 5. K. !!!!!!!!!!!  I crossed the finish line in 19:47, an average pace of 6:23 per mile!!!!

That’s right friends, somehow the 5K stars aligned for me today and I crushed my previous PR by 35 seconds. Holy smokes. And last year, I ran this same exact race in similar weather conditions, and managed a 20:35. So I PR-ed in this race by 48 seconds. WOOOO!!!!

This performance was good enough to get a 1st place overall for females, and I scored a sweet lil’ 1st place medal and a $50 gift certificate to Dick’s Sporting Goods! Too bad I gave up shopping for Lent!

I don’t get it. I think I am still in a tad bit of shock. I have been running for years. In high school and college I trained to race 5K’s. Right now I am training to race a marathon, yet I run my fastest 5K time ever. Life sure is funny that way.

Wow. Serioulsy. I am speechless. This has been a goal of mine since I was 16 years old. I feel like I need to go do something to celebrate this occasion! Any suggestions?!

PS. Great job to all of my buddies, old and new!!! Everyone raced so well today!!!! Hope to see you all again very soon at another race!!!!