So Easter weekend I decided to partake in a little 5K action. The race was held in a park literally less than a half of a mile from my mom’s, I couldn’t resist and she decided to join in the fun too and walk the 5K. I had grand plans of waking up 3 hours prior to the race to eat my breakfast, drive across town, pick up our race packets then park at my mom’s do a nice 3 mile warm-up, allow for plenty of time to stretch and hang out with mom before the gun went off. On Saturday morning I slept through all 5 of my alarms (yes I’m serious), and woke up at 7:05am. The race started at 8:00am. *#@!. So I threw on whatever I could find, slammed a banana and some grape nuun. Called my mom, asked her to head over to the park and pick up our packets. I got to my mom’s with enough time to get in a 20 minute warm-up, hit up the restrooms a few times and then find my mom to pin my bib on and breathe for a few minutes before the gun went off.
So, if you haven’t noticed, I’m a tiny bit type-A. Especially when it comes to my running. I was annoyed at myself for oversleeping but this was just a fun run 5K and it wasn’t like I missed the race or anything, and if I did, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.
I wanted to get in a good workout so I was just going to try to run hard and this was a race held on bike path, one that I run on weekly so I was familiar with the terrain. There were a few ninety-degree turns shortly after the gun went off and then at the turn around at the second mile marker I seriously had to almost stop completely it was so tight, apparently turning on a dime isn’t my specialty. Those were my only complaints of the race.
I managed to catch the 2nd place female shortly after mile 1, she wasn’t going to let me pass her easily, she tried to hang with me for about 20 seconds and then she backed off the pace. From that point on I was by myself and had no chance of catching any of the other runners in front of me. I just dug deep and tried to hang on until I crossed the finish.
I managed to break the 20:00 mark by the skin of my teeth in 19:57, good enough for 2nd place female!
After the race I threw on some warm clothes and jogged back out on the course for my cool-down and found my mom and walked with her for the final 1.5 mile or so. Breaking 20:00 was sweet, of course, especially since I had been chasing that time for all my years of running and only was able to do it the first time last year. But that wasn’t the best part of the race, getting to finish with my mom and help her accomplish her goals was what I’ll remember from this race. Her gun time was 53:19, (there were no timing chips), but her watch read sub 53:00. She is such a little walking rock star!
Also a new tweep finished strong and PR-ed in the distance that she dislikes the most! Go Meredith!
All and all a good morning at the races! And it turns out that even when things don’t go like you initially plan, you can still end up with some pretty great results.
Sorry, no photos from the race, I’m such a shit blogger sometimes.
Nice job on placing!! You’re my hero!
I’d say any day you are breaking 20 is clutch!
Congrats on killing the race!!
Woot!