So I am super excited to share this with all of you!! I finally got my sub-30 race time for the 5K distance that I have been hoping for!! I ran the while thing too, and didn’t die! In fact, I felt great when I finished!
I guess this half marathon training is paying off.
Here’s my outfit and nails the day before the race. My sweet daughter did my nails for me
We left home about 7:30 Saturday morning and found a place to park and walked up to the Figge Art Museum for packet pickup and to hang out in the warm building before the race. I picked up my packet and then went to the T-shirt table to get my shirt. Then, you’ll love this, I was in such a hurry to use the bathroom, that I laid my packet on the table to get my shirt, and left it there!! I was done in the stall when I realized I didn’t have it. I high tailed it right back to the booth and he had it right there. He said he tried to catch me. I told him I was in a big hurry to pee! Haha!
We hung out in the gift shop for a while and looked at things, Ryan and I walked back to the car so I could dump my purse and gym bag back in the car. It warmed up from last year’s race, but it was still nippy out. Once they kicked everyone out of the building we went to the starting line and I got in place, standing just on the other side of the fence from the hubby & kids. I had taken my jacket off at this point, so I was COLD and ready to get running!! Oh, and I also ended up in someone’s selfie, giving a thumbs up. I wish I had a copy to show all of you. I need to have cards made for this blog! (they were taking the selfie (2 women) and I was trying to dodge out of the way so I wasn’t in it, and they saw me, and basically said, hey, come be in our photo!) So I posted on the Facebook page for the race, if they see it and send me the photo, I will be sure to share it here.
Once the gun went off I walked up with the crowd (over 3100 of us) and hit my Garmin as soon as I hit the timer mats and started running. The QC race is a nice, fast and flat route. This is the reason Pastor Arch recommended it to me for my first race last year. It runs right through town so there’s people lining the whole course, cheering and even running out and high-fiving people they know. It’s a lot of fun! I brought my gum so that I didn’t have to stop for water at the halfway point. Funny how with the half marathon training I can now go much longer without feeling like I need water. I think that helped me too.
I never even paid attention to my Garmin or what it was saying about my splits. I know it was going off to to alert me to run/walk like I do in my training runs but I had my ear buds in and I was not stopping to walk. Even when I got 2 side stitches. I just kept on going. Like Forrest Gump (not really but I can dream haha)
When I crossed the finish line I was too far over from my family and with a large group of people so my daughter didn’t get a shot of me crossing. But that’s OK. There’s lots of races this year, and she better get one of me crossing the HM finish line! She took shots of me later, when we got to the car. So at least I have those to share.
When I got done and had caught up to my kiddos, I checked my Garmin time. Mind you, I did NOT know what I had accomplished yet at this point. I just wanted a banana & water lol! I check it and it says FASTEST 5K time of 29:52!!! A sub-30 5K!!!! WOOHOOO! My last 5K time was the Remembrance run in Des Moines last fall, and that was 31:58. I was so excited I couldn’t stop talking about it. I probably drove them nuts, well, I know I did! All the way from the race to Golden Corral for lunch I just chatted away about it. I also got negative splits and my ave pace time was 9:38 when normally it’s over 11:00!
The T-shirts were nice this year as well, They always do long sleeved shirts which are very nice. Cotton, but nice. I don’t use them to train in anyway, I save my race shirts for a T-shirt quilt that a lady from church is going to make me when I get enough shirts.
It was a really great race and time with the family. I am really pumped now for the Lucky Run 10K this Saturday!! Bring it on!
Have you PR’d for a race time recently?
Did you a run a St Patrick’s Day themed race this year?
Do you do anything special with your race shirts?
