The Romp 5K

I've been meaning to write a post about my first 5K but haven't gotten around to that.

I ran my second 5K today and Dave went with me again (THANKS so much Dave).  It's so nice to have company.  At least this time I knew someone else racing, Jim, which was also nice but there was time before the race to just hang out and I'm glad Dave was there.

We didn't talk much, I was so nervous.  I ran my first 5K on April 16, a little over 6 weeks ago.  And I had done Couch to 5K leading up to that, but since then I've been slacking off way too much.  Thank goodness my friend Mandy and I ran 4 miles on Saturday- that helped me mentally.

Anyway, so I had two goals in my mind- beat my first 5K time (31:52) and try to come in under 30 minutes.

When I headed towards the race start, I realized I had to go to the bathroom but I didn't think I had enough time.  I really wish I had done that- I think I still would have made the start of the race before the gun went off... But because of that, I spent most of the race feeling like I had to pee.  LOL.

So we started, and it was in Penn Hills, which is hilly.  Well, most of Pittsburgh is pretty hilly.  This was a relatively "flat" race for Pittsburgh though.  I pushed off and started at a faster pace than usual.  And when I hit mile marker 1, I had run it in 9:10!  That is the fastest I have EVER ran a mile, so  I was pretty excited.  But also worried I was going to tank.

I hit the water stop around the halfway point and it is unseasonably hot right now, so I was sweating like crazy.  Most of the race was in the sun and it was definitely out (the sun).  (Beautiful day though!)  I tried to take the water and keep running, because once I stop it's hard to keep going.  But I couldn't get the cup to my face.  I ended up accidentally splashing myself and realized that felt really good, so I dumped the rest of it over my head (AHHHHHH) and then threw the cup out.

That slowed me down a little and when I hit mile marker 2, I was at 18:52 or 18:54, somewhere around there.  But at least I was keeping a sub 10 minute pace.  So I was still excited.

But then I did start to tank.  Towards the end, there is a somewhat decent hill, although not as big as the big one in my neighborhood that I can't run yet.  I walked up the hill.  As I walked up the hill, a girl passed me, and I would later find out that she was in my age group and finished 3rd.  DARN IT!  If I had run the hill I would have placed.  Next time...

The start and finish were at the middle school, but at the end you had to run around the school.  My friend Jim was there and had finished already, and he ran around the school with me.  I did have to walk for a minute at that point.  I was so tired.  But at the end I was able to put in a burst of speed around the corner (makes for good pictures too, haha) and I ended up with a time of 30:50.  So, I met my goal of beating my time from my first race.  But I still need to work to get under 30 minutes.

I came in 4th in my age group, out of 12, and I had a pace under 10:00.  Both very good things for me.  I can tell I'm improving.

And since Dave was there, here's a picture!  Jim is there running with me.  He won first place in his age group and his time was under 23 minutes, I think.

And I have to get some nerd in.  The difference between walking and running is that when you run both feet actually are off the ground at the same time.  Dave had good timing with this picture- it's barely there but both my feet are off the ground.  I thought that was really neat.  (And I guess it's a little hard to tell in this size.)