Run Like a Mother 5k

A run for mothers, and all women, on Mother's Day.  I signed David and I both up for it, only to realize on the day of the event that it is a women's only race!  Oops!  In my defense, it was tucked away on an obscure page, you'd think they'd have it all over the place to avoid confusion.  Oh well.  Now I don't typically set goals for myself in races.  I'm too afraid of failing and getting disappointed.  I know, silly.  But I've been formally working on my speed and increasing my average distance.  I am becoming more serious about my running.  So I decided to set a goal for this 5k, of 26 minutes.  If I could do it, I would set a PR (Personal Record) for myself.  Saturday night David and I went on a date.  I was leery about doing this, because I was afraid I would partake in activities that might make running the race the next morning more difficult, i.e. have a beer, stay up too late.  However, David and I don't live together right now and alone time with my husband is VERY hard to come by.  An offer was made by Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim, and we just couldn't pass it up.  I did, in fact, have a few beers and stay up way to late.  Race morning is like every other race morning, with all sorts of butterflies and excitement for me.  David, the girls, Great Grandma Cernock, Aunt Debbie, and Ed found a place by the start/finish while Barbara, who made the last minute decision to join in the fun, and I lined up at the start.  The start was a slow one, because of the amount of runners.  I held back so I could wave to Hannah as a passed and then took off.  The course started off flat and fast.  I wasn't timing myself, and I also ran without music, so I'm not sure how fast my first mile was but I'm guessing close to 8 minutes.  It felt like the first mile just flew by.  The course stayed pretty flat.  We ran through a beautiful neighborhood and every once in awhile you'd pass a family out on the street in front of their house, cheering on the runners.  There were some messages written on the street in chalk.  There were a few, small hills out the end.  I felt a little dehydrated, thanks to the evening before I'm sure, so I did grab some water at the water station and chugged as much of it as I could without coming to a stop.  Right at the 3 mile mark (a 5k is actually 3.1 miles) we hit a smallish hill with a slow, steady incline.  I just kept thinking about how I would feel to actually meet my goal.  As I finished, Hannah joined me.  I actually got a little too excited at the end, and Hannah almost crashed trying to keep up, right before the finish line.  So I grabbed her up and ran across the finish line with her in my arms.

The only picture snapped, right at the start.  That's me in the yellow shirt.  One is better than none, right!

I finished in 25:56, and am incredibly proud of myself.  That's an 8:21 pace. I finished 76 out of 813, 13th out of 127 in my age group.  My training has paid off.  It makes me think of this quote, by Oprah Winfrey of all people, "running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it exactly what you put in to it." 

In other news, remember that race I did in Carbondale last month, the Nutrition 5k?  Well I finished 2nd out of my age group!  My time was 28:41.  

Results can be found here: http://resultsarchive.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=128262