I had a sore throat all night and didn’t sleep.  Woke up with a cold.  I debated all day whether or not I should do this race.  I felt crappy all day but decided to give it a whirl.

It was pretty chilly.  I wore my pants & jacket til the start of the race. As they said, it was a flat course.  There were about 500 runners and all the fast ones were there.

I met a new friend, a woman in her fifties new to running.  This was her 2nd 5k. Her name is Sue. I met someone I know from tennis who was running in her lst race. It made me feel like a veteran runner.

I was determined to do my best, despite a runny nose and difficulty breathing.  I really struggled the last mile and was shocked to see that I was under 30 minutes.  I finished at 29:59!!!! Amazing!

I'm the one on the right

Sue and I hung out after the race.  There was free beer and pizza for $1.  They gave out awards.  We didn’t win.  The times were really fast.

I’m glad I did it.  I’ll do this one next year!

It was a beautiful morning for a run –  I got there early since I thought the race started at 10am and it actually started at 10:30 am. It was pretty cool.  I wore a tank top but couldn’t bear to take off my jacket til right before the start.  One man was even wearing gloves.

The turn out was small so I was running by myself all of the race through the neighborhood.  I was glad I wore what I wore since I warmed up quickly.  The course was confusing.  There were times I was not sure I was going the right way and the roads weren’t closed to traffic so there were cars backing out of driveways and going down the streets.

I slowed my pace after the last race where I ran out of gas at the end.  I looked at my iPod after one mile and it was over 10 minutes – not good for a PR.  I quickened my pace and ran the whole race without walking.  It was the first race I’ve run where I didn’t feel tired.  When I came close enough to see the finish line, it said 30 minutes. I was mad!  I sprinted as fast as I could to finish under 31 minutes and fortunately I did .

After the race, I felt that I could still have run another few miles.  This was encouraging after the way I felt during the week when I run.

I still have to find a good pace.  Fast enough in the first mile but not too fast so I can finish strong.

Next race I signed up for is Sunday at the Crossings – I’m also thinking of Friday night – the Arsenal City 5k.  We’ll see how the week goes and how the weather is.