A Friday evening race. Not an ideal time.  Especially if you work all day. How and when do you fuel? And in the summer, that’s the hottest part of the day!

But I signed up. So no whining here.

I have raced in this park several times, the most recent being in May.

I wasn’t sure if the course was the same as the Mother’s Day 5k but from what I remember, it seemed very similar.

Here it is:

From the start near the Cafe, the outer loop of the Outer loop of the course proceeds out Ashmore and Fehr Aves, turning left at Central Parkway, and re-entering the park at the Rose Garden, climbing Monument Hill, and turning left at the N Elm St. before turning left again at Nora Ave. It then follows Central Park Rd., Snowden Dr. around the south side of the Park before turning right on Duck Pond Drive, and left on Iroquois Way, and turning right across gravel and Band Shell. The inner loop and final mile of the course begins at the Pavilion, as the course loops left back on to PTL Arthur Chaires Ln., Central Parkway and Iroquois Way, an right on to the foot path for the final leg around Iroquois Lake to the Finish.

So my goal for the race was to beat my 2015 Mother’s Day 5k time of 30:16 (That race, I stopped to tie my shoe, fix my band-aids and walked 2x.) or if I was lucky beat my 2013 time of 29:38.

I left work early so I could go home, eat and change into my running clothes.

If you doubted my commitment to running, you won’t now. Our marina was having an Appreciation Party this afternoon – free food and drinks while hanging out with all our boating friends.  I passed it up to run. (I told everyone that I had to work.)

I decided to have a late lunch of pumpkin pancakes with blueberry syrup.  (Yes, I do cook sometimes.) I left early as to avoid the traffic.

It was not a large race – about 150 runners.  I had no problem getting parking behind the start (near the tennis courts.)

This was one of the few local races where I didn’t know anyone.  Probably because it was a Friday evening and there were several 5ks taking place over the weekend.

neon yellow tech shirt

So I just hung out until the race start. It was in the low 80s at the start, not too humid but very sunny.

wearing my skirtsports skirt, of course

For this race, it wasn’t my legs that felt slow, it was my breathing that got in the way.  Probably because my legs felt ok, I ran the first mile too fast (under 9 min.)

The 2nd mile immediately had a hill which I walked to catch my breath and then I ran again until there was a 2nd hill.

More walking until the end of mile 2 when there was water stop. In addition to having a hard time breathing, the sun was setting and it was hot and blinding.

I felt a little better for mile 3 since I was trying to slow down.  But I ran out of gas again, right before the finish line and walked for a bit so that I could finish strong.

And I did!

I was determined not to have a slower time than last weekend’s 5k.

I crossed at 29:27 (gun time, not chip time).  Exactly the same time as the last one.

I actually wasn’t disappointed this time.  I felt that I did the best I could.  It was warm and I usually run better in the morning. The good news is that my feet felt fine!!

After the race, they had free beer. I’m not even a big beer drinker but it tasted great.

There was also a Good Humor truck with free ice cream.  Definitely a reason to run this race!

I’m linking this one up with Jessica at The Silvah Lining–she hosts a Race Recap linkup every Tuesday. Please head over and linkup a race recap you’ve written, new or old. And check out some of the other posts!

Happy Running! How is your running going?  Any races ?