5K Red Dress run/walk

We had thunder storms all night last night so I wasn't sure what to expect for this mornings race. This was to be my first 5K, and it was kind of last minute. I decided about a week ago I was going to run in this race.The race is to support the efforts of

the Heart Truth, for woman's heart  health and heart disease awareness. Hence the whole red dress theme. Apparently you are supposed to wear a red dress, and or something red to run the race in. I have neither, so I ended up running in a bright orange singlet. As you can see in the picture to the right, that is me with the littlest boy before the race. 

I arrived at the registration table at a little after 8:00, I for some reason always end up being way early for these things. This time I just wanted to make sure that I got a shirt since I didn't pre-register. Gotta have the shirt, that way there is proof you were there.

I was slightly more anxious about this race than I was about the 10K earlier this year. I am not sure why, but it might have been me adding extra pressure to PR this race. Which is silly because since this is the only 5K I have done it was going to be a PR for a race no matter what time I finished. The race was set to kick off at 9:00 AM, and they had us lining up for the start with basic race instructions with plenty of time for us to be off.

9:00 and the race commenced, after a weave or two to get out in space.  I was at some kind of pace; much faster than I had planned on, but it felt good so I went with it.  I had no idea how fast I was running until I hit the .5mi mark and the nice lady in my phone told me I had just run .5 mi in 3:30.  This was definitely new territory for me I had no idea if I could maintain this pace or not throughout, but I knew that I couldn't slow down either, I tried, it felt wrong.  By now the clouds were burning off and the sun was starting to shine. Somewhere around the mile mark a friend of mine's son blew by me giving me a little motivation to try and keep up with the pace.(he would go on to take 1st in his age group).

Finishing strong

By the turnaround point I was regretting my decision to leave my skull cap in the truck as the sweat was starting to get in my eyes and become bothersome. No more time to waste on that I was over half way done and need to concentrate on getting to the finish. A little past mile 2 I got passed by an older gentleman who I thought was either stalking me or using me as a pacer. Sometime between this point and mile 2.5 my shoe came untied, I thought about stopping to tie it.  With that nano second thought process over with I passed the older gentleman who passed me and heard him say "Good job" in doing so as I turned on the speed for the final couple tenths thinking that I could beat the goal I had set for myself at the onset of the race. I was too late, I always second guess what I am capable of doing, but I finished strong.

It was over, I had done it, completed another race.  I finished in 24:02 officially, 2 seconds off of what I had decided was to be an acceptable finish for me. All in all it was a good time and I am very pleased with my performance. I have another 5K coming up in a few weeks I will have to see if I can improve on my time then.