A Local 5K race recap!

Many of my friends sign up for every 5K they see.  I just can't do it.  Those $20 add up!  On top of that, I'm just not excited to have to "sprint" anything.  Yes, a 5K to me is a sprint.  I'd much rather run a 1/2 marathon.  Even as I think about triathlons, I have much less anxiety thinking about a half ironman than I do for an olympic distance.  It's much easier to enjoy the day if I can pace myself.  I don't like pushing it so much that I can't control my breath.

With that all said, I finally sucked it up and signed up for the Tomahawk Trot 5K which benefits a local school track.  My reason?  Up until this race, my 5K PR came from the END of a triathlon.  How sad is that?  The fastest I've ever run a 5K was when I had already swam 750M and biked 23K?  I knew I could run a 5K faster, but without the race situation, I just couldn't duplicate it!  I tried on my training run, I tried on the treadmill.  I just couldn't keep that pace up.  I finally decided that I needed to sign up for a race and just do it.

My girls wanted to run the kids race, so I signed them up.

Pre-race muscle pose

Start of the kids race!

They ran their hearts out.  I tried to take pictures, but they were going too fast and the pictures turned out blurry.  

Neither of the girls stopped to walk and Tayanna ended up coming in 2nd!  She got a nice medal.  She was soooooo proud.  (And mommy might have been a little lot proud too!)

Middle kid- pink shirt.

Because I knew that my younger daughter probably wouldn't place, I brought medals for them both.  Here they are with the medal I gave them and my older daughter is holding the medal she won.

Then it was time for my race.  

I started in the middle of the pack and when I passed mile 1,  I was running an 8:47 pace.  I knew that was extremely fast for me, but I wanted to finish in under 30 minutes.  My PR was 30:20 (at the end of a tri!)  I also knew that I would slowly slow down and though I was concerned about starting too fast, I kept telling myself that I only had 2 more miles to run.  When I passed mile 2, I was at 18 minutes- perfect for my PR of under 30.  By the time I made it off the trail (a paved trail) on to the track I was trying to sprint to the end, but I started feeling really cold and sick.  I was worried I'd pass out or puke.  At one point I started to gag and managed to stop myself so that I could finish.  

I finished in 28:51!  Finally- I have a new (non-tri) PR for the 5K!  I love this picture taken by my hubby because I finally feel like I look like I have lost weight.  This is the only running picture I have ever liked of myself! 

This picture was taken before the race at our house and I also like this picture because I look much thinner here too!  (and my girls are just so cute!)  Ignore my wimpy muscle pose!!!!!

I celebrated by buying new shoes.  I HATE that I can never get cute shoes.  Because I need extreme stability shoes with WIDE toe boxes, I end up with boring shoes.  I added the PINK laces from #SWEATPINK because I'm an Sweat Pink Ambassador.  Thankfully the pink laces help to make my shoes a little cuter!!!

I also wanted to add this picture of my baby boy because he's so darn cute and I didn't want to leave him out!

Happy Sunday!