Post Turkey Trot

Here's the skinny: if you're going to "run" a 5K that has probably 7,000 people participating and you don't plan on running... do not start at the front of the group.

There were so many people at the Turkey Trot who were just out to walk the 5K {& still, I applaud you for being active} that did not start at the back of the group. All of the runners got jumbled in with those planning to walk the entire 5K and it made for quite the mess at the beginning of the race. It took a full two and a half minutes for me to cross the starting line from the time that the race started. Seriously?

It makes me want to write a 5K Etiquette post. You know... all of the unwritten rules like slow runners on the right, pass on the left, if you slow down to a walk get out of the way, etc.

Although, I'm not going to lie, I had a lot of fun dodging and weaving between all the walkers and slow runners for about the first mile and a half. It kept my mind off of the fact that I was running, off the fact that there were some hills, and off of the fact that my toes were so cold they hurt for the first 10 or so minutes of the race.

I didn't run with my Nike app so I had no idea what my pace was or what my distance was.

There were no mile markers on the course.

I only had my watch to know how long I had been running and a sketchy recall of what the course map looked like from looking at it the night before.

I had two goals for this race & I knew that if I could meet one, I would meet the other.

1. Run the entire race without stopping to walk.

2. Finish in under 30 minutes.

My playlist was perfect and incredibly annoying at the same time. Somewhere between 16 - 19 minutes of running I was ready to stop. I wanted a break. The timing was about right because I should have been getting close to two miles at that point which had been the furthest I had run without stopping in a 5K before. One of my dig deep, keep running, don't forget about your goal type songs came on and so I kept pushing.

Then the 5K running course met up with the 8K running course and I knew that from there, it was only 1/2 mile left until the finish line. I was going to finish without stopping! I could do that last 1/2 mile!

Y'all.

Two huge 5K milestones for me.

1. I ran my first 5K race without stopping

2. I ran my first 5K in under 30 minutes

I'm signed up for another 5K this weekend on a course that I ran back in September... can't wait to see how my time improves on it!