Post Stomp the Swamp 5K

I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone for all of their sweet words and kind notes about our engagement! Y'all are seriously the best. You know, I was pretty positive after I crossed the finish line of this race that this race was going to be the highlight of my weekend. Ha, so much for that, right?
 

But I did run a 5K bright and early Saturday morning, so let's talk about that for a minute.

The race was held at River Bluff "High School" {more like a college campus!} and it was one of the most well organized races that I have ever participated in. It was very clear where to park, where to go, etc. The course was well marked out and had plenty of volunteers all throughout. I think my favorite part is that because the start/finish lines were in the football stadium, they had the announcer cheering people on for the entire race.

The race started in the middle of the stadium and then we ran out and around the school's campus. There were portions on the road, some through parking lots, and some through the school's paved nature trails. I spent most of my run checking out their gorgeous, expansive campus. And, you know, cheesin' at the camera every time that I saw my mom. There's at least a dozen pictures with me grinning and giving a thumbs up.

Towards the end of the race, the course brought you back around the stadium and onto the field. We had to run down one side line, loop around the end zone, and then run back to the opposite end zone.
 

Guess who pretended like she was a running back on Clemson's football team for that last 100 yard sprint? This girl. Check it out - full. on. sprint.

It wasn't a personal best time but I was more than happy to have run 29:25 for my first race of the season. With it being a smaller race, I thought that maybe my time would be good enough to place in my age group. They were not posting the times though at the race so we had to stick around for the awards ceremony.

 

Check out what 1st place overall people got: an alligator's head!

& sure enough, my time did well enough to place in my age group. Granted, there were only two females in the 25-29 age group BUT I ran faster than the other girl so I ended up with first place. Yes!

I seriously thought that was going to be the highlight of my day. But both of these people knew better.

Sarah had been a part of the engagement scheme {her job was to get me out of the house one night last week so that Patrick could ask my dad's permission} and of course my mom knew. I'm going on and on about how awesome this 1st place finish was and they're sitting there thinking to themselves "... she has no idea that Patrick's proposing to her today!"

Race Stats

Gun Time - 29:29

Chip Time - 29:25

Overall Finish - 124 / 189

Age Group Finish - 1/ 2

Pace - 9:30/mile