Red Shoe Run 5K Recap

Truth be told, this post could alternatively be titled The Race I Shouldn't Have Run but Did Anyway...
 

...I was sick for a few days during the week leading up to the race.

...the weather forecast called for foggy, humid, 60ish degree weather.
...I hadn't done much running over the last couple of weeks.
 

Three really, really good reasons to take a pass on the race. Did I do that? No. Of course not. I was itching to get back out and get into a running groove again so I stuck with the original plan of running the race.

Mile 1
9:38

The first mile started out with an easy half mile loop that brought everyone back by the start line and then out for the bigger 2.5 mile loop. That was kind of fun because you usually don't get large cheering sections on 5Ks and since ran right back by the start, we were able to race past a pretty decent sized group of spectators.

So many things happening in this picture.

1. The creepy McDonald's clown waving us on from the sideline.

2. Check out the sweet road conditions we got to run on throughout the course. That'd probably be my biggest complaint of the entire race - roads were not in the best condition to run on.
3. There's I am in the purple tank top & really bright blue shoes!
 

Mile 2
9:51

This was the toughest stretch of the race, mentally, for me. You know that feeling you get when you've got the flu? Like that cold, clammy, gross feeling? Yeah. That's what the cool, foggy, humid weather was making me feel like while running. It was awful. I spent most of this mile regretting the decision to run the 5K after all.
 

Mile 3
9:32

... but when I hit mile 3, I knew it was a straight shot back to the finish line. It was a race where you could see the finish line for probably the last 0.3 miles of the race and I had to keep reminding myself to not push it to the finish. I wasn't running this race to break any PRs - I was running it to get back into the swing of things. Didn't stop me from running a 9:10 pace for the last 0.1 miles though :)

Final Results

Watch Time - 30:01

Chip Time - 30:01

Pace - 9:40/min

Age Group - 4/23

Gender - 24/168

Overall - 72/258



4th place in my age group, again?! Well, not really. I was technically the 4th girl aged 25-29 to cross the finish line but the first girl was super speedy {like a 21 minute 5K speedy} and she got first female overall. Since you can't double dip in the awards, that bumped her out of ours and moved me up to 3rd! Should have definitely stayed for the awards ceremony, oops.

The girl who finished 1st in our age group {if you ignore the overall girls' winner} finished in 29:16, and if I hadn't been sick/had been running like I did in the Cold Winter's Day 5K, I could have ended up with a 1st place finish. Sigh.

More motivation for my next race though, right? Right!

First race of 2017: complete!

February is going to be a big month of running. I may have my eye on five different races next month {& yes, there are only 4 weekends in February} so this should be fun.