First Official Race- Recap!

Here is the post I’ve been waiting weeks to write.

This is probably going to be one of my longer entries, so feel free to skip if you want to.

Woke up this morning around 7:30.

All good, right?

Right.

I got in my car, drove down to my alma mater.  Crazy, because I’ve rarely been back since I graduated last year.  As I drove up, I noticed people who had numbers on running down the road.  I’m like, WTF, DON’T TELL ME I MISSED IT.

Apparently they were just practicing. Thank God.

I went in, got my chip and attached it to my shoelace, looked at the race map, and just stood around.  Everyone bailed/couldn’t go/didn’t want to, so I was there alone.  Kinda sucked, but as I said in my previous post, I can do awesome all by myself.   Got my raffle tickets in stuff, and did some more standing around.  Stretched, stood around.  It’s probably the most I’ve ever been quiet lol.  They announce that we need to make our way to the starting position.  I got there and moved up a bit to towards the beginning of the group because I didn’t want to be packed in the cluster of people.  And there were a lot of people!

I fumbled with my Nike plus to get music going and to log my work out.   Yeah, didn’t happen.  Oh well.

More announcements, and then the “runners ready” announcement.  The guy raises the air horn and presses it.  We’re off.  My first official race has begun.  There is a camera crew out there, and I make sure to run by it and wave like a jackass.  Hopefully I can find it online to post.  I began towards the head of the pack, and completely shocked by this.  WTF I say to myself, don’t get too carried away here!  I went  at a nice pace, pretty much ignoring the music in my ears and just running.  About a mile and a quarter in, I run out of steam.  I had to walk a little bit.  I felt defeated that I was walking.  A runner passing by asked if I’m all right.  I said I was, and I hope I remembered to thank her for asking.  I tell myself, that it’s fine I walked, just keep my feet moving, and start running soon.  I walked a bit more and started to run again, reminding myself that it doesn’t have to be a fast run, just run.  I kept going, and was nearing the finish line.  The home stretch was right there.  A woman behind me is struggling, screaming for help to get through it. (This finish line was at the top of this mini hill that didn’t seem so bad, but when you’re out of breath, tired, and achy, it seemed like Mt Fiji)  I looked back at her and start clapping my hands telling her that she’s one step closer to the finish, and that she can do this. She thanked me and keeps going.  As I got closer to the finish line, the people who had finished ahead of me were cheering us all on, telling us to sprint to the finish.  I had no energy left, or so I thought.  I found it, and ran.  If dmfb is reading this (and I hope you are, buddy) I engaged BEASTMODE.  I booked past 3 people and I hustled towards the end and crossing the line.

It was over.  My first race ever was over.

I turned and waited for the woman who I helped earlier to finish.  I reached up my hand and we high-fived each other and she thanked me again.  We walked back to  the gym and went our separate ways.  Waiting for us was pizza, pop (or soda as some of you call it hehe) and muffins, juice, water, apples, bananas, and all sorts of stuff.  I grabbed some of it and went to sit down, feet and legs exhausted.  Mind you, when we started the race small snow flurries started to fall, and it was about 35 degrees outside, so yeah, I was cold haha.

Everyone finished and the after party started.  They announced that the raffle drawing was going to begin, so I pulled out my tickets.   I put all my tickets in a Buffalo State blanket and umbrella, and ended up winning them haha.  I like free, and the blanket is super nice.  Awards were handed out.  I didn’t get one, obviously, but hey, whatever.  I did this for me.

Race results were posted the same day.  Here were mine:

Finished 233 out of 394 runners.

Time:  28:01

Finished 19/29 in the Male 25-29 age group.

I was also 154 out of 261 for the Male group.

I really don’t think I did that bad at all.  Especially since my right foot was hurting yesterday, but I vowed to finish the race no matter what.  And that it was my first official race, and I hadn’t really run in awhile.  I was a little ahead of my time from the other day, but not by much.  This is a FANTASTIC starting point, and now it’s my goal to at least place in a future.

Today was an awesome day.  I was awesome.  I had such a great time, I only wish that I was with someone.

Well, like I’ve said, I can do awesome all by myself.  But today, I did awesome all by myself.

There’s another 5k in East Aurora in April that I’m definitely signing up for.  I now have an official time, and I’m going to shave time off of that for sure.

If you stuck by this entire entry, kudos to you.

All to all you who offered words of encouragement, thank you so much.  I thought of you all today.

Pics coming soon!

My First 5k Recap: OC Fair Fun Run 080711

Got to sleep just after midnight after some last minute stretching and icing.

First alarm went off at 420am, then 430am, then 440am. Got up and in the bathroom at 445am. I made the mistake of taking my time getting ready because I was still trying to wake up. Out the door just after 6am, had to get gas. Protein bar and water for breakfast in the car.

Got there just after 7am. Yay for free parking. The line for bib pick up was ridiculous. Warmed up by jogging to the car to drop off goodie bags back in car and get water. Clipped Hub’s phone to my sports bra. Stretched. Took some family pics.

^Shorty is READY!^ *snapsnap*, ;p. Seriously, I couldn’t have been more excited all because of her little-big awesomeness. ♥. And, she finally got to put her dope new Pumas to good use, haha.

Anxiously waited towards the middle of the back half of the 1500ish people.

Finally got started a bit after the 8am start time. Kissed my Shortness and Hubs goodbye as we walked towards the start line. Started the music then the GPS app, EndoMondo, on Hub’s phone as I crossed the start line and took off.

I had a hard time staying in my groove. It didn’t take me long to realize running in such a large group of people in a real event with real(experienced) runners and on an unfamiliar course is toooootally different. I kept trying to pace behind some people, but they all eventually left me, haha.

FYI: Bob Marley is not good running music, not for me. I thought it would be a nice, easy tempo. Turned out to be too nice, too easy and really didn’t help me, at all. If anything, it hurt me. I should have stuck with RHCP like I have been for the past few training runs, which all went well. Maybe it’s just the superstitious side getting the better of me, but live and learn.

After the first mile, I started feeling like I could/needed to speed up, and I did. It felt good for a while, then I let my head get to me. Instead of just doing, I let my thoughts out-run me. Again, this is where better music would have helped, haha.

Eventually, at 1.7mi, I let go of the frustration that I was starting to feel and decided to take a walk break. I had hoped that I wouldn’t need to walk any but was fine if I did. Well, that walk break turned into about 1mi of walking as fast as I could.

I figured I needed to see how fast I could walk anyway, so why not. My official goal was to just finish and have some fun doing it, no official finish time goal. I was better able to focus on my “technique”, I guess, walking than when I was running. So, I walked it out. I decided I would walk until I could see the finish line.

The course traveled through the fair twice. There were fun detours and picture stops, but I wanted to go for time, so I didn’t stop. You could go down the big slide and take pics on the amphitheater stage. I wanted to go down the slide, maybe next time, haha. Also, those things would have been more fun if I was with my Hubs and Shorty, not so much by myself. I wanted to at least take pics of the course for you guys, but yeah… I was preoccupied, haha.

I didn’t really get a chance to really enjoy the course and check out my surroundings of the fair. I was too focused on the actual act of running; I couldn’t let go. Even when I was walking, I was still mostly thinking about how I was moving. I know better than that. But, really, it’s all good, and that’s what I had to keep telling myself in order to get there.

I started making my way around the last corner, saw the finish in the distance, and got back to running. It was at least a quarter mile for sure, probably more. I picked up my feet and ran it out as fast as I could. I checked the GPS real quick and I was at almost 39mins, I think. I didn’t think I would make it in 40min, so I pushed for 42:00.

Crossed the line at the race clock’s 42:52. I couldn’t get the damn phone out of the holster! Lol. Got my medal then walked to where I could see the race clock to try to figure out the time difference between the race clock and when I managed to press “stop” on the GPS and when I actually finished. My brain wasn’t fully functioning, so it took me a long time to do the math, lol. Also, I thought I was sending text messages to Hub’s FB from his phone, but I was sending it to my phone which was in the car.

I didn’t announce an official finish time goal because I didn’t want that pressure on me. It was enough that I had the thought in the back of my mind, which is obvious through my performance and the struggle I experienced. However, I was hoping to finish in 40mins or under. Even if I didn’t meet that, I still finished my first 5k; I started and I finished, I did that.

After resting for about 10mins, I went over to the finish line to wait for Hubs and Kiddie. I tried to get the camera ready so I could take a pic of them crossing the finish. I was so excited and nervous to see them finish that I didn’t realize they were coming until right before they crossed. I was so excited that I totally messed up trying to take the pic with Hubs phone and I didn’t capture them crossing! Shorty ran to the finish and crossed before Hubs! She was so, so, so excited to get her medal. I was so proud! I fumbled too much with phone and had to make Shorty pose again in front of the finish so I could finally take the pic.

Splits:

Mile 1— 12:14 (:07 slower than my fastest)

Mile 2— 12:44 (walked .3 of this mile)

Mile 3— 14:39 (walked at least .7 of this mile)

Official time— 40:37

I’m going to save this picture forever.

My race results—

Overall:907 out of 1427

Women: 494 out of 855

F 25-29: 102 out of 136

Age/Grade: 36.45%

Place: 955

Finish: 40:37

Pace: 13:05

Tag Time:40:37

Gun Time:

42:52 

Kiddie’s—

Overall: 1307 out of 1427 Women: 777 out of 855 F 01-12: 46 out of 55 Finish: 58:29 Pace: 18:50 Tag Time: 58:29 Gun Time: 1:00:44

Hub’s—

Overall: 1308 out of 1427 Men: 531 out of 572 M 30-34: 80 out of 82 Age/Grade: 22.22% Place: 1369 Finish: 58:45 Pace: 18:55 Tag Time: 58:45 Gun Time: 1:00:59

They finished in under an hour, which was their projected finish time, including a few minute detour to get the stroller out of the car after the first mile, lol. Apparently Hubs ran about a mile of the course and Shorty didn’t actually walk any of it past the first mile until she got up to run across the finish line. Haha.

Best part of my first 5k?

…other than it being my first 5k, is the fact that I walked a mile (or more) and still hit my goal finish time dead on within the 40min mark.

So, imagine if I had actually ran the whole thing, which I could have but just didn’t, my time would have been… super DUPER awesome (as opposed to simply super awesome… haha).

Maybe a proper recap tomorrow.

Thanks everybody! I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you, fitblrs! Much much MUCH love.

I was always the girl who would sit on the sidelines because she felt to big to play sports. I was the girl who could barely run a few seconds without saying, I CAN'T. But today I'm not that girl. I did my first 5k today in 48 min and 23.2 seconds. I cried like a baby crossing that finish line today, because I am no longer that girl who says I Can't, because I can, and I will do anything I put my mind too. I'm so proud of myself and who I've become.