My First 5K Race: Complete

I did it. I set a goal, I put in the hard work, and I made it happen. My first 5K race is now in the books, and it went great.

This morning we left the house a little latter then I had wanted, but we would have been fine if I didn't turn the wrong way going to the zoo. Once we figured out it was the other way we turned around and not long after that traffic came to a stand still. I had 15 minutes 'till race time and we were sitting in traffic. We were only about 2 minutes away (driving time), but with traffic as slow as it was it would have taken about 20 minutes. 'Would' being the key word there. I say that because at 7:55am (5 minutes before it started), traffic started moving right before the turn we needed to make into the zoo. When the car in front of us made it's turn I was pressing on the gas and feeling relief that we were going to make it. That's when the police officer stepped in front of us and started moving the barricade directly in front of our car, and motioning for us to go straight instead of turn. I'm thinking to myself, I'm in the race. The race is that way, not that way! But she was just doing her job. I was pretty frustrated, but it was my fault for not getting there earlier. So, I got out of the driver's seat and walked the rest of the way there. Amanda lovingly took over driving and some how found a parking spot near by.

The walk to the starting line was probably good because it gave me time to warm up a little. I made it to the start by following some other people who were walking there, and once I arrived I was surprised to see so many people. The road was crammed with runners rearing to go. I tried to find the middle of the crowd and squeezed my way in. I heard the whistle blow (I think it was a whistle) and everyone around me started inching their way forward.

Now, I'm pretty competitive. I know I said that all I wanted to accomplish was finishing the race, but I wouldn't have been happy with that. I wanted to get a good time. I knew I could finish. Heck, I wanted to come in first (although I knew I wouldn't). So, when we started and I had to walk past the start, and continue walking after that, I wasn't all that happy. But I moved off of the road and onto the grass at first in order to run past some people. When I was finally able to run it felt pretty good. All of the sights and sounds and people made this run unlike anything I had ever done before, which also made the race go by pretty quick.

At my first mile there was a lady there yelling out times. "10:38!"
10:38?? I lost about 2 and a half minutes in my first mile. Oh well. At the second mile marker I was at about 18 minutes and something. I was very glad when during mile 2 my breathing was still slow. The wind was blowing pretty good, and it was sort of cold. I probably should have worn my long sleeve shirt, but it didn't take me long to warm up. There was quite a few hills at the zoo. I knew there would be, but I've never been able to train on hills. It wasn't too bad though. Once the hills went down I didn't hit the breaks 'cause I figured that would just use more energy. Instead I let 'em carry me down as fast as they could. The real bad part about running at the zoo was the smell. Especially when I went by the rhinos (which, strangely enough, happened to be the only animals I saw).

Amanda was able to be there, thankfully, moving down the race path three different times in order to cheer me on. That made the race ten times better, knowing that I had her support.

Before I knew it the finish line was approaching. I tried to run harder, but it didn't make that much difference. If I would have realized how close it was I would have finished somewhat stronger, but I'm happy with it.

I ended up finishing at 25:34.83. That's a pace of 8:14 per mile. The list that is up now at rivercityraces.com shows the first 1,000 finishers (I think they are going to update the rest soon) and I came in 237th place. That's at least the top 23%, so I'm proud of it for my first race. Next time I think I'll arrive earlier and line up closer to the front. The overall winner ran it in 15:54! Amazing.

I would like to keep running, and keep improving, so I'll probably have to schedule another race to keep me motivated. Maybe I can persuade Amanda to start running with me. I'll let you know how that goes.