Hey, let's run a 5K

Last Friday I went to lunch with my brother and he mentioned that his wife was running the Lochrann's Paddy Dash in Frisco...awesome! My SIL has never been a runner, so I figured I would be there to support her in her first 5K. Although I was scheduled for a 9 1/2 mile long run on Sunday (more about that in another post) Husband and I decided we'd run the race too...just for some extra weekend mileage. After all, I wasn't going to go all out...at least I didn't think so.

At the start, I made a conscious effort to start out "slow" and to ease into a nice pace. My goal was to stay around a 10-min pace for the whole time (which is still faster than normal) but something just clicked and I found myself going much faster. At the 1/2 way point I was just under 15 mins total; I was well on my way to shattering my previous PR (34:09)! In my previous races I haven't felt any sense of "competition" when I was running, I was just trying to finish without dying. This time I knew I had the legs/lungs for this "short" distance and really didn't want this random brunette with orange running shorts to beat me...I had this! At the last turn, I smoked her and let me tell you IT FELT GREAT! I probably could have gone even faster if my chest hadn't started to tighten up on me at the end...darn lingering sickness. I crossed the finish line at a whopping 28:49 and was physically done! So much for the 10 min pace and taking it easy :) Not bad for a last minute race entry!!

Final stats:
Chip Time: 28:49.0
Pace: 9:18/M
3rd in Age Group
123/238 Overall

On an other note: Husband had a PR too!! He got in at just under 24 minutes...way too fast for me!

(I'm hoping to get the pictures from my SIL soon)