My second 5k!

This past Saturday was the big day of my 5k race. It started at 7am and I woke up focused and ready to go. I grabbed a big glass of water and a piece of bread before we headed out. When we showed up, we waited only 10 minutes before the race began. I love the euphoria of the whole event, especially at the beginning when everyone is stoked. It's my favorite part, next to crossing the finish line. :D Learning from my previous 5k, I didn't start out with a sprint and kept a steady pace.

This worked well especially as the hill I was so worried about was right in front of me. With a positive attitude, up I went. And you know what? The hill wasn't near as bad as I made it out to be. At the gym, I could only run for 3 minutes before stopping and then I needed at least a minute break before starting again. But at the race, I ran 8 minutes on the hill before I needed a quick stop. Later, after another quick break, the hardest part of the run was over and the hill was done! Woohoo!

Mile two wasn't that bad either. There was one hill I had to take a quick break on but it was pretty easy. Then the last mile was all down hill and was total cake! SIL T gave SIL V and me the best advice on running downhill. She said lean backwards, not forward like most people do, and let the momentum propel you. This also helps relieve a lot of pressure on the knees. This worked fabulous for us and I felt my body relaxing so much that I could, surprisingly, have a normal conversation while running.

We rounded the last corner and saw the finish line. I couldn't believe we were almost done because the run was so much easier than I anticipated! We kicked it in the last little bit and crossed the finish line, SIL V two seconds ahead of me (she was awesome and so was my other SIL and niece who finished three minutes ahead of us!). My husband told me later that the announcer told everyone our names as we were running in to finish and he added, "I bet they are related!" which I thought was pretty funny.

Anyway, the race was great. I'm still happy just thinking about it, lol! We finished with a time of 37 minutes which I'm thrilled with because it's 2 minutes faster than my normal workout time. There is one thing I learned from this race, not to do in my next one. Don't eat just water and a piece of bread beforehand. After I crossed the finished line, I threw up a little, and I know it was from that. But otherwise, it was perfect! :)