A New 5K PR

I realize it's been a while since my last post. Honestly, it's just been an unfun week. My week was packed full of work and quick runs on the treadmill. I thought about blogging, but my thoughts of work stress and short treadmill runs just seems too boring and unhappy to share. But today is a day worth sharing for sure...

I convinced a friend of mine (Holly) to sign up for a 5K in Huntsville. It was supposed to be an easy fun run that was friendly for our pups (we both have Goldens). It's called the Race for Top Dog 5K at the Botanical Gardens in Huntsville. It turns out, dogs are only welcome in the one mile fun run. Oh well, we thought it would be fun to run and take our dogs to play after. However, after several factors, including no babysitters and the weather, the pups had to stay home...

Of course, as a miracle in disguise, that ended up as a blessing as the weather turned poor. Holly and I started our 5K at 8am (the fun run didn't start until 9). But the weather turned foul 15 minutes into our race. It was already cold, but the wind picked up and the rain started falling during our run. Holly was (as always) much cuter than I as we took a quick pre-race pic...

As I had planned, when the horn blew, I set off for a new Personal Record. My last was set at the Rumpshaker in Birmingham last year at 30:47. All I wanted to do was break 30. I assumed the Botanical Gardens course would be pretty flat and conducive to a new PR. But it was still tough. I took off out of the gate not really knowing what to expect. I refused to think about my time for a while. However, as I found myself coming to the finish area, I thought: if this is just a one mile lap, I will scream! Luckily, as I passed the digital clock reading 13 minutes and some change, I realized that it was the halfway point and that I was killing my time!

I was exhausted. I wanted to slow down. I honestly thought I might see my breakfast again a couple of times. But I knew I had to keep going. "You're on pace," I kept telling myself. "Just one foot in front of the other."  "Don't let that skinny chick beat you!"  And then after I completed my second mile, I kept chanting my favorite: "Only one mile left. Everything from here on starts with a decimal. You can do it!"

And I did!! I not only beat my PR, I crushed it. According to the official time clock keepers (it wasn't chip timed), I finished my 5K in 28:43!!

Now, it was a small class of folks actually running this race. It was nothing fancy: no more than a hundred or so people in the whole run. But I'm gonna claim it! I set my own person PR. And I made the top 5 in my age group for the first time ever. I don't care about how small the competition was... I DID IT! And I'm proud!!