Race for the Cure 5k Recap

Well I did it! Raced my first 5k AND PR'd it. I'm so excited. My finish time was 35:36, but that was only because the advertised 5k was actually more along the lines of 3.7 miles instead of 3.1 miles because apparently they wanted me to die!!!

Anyhow, here's a couple pics as we waited for the race to start.

 And here I am, pumped but exhausted while enjoying a delicious (and free) smoothie from Tropical Smoothie after the race. Love me some swag!

 And here the group is enjoying some refreshing fruit and veggie popsicles to cool us off afterward.

I ran a fairly consistent pace on race day, which was awesome except that I pushed too hard for the first mile and half and then I felt like I was dying, but even then I still kept my pace well below my normal pace outside of racing. My average pace was 9:31/mile which was also a personal best. The whole day was full of personal bests. I was very excited about it. I finished 8th in my age group with females- not bad even though I was getting passed by women with strollers- haha.

The days splits were as follows:

mile 1: 8:42
mile 2: 9:49
mile 3: 9:44
last .8: 9:54

Overall I did stay pretty consistent. I hit the 5k mark at 29:23- the first time I ever hit it sub-30:00 yay! And okay, it was a bit of an easier course because it was virtually flat, but I'm taking that PR with me and you can't have it back! I also hit my mileage goal of 16 miles for the week which I was expecting to fall short on so I guess it's a good thing the course ran long even though I was cursing about it at the time.

I officially crashed once I got home and am even more addicted to running than I was before the race. Not bad for someone who's only been running for two months. I spent most of my Sunday relaxing still a little worn out from the excitement on Saturday and read some more of The Serial Killer Whisperer by Pete Early. Great book, very disturbing and true, but I can't put it down. I'm about 30% done with it. After that, I haven't decided what to read yet- it's between a Nora Roberts, A Game of Thrones, or Giovanni's Room (one of the selections of my Ultimate Insanity Books to Read Before You Die List of 1700+ books, Decision, decisions.

Now on to the next- race and book that is. Reading and Running- I definitely need them both in my life.