Today was my first race ever. My fleet feet group was participating in the Bishop’s 5k for kids sponsored by the Episcopal Church. The race has a lot of church teams and clergy runners. They give awards to the fastest clergy people and Church group that raise the most money for the charity.
The morning started off like any normal Saturday group run. I got up a little before 7 to feed little man and get myself showered and ready. I had my usual pre run breakfast of a slice of whole wheat toast smeared with almond butter on one half and strawberry preserves on the other. If I eat anything else I get stomach cramps. I’m very surprised I could eat that normally I would never eat anything because my stomach can’t handle all the churning as I run. I remember in h/s on our 3-mile runs before field hockey practice having to throw up on the side of the road if I ate (gross I know). My mother and one of her friends came to cheer me on and bought little man with them. They even had a sign!
I had to meet the team at 9 am. I got there around 8:30 because I live farther and wanted a place to park. But it turns out the race wasn’t as packed as they thought so it didn’t matter. I saw the coaches and then went to get my race number and wait for the other team members. We all chatted and warmed up before we ran. The coaches took a bunch of group photos and then we lined up for the start. We all started like two pace groups before the walkers. The gun went blew at 9:30 and we were off.
The first mile was easy peasy. The weather was wonderful sunny but with a breeze unlike the practice run when the sun was beaming and it was 85. I wanted to die then but this was a peace of cake. I ran with my iphone to use the runkeeper app so I knew my pace, the distance, and when each interval was. Since the weather was not as hot and there were going to be water stops after mile 1 and 2 I opted not to wear my amphipod profile hydration belt instead I wore the amphipod pouch which fits my phone, ID, and keys. I was hoping for the best with the pouch since I had never tested it out before but it actually worked wonderful. I didn’t notice it was there while I was running and it never budged which is good because it just clips to your waistband, which seems like it would make your shorts sag.
I ran through the first mile skipping all the walking intervals I had set up on my phone. The only time I walked was the water stops at the end of mile one because even running very slow made me spill water all over myself. The start of the second mile I still didn’t have to take any walk breaks I was really trying to push myself through the whole 3 miles with no walking (in our training we finished w/ 4:1 min intervals) I didn’t end up walking until the huge hill. I decided that this hill and I were not going to get along and there was no compromising. In my practice run of the course the hill hurt my knees and my calves burned for a whole week after. That hill is no joke it is huge. Once I got to the top of the hill I started running again.
About ¼ mile after the hill I saw the street sign for Webster Hill Boulevard. When I saw that I stepped up my game. I pushed myself like I had never pushed myself before and sprinted all the way down the street. This was the end!!!! We started on Webster Hill Boulevard so I knew it wouldn’t be too much farther until I reached the finish line. I ran as hard and fast as I could through my burning calf muscles and everything. The coaches and 3 of my other team members who had already finished were there cheering and to take pics. The time at the finish line said 36:25. Pretty good better than my practice run of the course, which was 38:30. Hopefully I will get my official time sometime this week! I can’t believe I actually ran and now I can’t wait to do my next race.
Oh and the lack of pics is due to my sister stealing the batteries out of my moms camera this morning. So I’m extremely mad there are no pics but I will def get some from the coaches when we have our end of training party next week.
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