5K Numero Quatro

I was SO excited going into this last weekend.  I had a 5K coming up (okay, I was ill prepared, so more nervous than excited) and SwimSis, Coach, and SwimTot were going to be out of town.  I was pumped and could only think about the things I was going to cook or clean while they were gone.

Friday night I got home from work early (thank you, random power outage that nearly trapped me on the elevator - really, the doors were still open from me getting off!)  and then went to get the 5K packets that were forever away (not really, but rush hour traffic in the 'burbs sucks!) and met up with some friends for dinner at a fancy schmancy pizza place where you could get things like quail eggs and jowl bacon on your pizza.  It was delicious!  I had some stuff to take care of that night and it kept me up past midnight :/

I woke up around 6am for the 5K so I could get some food and water beforehand - sadly there was no bread in the house for toast, so I had peanut butter on a tortilla, lol.  SwimSis and I had only ran once before this 5K, compared to last year where we ran the course several times in the weeks leading up to the race.  It was cooler this year - in the high 60's, but with 95% humidity, so I didn't drink as much water beforehand as last year. Which ended up being a good thing because I saw 0 port-a-potties!  There were 867 people in the 5K and there was no official announcement or start beforehand.  We were standing pretty far back and just noticed the crowd moving forward, so that's how we knew the race was on...a little awkward! 

My "this would be the coolest" goal going into it was to run the first 2 miles without stopping.  Well, I knew very soon into the 5K that I would have to settle for not stopping during the first mile :)  I didn't necessarily look for a mile marker along the way, but I got to a point where I knew I was past a mile and hadn't seen one.  My time at that point was 13:30, and I knew my last 5K's first mile was 12:35, so I just started walking then.  I walked twice during both the second and third miles.  I was leap frogging this woman, probably 50ish, who was a pretty fast runner, but her running stints weren't that far.  And instead of being a friendly type, my mind goes to beating her!  Geez.  So in the end, she beat me past the finish line, but I just hoped that she had started before me so my time was faster!  I didn't see her bib #, so I really have no way of knowing, but let's just pretend that I did!  I crossed the finish line and my watch said 41:26, so I was super excited to see the official time.  I logged onto the website and it said something like 42:15, which upset me!  Must have been the gun time because later in the day I logged back on and my official time was 41:24, new 5K PR.  Doesn't get old.  I was proud of myself for the race and for coming so far since last year where I marked my running in yards, not miles!

Last year was 46:39, this year was 41:24 = 5 min 15 sec difference, awesome!

Here are a few pics including the comparison from last year (yes, I wore the same thing on purpose!):

Getting ready to head to the start

After!

38ish pound difference

After that, I hoped on home, cleaned up, went into work for a little bit, and picked up a friend for lunch.  This is one of my dearest friends and she has gained some weight in the past 6 months or so, nothing  noticable, but she did one of those runs where they throw the color (not my kind of thing!) and realized how far she was from where she wanted to be.  She has started working with a trainer, but was kind of hinting that she wanted to work out together from time to time.  We are both really busy and live on opposite sides of town, but I will make it a point to try to get to sweating with her! 

After that, I went grocery shopping, and went home.  I slept for maybe an hour and a half and then had to go babysit.  But I was so out of it when I woke up!  I did not know if I had my contacts in or not.  I kept looking across the room and thinking my vision was fine and I almost walked out the door, but I went in the bathroom and looked at my eyes - nope, no contacts! ha, made me feel silly!  I babysat till 10:30 and then I came home and started on a recipe that I thought was to be chilled overnight.  Then I saw that I was wrong and it was only going to rest for an hour, no more, so I had to scrap that plan!

Sunday I went to work at the church, came home, prepped some food, went back to the church, came home and finished cooking and cleaned up and by that time it was 10pm!  Zzzzzz.....

What good food have you made lately? 

Do you cheer on the people around you or compete with them during a race?  Oh, you must be nicer than me if you said you cheer them on! :)