A Very Fun 5K

I guess you could say that I have been a little schizophrenic with my race distances lately. This past Wednesday Wes and I ran a 5k downtown. Obviously I wasn't taking it very seriously since I haven't really trained since before the half marathon. Just a few runs here and there but I was really looking forward to doing a 5k for the fun of it.

This one was called the iFive:K and it was in the evening. That was one reason I really wanted to do it. I am not a morning person and anytime I get the chance to enter a race that starts later in the day I jump at it. Plus it was through downtown Charleston which always makes for a pretty course. Wes and I decided to run separately this time. He is always sweet about staying with me but he is a good 2-3 minutes faster than I am so I wanted him to be able to run his own race.

The race was smallish, around 500 people, so that was a nice change after my last two races. We took off with little fanfare and I easily started passing people. I was trying to keep a steady pace that was challenging but not crazy. I wasn't wearing my Garmin so I had no idea what my pace was and I didn't see any mile markers on the out and back course - there was a water station at what I presumed to be mile one and then of course the turn around halfway through so I used those to gauge my pace. I started seeing the leaders come back - man those guys are fast! Pretty soon I saw Wes and waved and then to my surprise I saw the turn around. I was not too far behind him! Then I noticed that most of the people around me were guys and that I hadn't seen that many girls in front of me. I made the turn and was surprised to see many girls behind me. I started to think I was running faster than I usually did and became very motivated to keep up my pace. I stayed with the small group of guys for most of the race. There was a part where I slowed a little and they started to pull away, but I reeled them back in and even passed a couple at the end.

I haven't seen the official results yet, but as I was crossing the finish line a quick glance at the clock told me I had run 25 minutes 10 seconds. That is 1 minute and 40 seconds faster than I have ever run a 5k before! I was very surprised because I am certainly not in 5k PR shape right now but somehow I managed to do it anyway. I was also really excited because I finished the race feeling absolutely spent. My legs were extremely sore in the last half mile - my quads in particular were screaming - so I knew that I was working really hard. I met Wes at the finish line - he finished in 23 minutes! - and we headed over to the post race celebration where we ate pizza and drank beer overlooking the harbor.

I had such a good time at this race and will definitely do it again next year!