All American 5k

My friend Ann joined me for this race! We used to be running buddies back in undergrad, so it's been fun running together again. There was a heavy downpour right before the race start, so I didn't run with my phone and instead grabbed my iPod Shuffle. However, my Shuffle crapped out so I had to run with no music. I was not looking forward to being music-less because I was hoping I could PR if I had some tunes to take my mind off the pain.

Ann and I before the start.

I hate running with no music during races. I heard this lady say as we all took off, "I think it's funny when all these people sprint out of the start and end up walking in the end." Well, I was 'that' person, but I am trying to push myself. I can easily run a 9:15 pace and run the entire race. But I want to break a 26 minute 5k and yes, that means I have to push myself.

I ran the first mile in 7:52. By mile 1.5, I had to take a short walking break. The air was so heavy and I was having troubles breathing. I think some dude even looked back at me to see who was breathing so hard. Yup, I was struggling. I took two walking breaks during the second mile (8:47 pace) and two more walking breaks during the third mile (8:42 pace). If I WOULD STOP WALKING and just push myself, I would have come in under 26 minutes.

I finished the race in 26:14 (8:27 pace), which is 10 seconds off my PR...

And I have another horrible finish line picture to add to the collection:

Heading to the Finish!

I'm not registered for any more 5k's this year... thinking I need to find a good one to run and just push myself, not wimp out and walk.

I found a beautiful story online about Bret Dunlap, a man that was told would never walk again because of a horrific accident he faced as a child, but is now a marathoner! I fell in love with one of the quotes in the article: "You know that speed and distance are the standard measures of a runner's success, but that like a lot of standard measures, they're wholly inadequate to measure your experience. They're wholly inadequate to measure you." You can read the article here.