My first 5K race!

I slept terrible.  Grandma came to watch the kids so Carter was in our room for the night, and I don't know if he always does this, but he woke up a lot of times,  just making noise in his bed and then falling back to sleep. At one point I saw lightning and thought, Uh Oh.  When I finally got up in the morning it was raining.  "Rain or shine", the event said, so I figured we were still on for the race.  And we continued getting ourselves ready.

before the race

And now for the details...

The good:

* My new sports bra finally came in the day before the race. Was so excited to not have to just layer up old bras as I had been doing!  New bra worked wonderfully!

* The sprinkly rain stopped just before the race started and it felt wonderfully cool out!

* While we were waiting I was talking with another young mom of a 4yo who lives right near us.  Would love to have gotten her name and contact info, so I hope we cross paths again soon!

* I could see Kevin the whole way so I knew I wasn't TOO far behind him.  That made me feel good.

* I ran almost all of the race only walking a few feet of the last hill toward the end.

* Downhills were very good.  Tried to lengthen my stride and just let the hill give me a break.

* I finished strong sprinting in the last 100meters or so.

* My time was 28min50sec, several minutes faster than what I'd been running on the treadmill! Was very pleasantly surprised!

* Carter was happily clapping and squawking at everyone as they finished!

* Both Eli and Hannah are saying they want to run the 1-mile race next year!

The not so good:

* Much of the path was on gravel on the outside of town, which means I was trying to find the less muddy part of the road to run on. And being out in the open instead of zooming past houses made the race feel slower.

* Compared to the treadmill, I felt like I was trudging along slowly.  So I was very surprised at my time!

* I was just running by myself, following a cluster of three teenage girls and a young boy something like 11 yrs old with no one close behind.  Was a pretty relaxed run though I felt tired for much of it.  Not the adrenaline rush I was expecting, but that's okay.

So it's over!  Went well, did well, and now I'm happy it's done!

after the race

As for more races?  Maybe.  But I'll stick with 5Ks for now before even thinking about moving up to anything longer!