31:06

Saturday October 27. The rain ended last night. So, the pavement was still wet in some spots. The relative humidity was low and the sky was overcast. It was chilly without a jacket but I warmed up quickly once the race started.

I reached the first mile marker in 9:45. The first mile of the course was flat and ended with a long downhill.

Mile two had a short steep hill to climb before the turnaround. I felt great on the way up and focused on not braking on the way back down.

Mile three had a long steep hill about halfway in. That hill was pretty challenging. I kept running!

The last half mile of mile three I could still feel that hill but I kept running. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

The last quarter mile of mile three was downhill. Thank you!

At mile three the two people ahead of me were 15 seconds ahead of me.

After mile three there was a quick little hill and then the finish line was around the corner.

To my surprise, I still had a little kick. So, I focused on trying to catch the two people in front of me. I finished six seconds after them.

32:48

I survived my first 5K race. What fun! I ran an even paced race and met my goal of finishing without dying. My time was 32:48.

Originally, I planned to run my first race 27 October. I did not want to wait.

29 September was a beautiful day for the race. Sunny and cool. Chilly actually. It was about 63 degrees with 54% relative humidity. Perfect weather!

The race started at 8:30. There was an aerobics class at 8:00 to help us warm up. I enjoyed the aerobics class. After the aerobics class, Lauren and I ran laps around the parking lot to keep me warm.

I started the race very slowly. I estimate I reached mile one in about 11 minutes.

During mile 2, I felt great but was not confident the feeling would last. So, I hung out at about 11 minute mile pace again.

During mile 3, I realized that I did not have far to go and I still felt great. So, I started kicking and so did the hills.

OMG, the hills were challenging. On 2 back to back hills, I passed 8 people. Some of them I had been watching for so long I never imagined I would pass them. Thank you hills!

Unfortunately, right after the 2 back to back hills there was a long slow uphill that seemed to last about a half mile. I kept running!

I was feeling the 2 back to back hills at this point. Still, I passed one more person and focused on trying to pass the person directly in front of me at that point.

She was so close but I was without kick. She finished 2 seconds ahead of me.