And, I felt a lot more jittery and tired early on than I ever have. I was also running faster than I ever had (for racing) and there was this killer hill midway. Yuck! But I kept going....
The big surprise came about at the "2 mi." marker when I looked at my watch and saw only 12 minutes. WOW! I am amazing - NOT! There was obviously something wrong. I'm not sure if they even had mile markers set out; but if they did, they were wrong. Then I started down the big hill and a race director told us all to go left as we went around the pond. I was feeling tired, but doing ok. I followed a few people as they started to turn left, but there was confusion in the air. Is this the correct turn? Do we go around the pond another time? How far do we go down this road?
As I went down the road, a major side sticker struck. I knew it would happen; I think I had scared myself into having one. I stopped for literally one second and squeezed my side down with a nice guttural yell. It seemed to help - sweet! :) But as I came back-up to the pond, a race director said, "Go around the pond again. No one was supposed to go down this way." Great - I had run extra!
But as I continued on, I realized I hadn't run enough. People were going all different ways around the pond, and slower people were crossing the finish line as I started my second pond lap. Oh well. I tried to beat as many people as I could around the pond and ran quite well to the finish line. Only to see my time....23:05. Again, I AM AWESOME! - NOT! We had all missed a part of the race course.
I felt annoyed because I had paid money to have this experience for the first time, and I still have no official 5K time. I felt proud because I ran further than a lot of people, and had a great kick at the end. I felt uncertain, because I know I could have finished the race, but I wonder if I could have kept up my pace.
I hope so......guess I'll have to find out sometime in the future. Guess this means I will run another 5K. Guess this means.....Nathan had this whole thing planned! :)
They had a lot of kids stuff - it was pretty cool. The race was for Mercy Ministries, and I highly recommend their organization (aside from racing)
Getting ready...super nervous!
Starting off - Lydia was cheering so loudly for me!
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