Pony Express 5k

Now that it's been a month....
maybe I'll get around to that awesome relay from May sometime soon too....

Bight and early at the local 5k.

It was cold.
Way too cold for June.  It was 40 degrees when we got there.  So we waited in the car.
Gotta love that lack of sleep/no makeup/early in the morning look.
Ah, race face!

Thankfully it had warmed up to a balmy 47 by the time we started.

This was Taylor's first 5k, Alaina's second, and Malia's third.
I think this was actually only my third as well.  Really?  I've got to be missing something there.... But hey, what can I say?  I'm cheap and live in the middle of nowhere.  Driving 30min to get to a 5k that will take me less than 30 minutes to run and cost me about a dollar a minute isn't high on my list of priorities.  5ks are getting pricey!  So we stick to the small local 5ks that raise money for local causes.

Have you ever forgotten a race necessity?  Malia did.  Her hair elastic.  I thought it was strange that there were balloons in the swag bag, turns out that orange balloon saved the day.

Voila.
Worked fabulously.

This course was the first running event I ever did. (my first race was a sprint tri)
So I had a time to beat, 27:something.  I think it was 27:45ish?  I know it was under 28 minutes because my original goal for that first race was under 30 minutes and I know I beat that by more than 2 minutes.  This was back before I paid too much attention to time.

Anyway, I wanted to run a 25 minute 5k.
I thought I might be able to.  I really hoped I would be able to.
There was one person who I was told to keep in my sights.  I knew she was a strong runner because we were on that relay team together back in May.  I had been told she ran 23 something last time on this course, so I knew if I could keep her within view I could pull around 25.  I didn't know she was gunning to break 22 minutes this time!

I was the mean mommy and told my kids that they were on their own.
They were excited to do it by themselves (thank goodness), so I helped them figure out where to line up and got ready to go.

Things started and Kim-who I was trying to follow-took off like a shot!  It scared me a little to be honest.  My first thought was "there is NO way I will be able to keep close enough to follow her!".  I looked down at my pace and was pulling a pace under 7:30.  I panicked with the "too fast!  too fast!" thought.  I slowed down a tad afraid that I'd be walking by the end if I kept it up.  By the end of the first mile I figured what the heck!  I not only wanted to finish with a good time, but to feel like I'd left it all out there.  So I pushed it.  When mile 2 beeped I looked down and saw 15+ minutes.  Wow!  That was exciting!  Shortly after that MaryAnne (my crazy runner friend hero mentor) was near me.  She had been pacing someone else and came to hang with me for a while.  Though she was jogging along at her slow pace (really-she's fast!), she pulled me through enough to keep pushing hard.  She stayed with me till the last little bit when it was time for me to kick in and finish this thing.

Mile 1: 7:50
Mile 2: 7:29
Mile 3: 7:16
0.17: 1:11 (6:59 pace)

Yep, 0.17.  It was just a little long.  When you figure that my time was actually just a smidge over 23 minutes!  I'm thrilled to have the 23:46 there though, and every time I think I was just a few seconds away from breaking 23, I start that nasty game of "if I'd only kept pushing in mile one, if I'd only pushed a little faster at the end, if, if, if...." so I'm focusing on the fact that I beat my goal.
And ran faster than I ever have before.
I really never thought I'd see 7's up front on mile splits, even on a 5k.

Good enough for 12th overall and 6th in (a very big spread) age group.

One of my favorite shirts seems to capture my thoughts on that....

The kids did fabulously, the girls each beating their previous time.

 I really think I could have pulled Alaina and Taylor in by 30 minutes if I'd run with them.

MaryAnne was a saint and not only helped me finish but brought the kids in as well.
Coming down the final stretch before the last turn...

(That's the fabulous MaryAnne on the left)

Alaina kicked in to finish strong

Taylor pulled out a nice finish right after her

Malia was with friends again and ran their pace instead of her own.  I'm glad she's nice like that.  She did ditch them at the very end, which I wasn't expecting so I missed her finish.  She enjoyed surprising me with that entirely too much.

We had a blast and the kids are looking forward to the next one.
Taylor wears his race tee and mine.  We see it at least once a week during the day, and many times a week at night.  It's fun to see him proud of his accomplishment.  

Great morning with the big kids.  I look forward to doing this with them more often.