Race Report–My First REAL Race!!

Today was the first 5k I had entered after becoming an official runner.  I actually signed up for this race with the intent to walk it, but that all changed when I started running in mid-April.  Suddenly, I had to make a decision…what would I do at this Mother’s Day race? Would I walk it? Would I try to run part of it? Would I try to run all of it?  I had originally planned to run my first race in July, so I was only a few weeks into my Hal Higdon 5k training program when it came time to do this race. I had gotten up to two miles (starting from 1 mile in 1/4 mile increments each week), and was scheduled to do a 2.25 miler yesterday.  I skipped that to rest up for today’s race (though I did add in an extra 1-mile run on Friday).

I woke up this morning at 6am and I determined, as I was drinking my coffee, that I would try to run the whole thing.  I decided that, unless there was a lot of pain, there was no reason I couldn’t do it.  My goal was to go at a very slow pace, and I figured if I could manage that, I could run the whole thing.

My whole family came with me this morning to the race (husband and two sons).  My family is not much for doing anything early (especially my husband, who works nights), but I figured, since it was Mother’s Day, I could play that card. It worked. 😉 We got there about 8am, and since it was a small race, it was no big deal to pick up my packet (no lines, yay!), and I had time for some pre-race photos with all my boys.

Last night, my husband had given me a surprise early Mother’s Day present–new Under Armour pants and long-sleeve shirt–compression stuff, even!  Unfortunately, that compression gear is designed to be pretty tight-fitting, and the Small sizes did not fit me.  (I love him for thinking they would, though!)  So I just wore the t-shirt from my last race with my new “running” pants (which I think are actually yoga pants, but whatever), but when I got the cool “tech” shirt in my goodie bag, I just had to put it on. 🙂

The race was at a boat club, and that made for some really neat pictures.

The little captain dude just cracked me up. 😉

My friend Renee was the person who had originally convinced me to sign up for this race, which both she and her husband were running.  They came and brought all their boys (three of them), so my boys had some playmates while I ran.  My dear sweet husband was in charge of 5 boys while the three of us raced, ha ha!

Renee has been one of my biggest supporters, and her husband Dave has been egging me on to become a runner for months.  We all had dinner together back at the end of March, right after I walked that 5k, and when we talked about my walking/exercise program, he waved his hand in the air and said with authority, “Oh, you’ll become a runner before summer.  You just watch.”   I very specifically remember saying, “Never gonna happen.”  LOL, I’m surprised he hasn’t asked me for a formal apology yet. 😉

I did my pre-race stretches, got my iPod ready, and then waited in the line of people. It was a much shorter line than last time, and I decided to go more in the middle of the pack this time, since I found myself so frustrated being at the back of the last one.  When we got started, I couldn’t help but notice that all the runners very quickly pulled away from me.  I tried to tell myself that this was no big deal, but the truth is, I am a competitive person by nature, and I don’t like to be last at anything. (Oh, the stories I could tell…)  I just kept telling myself that all I wanted to do was finish. It was a hard sell, though. :p

I wished I had a camera (and the time to stop and shoot pictures) during the run.  It was right on the lake, and the houses and views were just so beautiful! After about a half a mile, when I felt like I was going pretty slow (or maybe it just seemed that way because all the runners were ahead of me!), I looked at my Garmin to see what my pace was.  My goal was to keep it a little above an 11-minute mile, like 11:20, since that was on the high side of most of my runs.  When I saw that I was doing a sub-11-minute mile, I panicked a bit.  Here I was, going faster than I intended, but I was still so far behind everyone! I had to really, really talk myself into running slower, but I did, because I knew in the long run, I would be better off.

Somewhere around the 1 mile mark, I ended up running alongside a woman in a blue shirt.   We were asbolutely side by side for at least 3/4 of a mile, and to be honest, it was driving me a bit crazy! I’m an extrovert, and my natural inclination when I’m next to someone is to talk to them…no matter where I am! But I didn’t want to waste my breath on idle chit chat during the race–I knew I was going to need every last one to finish, lol!  Luckily, she had her headphones in, too, so I could get away with not talking to her, but it felt really weird.  I kept wishing she would slow down, or that I could find the energy to speed up.  Finally, I had a head-slap moment where I realized that I could slow down!  At that point, my competitive nature was at war with my extroverted nature, but in the end, I slowed down and felt better when she pulled away from me.  Sometimes, even extroverts just like to be alone! 😉

When I hit the two mile mark, I started to feel tired. Not sure if that was physical or mental (since I had never run more than two miles before), but it was getting tougher.  Still, that extroverted girl in me refused to pass by any of the volunteers who were directing us without waving and saying hi. It took up some of my much-needed energy, but I felt compelled…I mean, these folks had given up part of their Sunday morning to help make sure I didn’t end up in Lake Erie by mistake–the least I could do is wave and be pleasant!

When I got to about the 2.6 mile mark, I decided to speed up a little faster.  At this point, I was starting to see that some of the runners who had pulled away from me earlier were starting to slow down and/or walk.  I certainly didn’t wish them any ill, but I can’t deny that it was a really good feeling to know that there were some people I was passing and was therefore going to finish ahead of. 🙂  I even passed the lady in the blue shirt around the 2.8 mile mark.

When I got to the 2.9 mile mark, I was rounding what I thought for sure was the last corner. I just knew that the finish line was just around the bend.  But when I got there…oh no! There was one more left turn to make and another short straight-away, and then I’d be rounding the last curve.  Dude. When I saw that road stretching before me, even though it was only 2/10ths of a mile, I was just about done in.  I was so ready to be finished at that point.

And then, to my astonishment, I saw Renee’s husband Dave, standing at the corner where I had to make the left turn, and he was cheering me on!  I yanked my earbuds out just in time to hear him shouting encouragement to me.  “You’re almost there, Steph!” he yelled.  “It’s not much farther!  Come on, you can sprint from here!”  At that point, despite how I was feeling, I laughed out loud.  Dave is a very funny guy, and he is the only person I know who would have the guts to tell me to sprint the last leg of a race when I’m already clearly exhausted. 😉  His words put a huge smile on my face, and while I did not sprint, I did manage to pick up my pace a teeny bit and I was smiling when I crossed the finish line.

At the end, I had to give a tag off my bib number to the volunteer who was collecting them, and that volunteer was none other than my friend Jessica.  She took my tag and then wrapped me in the biggest hug and didn’t let go!  She said, “Steph, I think I’m going to cry!” and I joked, “Me, too, because I just ran 3.1 miles!”  😉  It was such a great feeling to be met at the finish line by someone who really cared and knew how far I’d come. I really did want to cry, and not just because I was exhausted…I really felt wrapped in love, and I’m so very glad Jessica was there to meet me at the finish line with a big bear hug.

After seeing Jessica and my husband, I found Renee and her friend Andrea.  Turns out those two had finished as the first and second top female runners for the whole race! I of course asked if I could have my picture taken with the two elite runners. 😉

While I can’t imagine ever making it to their level, it was fun to experience the race with them and especially to have them cheer me on (you can see Andrea in the yellow cheering me across the finish line in the picture above).  We got a post-race picture of the four of us (taken on a moment’s notice with my DSLR by someone’s teen-aged daughter, so I really can’t complain that she cut off part of Jessica, lol!).

After the race, my boys and I enjoyed a pancake and sausage breakfast.  I briefly debated on whether I should waste points on breakfast (I’m not a huge pancake fan), but I decided I’d earned it with my run (turned out to be 5 activity points!), and they actually were quite good. I think they were wheat pancakes with cinnamon–very tasty! I had a small piece of sausage, too, but I’m not sure that was such a good idea. For the rest of the day, my stomach hurt, and even now, it still feels off.  It was such a small piece of sausage though, I find it hard to believe it could make me feel poorly for this long.  Could it be that all the running is messing with my digestive system? I don’t know, I’ve never run that much before!

While we were in line for breakfast, I was addressed by a woman behind me, and it turned out to be the woman in the blue shirt!  We talked for a while about how we had kept pace for so long, and then she commented that she’d seen me pass her at the end, but she was just too tired by that point.  It made me realize that my decision to go slow but steady probably was the right one!

So that was my first 5k as a runner.  It was fun, and I am so glad I did it.  Now onto the next one, right? 😀

Thanks for reading!