I was supposed to run the 10K but my knee was really acting up earlier in the week so I decided to just run the 5K. I was really disapointed not to be able to run the 10K with my mom but I'm SO glad that I was able to run the 5K because I had a blast.
Mom and I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning with belly's filled with butter flies. We were bundles of nerves and excitement! Before we left wanted to take some picture of us when we were not all gross and sweaty. We were being silly, here are our mug shots!
Yeah were super nerds. Here is a nice one:
The 10K started at 8:30AM on Saturday morning so of course I went to cheer on my mom. She did so well. I was so proud of her. She finished in about 1:01 and was 7th in her age division! Here she is a runnin':
The 5K started at 10:30AM. It was SO HOT. I thought I was going to die. It had to be about 27 or 28*C out. My legs were pretty wobbly at the beginning (I think from the nerves) but I was SO PUMPED! I think I went a little too fast for the first mile because by the second I was pretty drained. I didn't really train for the 5K so I wasn't exactly sure how fast I should go or even what a good 5K time was. I was aiming for under 30 minuites just because I wanted to do the 10K under an hour. Here I am crossing the finish line!
Haha don't worry, that time on the clock is for the half-marathon....not the 5K! I ran it in 25:58 and am SO HAPPY! I placed 2nd in my age division (20-29 years) and 4th in the women's overall (out of 209 women!) and 27th out of all 381 runners!
Not too shabby for my first ever race!
I'm so inspired now that I have made a huge training schedule for myself and can't wait to start training for next year! I wan't to get fast! Haha. Especially since the thrid place finisher was only 5 SECONDS faster than I was! hopefully with some good training I can improve on my time.
Speaking of inspiring, there was a group of local firemen who ran the 5K race to raise money for a young girl with cancer. These firemen ran it in FULL GEAR, complete with helmet and air tank! The only thing they switched was their boots for running shoes. So amazing and inspiring to see. I can't believe they didn't pass out from the heat. Here is a picture of two fire fighters crossing the finish line:
All in all, it was such a great experience and I can't wait to do it again! The sooner the better :)