Year of Races

Celebrate America 10k Shirt

I wish I had more pictures of this race.  Alysia and I braved the elements and ran a 10k in Alpharetta on Memorial Day.  With the threat of rain looming, we sucked it up and headed out the door.

The course for the Celebrate America 10k was the same course as the Jog for a Cause 10k back in March.  If you recall, the course was long, coming in at 6.45 kilometers.  This prevented me from getting a P.R. that day and also caused me to whine about it a couple days later.  So, I wanted some revenge.

Overall, the race left a lot to be desired.  The shirt is pretty cheap looking – gray cotton.  No goodie bag, not even a box of rice.  This was kind of surprising because the race has a lot of participants.  I would think they would offer a technical shirt and some decent goodie bags.  We got our numbers and Alysia noticed they had incorrectly marked her down for the 5k.  We got that straightened out and we were ready to go.

I think the race directors learned a little about the course from the Jog for a Cause run because this time they started us down the street a bit.  What was strange was that they started the 10k runners further down the street than the 5k runners.  This must have been really annoying for the fast 5k guys.  They had to pass ALL the 10k folks during their race.  Not really great planning in my opinion.

We took off and not even a mile into the run the heavens opened up and it rained HARD for about 15-20 minutes.  My dri-fit shirt wasn’t very dry and, in fact, weighed about 5 lbs.  My shoes and socks were soaked.  It was crazy.  It was raining so hard that I had old sweat that had built up in my hat running into my eyes.  With my glasses fogging up and sweat going in my eyes, it’s  a wonder I didn’t run over someone.  As miserable as this all sounds, it was actually really fun.  I had never run in the rain before and it just turned out to be a great experience.  It wasn’t a thunderstorm, so I wasn’t worried about lightning or hail or anything crazy like that.  Just good old hard rain.  At least we aren’t this guy:

ouch

I ended up running really well despite having to splash through some puddles and carry around some extra water weight in my clothes.  I rounded the corner for the last stretch of road and knew I had a pretty decent time going.  I picked up the pace and passed through the chute at 46:12.  That’s a new 10k P.R. by about 6 seconds.  I don’t have the official time yet, but it should be a P.R. either way.

Alysia also ended up running a new P.R.  It leaves me to think what we could have done that morning without the rain…

There was a photographer there snapping some pics.  Here is one of Alysia and I:

New PR's! I love you. I love you too.

• OFFICIAL RESULTS – They have me at 46:17.  Not happy about that.  The race clock and my watch both said 46:12 at the finish.  Anyway, I finished 5th (out of 22) in my age group and Alysia finished 7th (out of 12) in her age group.
• Garmin stats
• Alysia’s iTouch cut out during the hard rain, but thankfully came back on after she stuck it in her pants.  That would have been an expensive 10k if we had lost her iTouch.
• Neither of us won an award.  They looked pretty nice.
• If you ran the 10k, you were out of luck for post-race refreshments.  No water or food left after the run.  Really poor.
• The course was a double loop.  With the hard rain, it was SUPER tempting to veer off and finish as a 5k.  I know Alysia said she was contemplating it.  I was too.  Neither of us did of course and I felt immediately empowered passing the 5k finish.  It’s like we were warriors.  We didn’t care about the rain.  :)

Next week is Alysia’s triathlon.  I’ll be cheering her (and Nate, Christy & Dave) on Saturday morning.  So, it will be  another Sunday run for me:  the Harris Jacobs Dream Run 4 miler.  Anyone else doing that one?

Holly Springs Memorial Day 5k

Saturday I was just 2 miles down the street from my house for the Holly Springs Memorial Day 5k.  It was shaping up to be a fun race with Nick, Christina and Nate also running.  The race got started at Holly Springs Elementary school.  It was a little windy during the race, but really the weather was pretty nice.  No rain with just a hint of chill in the air.

And they're off!

The course was a bunch of rolling hills.  Just one after another.  I started off pretty fast and, about a mile into the run, kept hearing this guy behind me yelling out pace times.  He was so loud I was wondering who this guy is with the mouth.  I’m moving at about a 6:45 pace and I hear “come on!  The guys ahead of us have nothing on us!  Especially not for my man, Tony.”  Yep.  I knew him.  It was my neighbor, Jason.  I hadn’t had a chance to run with him yet and apparently he’s a talker.  So, Jason and I ran together for about a quarter of a mile or so, but I couldn’t keep up with him and he slowly pulled away from me talking the whole way.

Me finishing

My pace really slowed over the second half of the race, but I picked it up on the downhill finish and came in with a solid 22:05.  Not a P.R., but a good 7:02 pace.  I finished about a minute or so behind Jason.  He won our age group and I claimed second.  I added another medal to my collection.

Holly Springs 5k Medal

Nate came in at 24-something.  Nick was at 27:04.  Christina at 29:33.  Good times on a tough course.  Here are a couple pics of Nick and Christina finishing up.  Thanks Trey for coming out early in the morning and getting some pictures for us.

Christina Finishing

Nick Finishing

After the race we hung around for the awards ceremony.  It turned out that Christina had won her age group!  That’s awesome.  I have 10 medals/trophies/plaques and I am still looking for that elusive 1st place award.  Congrats Christina!

After the run - Me, Christina, Nick

Christina and I with our hardware

• I’m not sure we’ll ever have official times posted.  I’ll keep my eyes open for them, but don’t hold your breath. UPDATED: results (page 37)
• The shirt is grey cotton with the Holly Springs Memorial Day 5k logo
• Here are my Garmin stats because you’re dying to study them.

Holly Springs Memorial Day 5k Shirt

One other thing.  Most races hand you a bag when you check in with various items inside.  Usually you’ll find inside the bag things like your race shirt, other race entry forms, a pen, a water bottle, coupons to local business.  Stuff like that.  Well, the Holly Springs Memorial Day 5k gets the award for most random bag item:

Rice?

It was a great race Sunday morning in Kennesaw, GA for the Full House 5k.  This was the second race in The Time is Now Series.  The premise of this race was that at each kilometer you would be handed a playing card.  At the end of the race, the people with the best poker hands won prizes.  Pretty cool, huh?  Well, they ended up not handing them out on the course and just dealt you five when you finished the run instead.  Still a novel idea and an interesting twist to the 5k.

Before the race I met up with Nate, Nick, Christina and my mom.  It was great to see everyone out running again.  It had been a few races since I last had some company.  It definitely makes the race more enjoyable.

Mom, Me, Christina

I feel like a broken record, but once again the course was pretty hilly.  I guess if I’m looking for flatter courses I should move.  Atlanta isn’t really the place for fast, flat tracks.  The worst hill came about midway through the race.  Here’s a pic of the elevation changes.

Elevation Chart

I ended up running really well.  My Garmin put me in at 20:56, which is a new 5k PR.  There was some question on whether the course was a full 3.12 miles, but Nate seems to think it was after measuring it on mapmyride.com.  I’ll trust him.

Nate, Nick, Christina and my mom all set new PRs!  Everyone’s been working really hard and it’s starting to pay off with some impressive times.  Nate and Nick finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 30-34 age group.  I finished 3rd in the 35-39 age group.  All in all, a very successful day for our little group.

Nick, me, Nate with our medals

We earned a nice little medal for our effort.  So far, I’m 2 for 2 in medals in the Time is Now races.  Hopefully I can keep the streak going in August at the Summer Harvest Gallop 5k.

3rd place medal

You may be wondering what’s up with the purple shirt I’m wearing.  Good question.  The Time is Now race series supports Cystic Fibrosis research.  One of my dear friends, Katie, is currently battling CF and she volunteered to make me a shirt for the race.  It turned out great!  Not only did I get to stand out in my purple shirt, but I also set a new PR!  By my book, that makes the shirt lucky.

The Full House 5k shirt is pretty nice….if you’re a chick.  Seriously, what’s up with the flowers?  It’s a nice technical shirt, so I’m still going to wear it.  I’m not afraid.  I just ran a 20:56 in a purple shirt for crying out loud.  What’s a few flowers gonna hurt?

Full House 5k shirt

• OFFICIAL RESULTS
• True Speed Photos was there:  Me #1, me #2, me #3, Nate, Nick #1, Nick #2, Mom.  Christina was apparently too fast for cameras to capture her.
• My poker hand sucked.  King high.  I think the best overall hand was a King high straight flush.
• Reviews of the race.  I always like reading what other people thought of the race.
• I had a great time.  I think everyone did really.  I know Nate, Christina, and Nick are all in for this Saturday’s Holly Springs Memorial Day 5k.  Anyone else running it?
• I’m kind of doubling up this weekend again.  I’m doing the Celebrate America 10k on Memorial Day.  Good way to start Memorial Day.  I can be guilt-free later on as I eat hamburgers and drink beers knowing I burned a good 600 calories.

In an effort to make up for the race that got canceled back in February, I doubled up this weekend.  Saturday I was in Alpharetta at the 14th Annual Mayor’s Challenge 10k and Sunday I was back at Boling Park in Canton for the Alvin Price 5k for Cancer Research.  Neither race went really great, but I ran solid times for me in both.

Mayor's Challenge shirt

14th Annual Mayor’s Challenge 10k

This was an early start time of 7:15 AM.  I had set my alarm for 5:15 Friday night and had gotten to bed pretty early.  Turns out I set the wrong alarm and so I woke up at 6:17 wondering why it was so light out.  After a brief second of panic, I jumped out of bed, gathered my gear, got some coffee and hit the road.  I made it over to Will’s Park in plenty of time, but my morning routine was shot.  I really hate being behind schedule.

There appeared to be a few hundred folks running the 5k & 10k, which both started at the same time.  The course was a double loop around Will’s Park and downtown Alpharetta.  The hills weren’t too bad, but the humidity was thick.  I ran the first 5 miles really well, but ended up getting passed by a ton of people at the end.  Here’s a photo of one of the people that flew by me in that last mile.

Eat my dust, sonny.

I ended up running a 47:23, which is about a minute off my PR.  I didn’t stick around for the awards.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t place.  I’ll keep an eye open though for the official results.

The shirt was advertised as a technical shirt.  It wasn’t.  100% cotton and actually pretty ugly.  I don’t really understand how you can say a race is giving away technical shirts and then not have them.  Oh well.  They did have a pancake breakfast though for all finishers.  That’s pretty cool.

My Garmin crapped out on me when trying to upload the run, so I’ve got no stats.

Alvin Price 5k Shirt

Alvin Price 5k for Cancer Research

An 8 AM start and a location 10 minutes from my house and I was loving life.  The race was held at Boling Park.  It was 2.5 flat loops around the park.  It was mostly crushed gravel path and some dirt/grass trail, so you couldn’t quite go as fast as on road, but it was a prime 5k course for a new P.R.  Unfortunately, the course was measured short at 2.89 miles.  I ran a 20:52, which would be a P.R. on a regulation 5k course, but, with the distance at 2.89, it was actually only a 7:13/mile pace.  This is 12 seconds per mile slower than my Big Peach 5k run.  Here are my Garmin stats.

yay me

I did come in second in my age group though and got a nice trophy.  The winner of my age group was in at 17-something, so no hope in catching that guy.  Here’s a picture of him.

Fast

I feel like I’ve kind of hit a plateau.  I think in order to get my times down more I’m going to need to do some more focused training — hills, intervals, tempo, fartlek, whatever.  I’m still pretty new at this running thing so I need to figure out how to do some of these types of training runs.  It’s easy to read about them, but another thing entirely to get out there and do them right.

Next week is the Full House 5k.  Should be fun.  Who’s with me?

River Green Run 5k Shirt

On Saturday I ran the River Green Run 5k in Canton, GA.  It was a blustery morning with threatening storm clouds.  For a few anxious minutes before the race I really thought we would get poured on.  Luckily, though, we escaped any rain and got in a nice run.

Let’s cut right to the chase.  I ran a 21:28.  PR right?  Wrong.  My Garmin measured the run at 2.97 miles.  The course was hilly and I knew the whole time that I wasn’t running as fast as last week’s Big Peach 5k PR effort.  So, when I rounded the corner to the uphill finish and saw the clock in the low 21’s, I was surprised and a bit skeptical.  Turns out I was right.  I’m not sure what happened.  Maybe the lead runners turned around too soon or maybe the course wasn’t marked correctly.  The website has the course mapped out and I had verified beforehand at mapmyrun.com.  Based on my Garmin stats it looks like we turned around too soon.  Oh well.  I didn’t deserve the PR anyways based on how I was running.  A full 5k distance would have left me at 22:30 or so.

With all that being said, the race was still a lot of fun.  It was a challenging, hilly course with a steep uphill finish.  The headwinds were strong which made it even tougher.  I did finish 2nd in my age group though and got a really nice little medal to show for it.

2nd place

• Ran into some friends (Freddie & Courtney).  Freddie was running his first 5k and he finished 2nd in his age group.  Very impressive.  That P90X must be working.  Courtney won her age group!   So, it was pretty cool standing around during the awards ceremonies with all three of us having medals around our necks.
• Shirt is white, cotton short-sleeve.
• Some pics of me:  Here, here, here, here, here.  The last three are at the start of the uphill finish.  I passed the dude in front of me.  Just an fyi because I know you were wondering.
• Official Results will be here
• Garmin Stats

The premier race in Atlanta this past Saturday was probably the Big Peach 5k.  I originally had plans to run the Derby Dash 5k near my home in Canton, but after a stretch of races that were slack about putting up race results, I decided to make the drive down to Atlanta and run a bigger, and probably better organized, event.  I’m certainly glad I made the trip.

Runners met in the Brookhaven MARTA station parking lot.  There was plenty of parking and plenty of room to do some warming up.  I checked in, pinned my bib on and attached my timing chip.  I was good to go so I decided to run some laps around the parking lot to warm up.  It was  a warm morning with really high humidity and an ever-present chance of rain.  I regretted wearing the long-sleeve shirt I had on, but at least it was light weight.

The race ended up having about 1600 runners.  Not everyone elected to pay the extra $5 to be timed, so they don’t all show up in the official results.  We lined up.  Here’s a good picture of the start.  I’m somewhere on the left, about 4-5 rows deep.  I lined up in a pretty good spot.  I didn’t have to dodge too many slower runners and I didn’t get trampled by 5-minute milers.  Here’s another good picture better showing the size of the race.

I had looked at the route on mapmyrun.com the day before, so I had a strategy going in. The first half was mostly downhill and the second half was mostly uphill.  I wanted to go out as fast as I could on the first mile so that I’d have built up a time buffer to use on the hills in the second and third miles.  My strategy worked pretty well.  Here were my splits:

Mile 1: 6:31

Mile 2: 7:01

Mile 3: 7:35

remainder: 6:01

As you can see, my pace definitely slowed on the hills.  I ended up setting a new 5k PR though on a fairly challenging course: 21:54.  Here are the official results.  Obviously, I didn’t win any awards. I finished 19th out of 76 in my age group.  In fact, to have taken 3rd in my age group, I would have had to run an 18:19.  I’m a long way from being able to do that.  The overall winner ran a crazy 15:06.  That’s ridiculous.  I was really excited to have gotten in under 22 minutes for the first time.  Maybe if I actually do some more focused training, I can get it down even lower.  Here’s a picture of me sucking wind as I approach the finish line.  I could see the clock and new I needed to pick up the pace to get under 22 minutes.

Big Peach 5k Shirt

• The shirt is very nice.  A Nike-branded short-sleeve technical shirt.  This was another perk of choosing a more popular 5k.
• The race results were up by Saturday afternoon.  That’s the kind of turnaround I like to see.  I know the timing chip helped in this, but it really is nice to see those results posted immediately
• Garmin Stats:

My 3rd place award

They got the results up for the Choate Construction Run the River 10k.  If you recall, Alysia and I left before the awards ceremony because we assumed neither of us had placed in our age groups.  Well, we were wrong.  I finished 3rd.  In fact, I was only seconds away from finishing 2nd.  I need to stop letting anyone who remotely looks like they’re my age pass me at the very end.

Anyway, I emailed the race director and asked if they still had my 3rd place award, and, luckily, they did.  I swung by the Homestretch offices on my way home from work and picked up a nifty little 3rd place plaque.  Very cool.

I’m running the Big Peach 5k tomorrow morning.  It’s going to be a big event, so I’ll for sure not be placing in my age group this time.  Unless, that is, I throw down a sub-19.    The first 1700 registered finishers though will be getting a Nike technical shirt, so that’ll be nice.  We’ll see how it goes.  Hopefully no rain.  The course looks to be downhill for the first half and uphill for the second half.

elevation chart

I still haven’t found any official results for the OLA Spring Stampede 5k or the Run for the Children 5k.  I’ll keep checking.

OLA Spring Stampede 5k Shirt

Well, due to some family obligations (my daughter competing in the Academic Bowl) on Saturday, I had to find a Friday evening race.  Luckily, the first annual Our Lady of the Assumption Spring Stampede 5k was right down the street from my office.  So, after work I headed over to get ready for the run.

Things didn’t go as well as I had hoped, but you can’t PR them all I guess.  I really just wasn’t feeling it Friday and ended up finishing a tough race in 24:37 — a full 2 minutes off my recent PR time.  I was trying to figure out what could have gone wrong and it wasn’t too tough.  I’m pretty good at making excuses.  So, here they are:

1. I’ve discovered recently that I just don’t have much energy in the afternoons.  After getting up early to get the kids ready for school, commuting an hour to the office, and working all day, I really am exhausted.  Basically, I didn’t have any energy before the race.
2. I hadn’t gotten the appropriate number of runs in this week.  I tried to squeak one in Thursday night.  I ended up pushing it a bit too hard and woke up quite sore on Friday.  My legs were still feeling it at race time.
3. I’m used to running in the mornings when it’s been 45° or so.  At 6:45pm in Atlanta on Friday it was 80°.  The increased temperature definitely didn’t help matters.

So, there you have it, the pieces just weren’t there to put together a great run.  Oh well.  It was a nice, well organized event.  According to the finisher card I filled out, I came in 25th overall.  Not sure of my placement in my age group.  I’ll update the post with the official results if they get posted online. (UPDATE: Official results – 7th out of 19 in my age group)

A few random items:

• The shirt is cute — white, cotton.
• The winner was the same guy who won the Run for the Children 5k.  By the way, he’s 61 years old.  Dude runs like a gazelle.  Very impressive.
• Some 11-yr old (or so) kid tried to pass me on the uphill about .3 miles from the finish.  He ended up slowing up and puking his guts out.  That’ll learn him.
• My heart rate got all the way up to 188.  Not good.  I ended up running almost half the race in Zone 5.  My body just wasn’t handling the race very well.
• The course was fairly hilly, with the worst hills coming in the loop around the church that we had to do once at the beginning and once at the end.  Really was a killer for me.
• First race since the Fallen Officer 5k where I didn’t have friends or family running with me.  Kind of missed everyone.  It’s a lot more boring running on my own.
• Garmin Stats:

Run the River 10K shirt

We were in Roswell Saturday morning running the Choate Construction Run the River 10K.  It was a beautiful morning with perfect running weather.  The course was advertised as fast and flat, so I was hoping to finally get that sub-50 monkey off my back.  My PR for the 10K was 50:09 set way back in February.  If you remember, I had a near miss at the Jog for a Cause 10K, but the course measured in at 6.45 miles and I missed my mark.  So, I really wanted to get it done Saturday.  Also, Alysia & Nate were running the 10K as well.  It’s much more fun to have some company with me.  This was Alysia’s FIRST 10K!

We got lined up for the race.  I stayed back near the middle of the pack with Alysia.  When the gun went off, I spent the first half mile or so weaving in and out of folks.  Once we got some spacing, I settled into a low 7 minute mile pace.  After last week’s hilly Operation Yellow Ribbon 5K, I had some confidence on being able to maintain that kind of pace.  I figured if I could run a hilly 5K at 7:21/mile then I could do a flat 10K at about the same.

Really the run was pretty uneventful.  I passed a bunch of folks at the beginning having started in the middle of the pack, but I did eventually end up with a group of runners that were at about my pace.  At around 2 miles we veered off onto a dirt road.  This was a bit more challenging with the loose rocks, but nothing to really slow me down.  I hit the 3 mile mark at 23-something.  I was feeling great and knew I could keep it going.  The only challenging hill came just after 3 miles.  It was short but fairly steep.  The good thing was that it marked the turnaround point for the course, so we got to then cruise back down the hill.

I was feeling really strong, so I kept up my low 7 minute mile pace and started passing some more runners the last 1.5 miles.  It was nice to finish strong.  I ended up coming in at 46:09 on my watch.  The official time will be a little off probably.  As I mentioned, I started in the middle of the pack, and they weren’t using timing chips.  Either way, I crushed my previous PR by about 4 minutes.

• Alysia did fantastic in her first 10K.  She only walked 3 times for a minute or so each time.  She crossed the line in 1:04:30.  Really good time for her first and I’m so proud of her.
• Nate also set a PR by coming in at 50:18.  Great Job!
• The shirt is a nice technical material.
• There appeared to be a decent crowd for this race.  I’d say around 400-500.
• There was an 80-yr old guy there trying to set the Georgia record in the 10K for his age.  I saw him cross the finish line as I was waiting for Alysia, but I’m not sure if he broke the record or not.  I hope so.
• Official results (Don’t have them yet).  Not sure where I finished in my age group.  Probably top 10 I’m guessing. (UPDATED:  Here are the results.  46:18.  Turns out it was a weak 35-39 group and I finished 3rd out of 32 and 38th out of 377 overall.  Guess I should have stuck around for the awards…)
• Pictures (UPDATED: Photos are at the Collages.net site.  Username is “Run the River” and password is “19065″.)

Saturday morning we were in Marietta, GA at the Operation Yellow Ribbon 5k.  The race was being put on by the Georgia chapter of the Operation Homefront organization.  They were raising money to help out the families of our brave troops stationed overseas.  It was a beautiful morning:  sunny, mid-40s.  Perfect race weather!

I had been looking forward to this race all week because I had quite a bit of company.  My wife, son, mom and sister(Missy) were all running!  It was my mom and Missy’s first 5k.  My son, Davis, was participating in the 1-mile fun run for his first race.  My dad and sister, Christina, were there to support the runners, watch the kids for us, and take some awesome pictures.  So, lots to talk about.  Let’s do it.

Pre-Race:

Alysia, Davis and I woke up early and ready to go.  The temperature was a bit on the chilly side, so Davis bundled up in mostly Under Armour gear.  I think the kid was trying to get sponsored or something.  He had on UA shoes, UA socks, 2 UA shirts and a UA beanie.  Looking sharp!  But can he run?

Davis - Under Armour - ya si me?

We met up with the family at the race.  My mom was a bit nervous.  At 59 years young, it’s never too late to run your first 5k!  We all got registered and got hold of our race numbers and shirts.  The shirt is a white, long-sleeve, cotton deal.  Nice shirt.  I especially like the long sleeves.  Not enough races give out long sleeve shirts, IMO.

Operation Yellow Ribbon 5k Shirt

1-mile fun run:

At 8:30, the 1-mile fun run was starting.  Alysia and I were going to run it with Davis since this was his first one.  Turned out there were about 10-15 kids & parents running.  Davis was probably one of the older kids at 8, so it was a light crowd.   The event director counted down.. 3, 2, 1… and we were off.  Davis shot out as if Usain Bolt was chasing him in the 100m.  I’m following right beside him thinking how tired he’s going to be in about 25 seconds.  He did pretty well though.  The first .5 mile was all downhill and he kept a pretty decent little pace and was well out in front of everyone.  At the bottom of the hill, you turn around and head UPHILL for .5 mile.  He was huffing and puffing, and ended up having to stop and walk a couple of times.  I’m right beside him yelling “Come on!  They’re catching up!  Pick it up!  You can’t let Mom catch you!”  He probably turned around 20 times to take a look.  He made it to the top of the hill and sprinted down to the finish for what I think was a blazing fast 9:20 mile.    I was really proud of him.  He won the race and declared himself to be the fastest person in our family.  Very humble child.

Alysia, Davis and I after the fun run

5k:

With the fun run behind us, Alysia, mom, Missy and I all anxiously awaited the start of the main event.  Alysia and I were sufficiently warmed up after running the mile with Davis.  We stood around chatting and took our places at the start/finish line.  I lined up in front.  It was a small crowd (around 150 runners) so I figured I’d probably be top 20.  Might as well get up front.

We took off.  I was immediately top 5 and moving pretty good.  As with the fun run the first .5 mile was all down hill.  I ended up getting passed by a guy and his dog.  This was the eventual winner.  He finished in 19 minutes WITH A DOG.  He’s a great runner and I’ve seen him at a bunch of other races.  It wasn’t a surprise when he flew by me.  At about a mile in, I settled into 3rd place.  I kept up a 7+ minute mile for most of the race and stayed in third until somewhere past halfway, where I got passed by a woman.  It’s ok though.  I’m used to it.  Besides, she was in her 20s.  I could never catch back up to her and I powered (trudged) my way up the .5 mile hill at the end to finish in …  wait for it…  22:23!  A new PR by 36 seconds.

(Christina took this picture of me crossing the finish line.  I have to be honest here.  I hate how I look in this picture.  What am I doing?  Power walking?  What’s up with my big ol’ butt?  What in the world?  Maybe if I stopped race-walking and actually ran I could break 20 minutes????…  ugghh.)

I don't like this picture.

I patted myself on the back and went to stand with my dad to wait for Alysia, mom and Missy.  Alysia came around the corner next.  She saw the clock and started sprinting to the finish.  She already had her PR (30:39) in the bag, but she wanted to finish strong.  Her pictures look great.  She’s really moving!!!

Alysia coming down to the finish line

New PR for Alysia

My mom and Missy came in a little later at 41:34 and 41:37 respectively.  I can’t express how proud I am of these two.  Their first 5k ever!  Good stuff.  I hope they come out and run some others with me in the future.

Post-race:

We all sat around cooling off.  The post-race food was good with bagels, bananas, apples, gatorade and water.  We took a group shot of all the runners:

Great day

Missy had to leave, but the rest of us stuck around for the awards.  They were doing 1st, 2nd, 3rd place awards in 10-yr increments, therefore I was in the 30-39 age group.  I finished 4th overall in the race, with one of those ahead of me being female, so I knew I had won something.  As it turns out both of the guys ahead of me were in my age group.  The overall winner got a trophy though, so I got the 2nd place medal for 30-39.  Not too shabby.  Nice reward for one of my better performances.

2nd place - front

2nd place - back

Unfortunately, none of the others won any awards.  Alysia did finish an impressive 7th in her age group.  Very nice!

Items of interest:

• Official results
• Garmin stats
• I’m so thankful for my dad and Christina being there to watch the kids for us.  It meant a lot to me.  Although, I must say, I could tell Christina was wishing she was running instead…
• There was a photographer out taking photos of everyone, so I’m sure I’ll have more pictures to post when they get them uploaded.  Possibly some cool shots of Davis in the fun run…
• They had clowns there to entertain the kids.  I found them to be extremely creepy.
• I’m really stocking up on those environment-friendly grocery bags.  We got 3 more at this race.  Sweet!
• Some 10 year old kid ran the race in like 23 minutes.  That’s pretty awesome in my book.  Maybe Davis can get to that level.  I mean he is number one in the nation and all. {sarcasm}
• The kids all made signs to support us.  It was really cute!

Wow, that sun is bright!

Next race is the Choate Construction Run the River 10k.  I think Alysia may go for her first 10k!  Stay tuned…