5K Report - Updated with my Chip Time

Yesterday was the big day - my first 5K race. Well, I've walked a few Race for the Cures when we lived in NC since Ingrid's company was usually a sponsor. But that was more of a "stroll along with mom and Ingrid and whatever friends we ran into" than a "try to finish as quickly as possible" event.

We headed down to the city on Friday night. We were able to check out a really cool arts festival that was going on in the beautiful downtown area. Lots of good food and good music and amazing artwork. It was a great evening! But, a short one since we knew we'd have to be up early Saturday morning.

The race information had said to allow 45 minutes to park. Since we weren't able to do an early packet pickup and that ended at 7:45 am, I figured we needed to be there no later than about 10 minutes to 7.

I set the alarm for 5:45, and when it went off, promptly set it for another 10 minutes. I drug myself out of bed and got dressed, then woke Alec up. Our hotel had a decent continental breakfast, so we had a good pre-race meal - bagels & cream cheese. Then, it was off to the zoo. I had pretty much guessed where the parking would be based on the vague instructions on the website. We ended up parked right next to the race area! I think it was officially the backup parking because a lot of people seemed to be coming to the field from the opposite direction.

We got our registrations and our chips and then we had plenty of time to kill. We watched the 10K racers start off, then wandered around a bit. The first 10K finishers got back in about 30 minutes - impressive. I saw a kid cross the mat at about 45 minutes - my goal for the 5K! We took a quick warmup jog and then I got in line for the restroom. While I was in line, the started calling the 5K runners to the start. I didn't think I'd get to the front of the line in time, so I gave up.

Alec and I started out together, but they called the faster runners to move up closer to the line so he went up there - I didn't want him to have a bad time b/c he was trying to stay with me. The starting gun went off . . . and I stood there . . . there were so many people that I didn't move for a couple of minutes. Finally, across the mat I went.

The first part of the course went through the zoo and was pretty flat. Since it was early and the zoo wasn't open yet, there weren't any animals out - all I saw were some flamingos. Part of the zoo is set up like a Texas town and there I found a bathroom so I made a quick stop. I also took the time to take off my hoodie because I was starting to get warm.

As we left the zoo and went into the neighborhood around it, the hills began. And they were some big hills. So, I did a lot of walking in the 2nd mile. I had seen the mile 1 marker but nothing after that and not having a watch I had no idea how I was doing time-wise. I actually got pretty discouraged for a few minutes. I was convinced there was no way I'd make my goal time and I was kicking myself for not trying harder.

Finally, there was a huge downhill - I had to resist the urge not to run pell-mel down it and tried to control my stride somewhat and use the momentum. Finally, we rounded a bend and I could see the finish line. I got really excited when I realized we were on a different course than the 10K and didn't have a big loop to get there.

As I approached the finish, I started to look for Alec - we had agreed that if he got done quickly enough, he would go grab the camera from the car. I spotted him and gave him a wave. About the same time, I could see the clock at the finish line. I thought it read 48-going-on-49 minutes and I felt disappointed - I was pretty sure that it hadn't taken me 4 minutes to cross the start line - I wasn't going to reach my 45 minute goal.

Then, I realized the 8 was a 3! And I got so excited I just started to sprint for the finish line. I crossed the mat at around 44:12! I headed to a volunteer to get my chip cut off and then found Alec. I was so relieved to be done and to have beat my goal (despite the hills and the walking and the pit stop) that I cried a bit. My chip time should come out around 43 minutes. We didn't stick around long enough to get the results because we had to get back to pick up River from the kennel. We haven't found them on-line yet, but hopefully they will post them sometime this week. (Update - just found the results on-line. My chip time is 43:23.1. My offical gun time was 44:13.5. I placed 1209th overall (out of 1606) and 77th in my age group. Alec's gun time was 28:20.2 and his chip time was 27:39.4. He placed 401st overall and 21st in his age group.)

Overall, it was a fun experience. I still have a long way to go before January, but I've crossed the first hurdle.

Here's a video of me crossing the finish line: