St. Patty's Day 5K

My parents came down for the St. Patrick's Day 5k this weekend.  My dad to run it and my mom to hang out with Carter and cheer for everybody.  Jeremy, Ty, my dad, and I all ran the 5k and I had a couple of students running the mile fun run.  I was nervous going into the run.  This week has been a tough week for me emotionally and for my body.  I had no idea how my body was going to react to running fast.  The past 3 weeks I had backed off just like I had when pregnant with Carter.  I wasn't doing any speed work and averaged around 12 miles a week, mostly only running 3 miles a day. 

In our race shirts.

We ran the Jolly Runner 5k a few weeks ago when I was still experiencing symptoms of pregnancy.  I was able to finish the race in 22:57.  At the time I was extremely nauseous and struggled a bit with my stomach during the race.  I figured without those issues going on I could run a decent amount faster.  Ideally I wanted to run under 22 minutes, but I thought that may be a bit of a lofty goal.  Depending on how quickly I can get back into shape, I'd still like to shoot for a sub-21 minute spring 5k.  My plan was to go out in 7 minutes for the first mile and gauge from there what to do. 

Carter wearing all our medals (we all medaled) after the Jolly Runner.

My first mile was 6:59.  I was struggling a little bit, but the race course isn't very friendly.  The race begins uphill and is an out and back course.  At the turn around you get to go back downhill, but the wind was in our faces on the return trip.  During the 2nd mile I kept pushing and telling myself to hold as close to 7 minutes as I could.  I saw dad after the turn around and he told me I was 7th overall female.  I went through the 2nd mile in 7:08.  When we hit the 3rd mile I was hurting, but kept pushing.  I really wanted to break 22 minutes and I knew with my 2nd mile I really needed to hold it together for the last mile.  My 3rd mile was 6:58.  That put my finishing time at 21:53, hitting my goal.

Our cheer section.

During the race I kept thinking, "It's going to be a long road back."  I was hurting and struggling.  It was a task to maintain that 7 minute pace.  After the race, I thought it over and I had just run a 22:57 in a race 2 weeks before hand.  Taking off a little over a minute in that short of a time span is nothing to sneeze at.  I know my body isn't recovered from what has been going on this week.  My time put me at 1st out of 114 runners in my age group and 6th overall female (out of 959 runners).  I was excited to see the age group awards were really cool glasses!  More races need to have an alternative to medals.

Posing with the age group award.

Jeremy finished in 18:30, good for 5th out of 111 in his age group and 13th overall male (out of 804 runners).  Dad has been recovering from heel spur surgery and hoped to run around 28 minutes in his 2nd race back after surgery.  He finished in 26:12 which put him 17th out of 47 in his age group and 247th male.  Ty finished in 28:55 and was 53rd out of 88 in his age group.

In the spirit with his green beads!

We all had a blast and enjoyed playing with Carter before and after the race.  I love the feel of the race with so many runners and the great cause it supports.  Before the 5k they have a short Special Olympics run which is so neat to see.  Carter loved watching and cheering everyone on.  They had a dairy cow there in a kid's area for kids to see.  We kept telling Carter it was a cow and cows say moo.  He started mooing and then a while later the cow mooed.  He thought it was pretty cool, but was getting hungry enough that he lost interest soon thereafter.

Carter was fast asleep when we got home!