The Life of a Running Momma: Get Busy Livin 5k and a PR!

This spring season I've become a little bit obsessed with breaking 21 minutes in the 5k. I ran a 21:05 back in November and then followed that with a 21:20 on New Year's after some time off after my half-marathons. I knew that I had the ability to run under 21 minutes, I just needed to focus on speed and the 5k rather than distance and the half-marathon. After we had a miscarriage I turned my focus to running. Running was something I could control and it was something to take my mind off what had happened. Focusing on how fast I could run made the pain of no longer carrying a baby just a little bit easier to take. The weekend after we found out I miscarried, my body was still going through the process when I ran the St. Patty's Day 5k in a surprising 21:53. I was impressed I was able to run under 22 minutes after a month of easy running and with what my body was going through. From the moment I finished that race I was desperate to run faster, to break 21 minutes, to have something to be excited about and proud of. I had a little over a month of training before the Get Busy Livin 5k and I was dead set on running almost a minute faster.

Last weekend we ran the Autism Speaks 5k as a tune-up for this weekend. It was the perfect test to see where I was and what I was capable of doing. I knew it was going to be close when I finished that race in 21:01. It was a flat course with few turns. The Get Busy Livin 5k course makes the shape of a 9 in honor of Dylan Meier. While that is great and an extremely neat and well executed idea there are tons of turns in the race and all runners know they slow you down immensely. So I was nervous. I had to break 21 minutes. I needed it. I felt like I needed a little accomplishment to add a bit more pep back into my step.

I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of rain. I figured, no big deal, it will probably stop raining by the time the race starts. I was sure it was at the latest 7 am since Carter had just woken up, but it was 7:40. With just over an hour until race start, it was pouring rain. We all got ready and Jeremy and I decided to run to the race as our warm-up. We figured the rain would continue on through the race so we might as well go ahead and get wet. We took off and it started raining even harder. Buckets of rain were pouring down on us. Then came the hail. It was small and mostly harmless, but every once in a while one would zing you and it stung just a bit. When we arrived everyone was hovered under tents to stay dry. Jeremy and I were soaked and rain was squishing out of our shoes. As I stood pinning my race number to my shirt the race director announced the start time would be delayed for about 30 minutes because the rain was supposed to pass us. At this point I was cold, my legs felt like wet spaghetti noodles, and I had half an hour to wait until the race. Jeremy and I decided to wait a little bit and then run another short warm-up.

Waiting out the rain after it had slowed down.

Ready for the race. Our BOB rain cover is so worth it and once again kept Carter dry!

As we ran our warm-up my legs felt all wobbly and I didn't feel very strong. Jeremy and I joked that we hoped it would stay dry for the race start and then start raining to even the playing field, but it didn't. We made our way back to the starting line to see everyone lined up underneath the start sign. Dad nervously told us we better hurry over as they were getting ready to start the race. We jogged over and stood for quite a while before they shot the starting gun. As we took off my legs still felt all funky, but I was confident. I knew I could rock 6:45 pace so I focused on that. The first mile we ran through a few puddles and some mud. I was pleased to see my first mile was 6:44. My plan was to push the 2nd mile as much as I could and maintain my pace. The 2nd mile is always the hardest. Nearing the 2 mile mark I caught up to the 2nd overall female and my watch chimed showing another 6:44 mile. Soon after the 2nd mile I ran up next to the 1st female runner. She looked over, saw I was a female, and sped up. I focused on my pace and kept my "beat 21 mantra" going in my head. I pushed as hard as I could knowing every second mattered.

With about a half mile to go I pulled ahead of the 1st female and hit mile 3 in 6:40. The race finishes on the football field Dylan played on in high school and you take a sharp turn into the stadium. I tried to sling shot around the turn as quickly as I could and sprinted across the turf. As I crossed the finish line I was confident I broke 21 minutes. Each of my 3 miles was under 6:45 and I knew I ran a strong finish, but I pushed the lap button on my watch and saw 21:00 pop up as my finishing time. I was disappointed, but I also knew I didn't stop my watch right as I crossed the finish line and my watch showed the distance as 3.14 miles. I anxiously awaited the race results and was thrilled to see my official finishing time was 20:59! I don't care if it was only 1 second under 21 minutes, it was under 21 minutes and that's all I needed! It may have been a small victory, but it was my victory and it was exactly what I needed. I knew all the turns had significantly slowed me down. I would look down on a straight segment and my pace was 6:35. Then I'd turn a corner and look down to see my pace had slowed to 6:55. Even with that slowing me down I ran my fastest 5k time since meeting Ty. I'm calling it a PR and enjoying what comes with setting a personal best! Jeremy and I ran a cool down. We jogged back to mom, dad, and Carter who were walking the race. It was fun to walk with them and to watch Carter taking everything in.

Mom snapped a picture of us on our cool down.

My friend, Erin, photo bombed so mom had her get in the next picture.

We stayed for the awards ceremony. Jeremy finished 2nd overall in 19:01, just 7 seconds behind the top finisher, and I was the top female finisher (16th overall). We both received plaques and a free pair of Nike shoes. Thomas was 40th overall and 19th in his age group with a time of 23:38. Ty finished in 26:24, just 50 seconds off his PR from the Aquarium Run last year.