Get Busy Livin 5k

Saturday my whole family competed in the Get Busy Livin' 5k in my hometown.  I've mentioned before how special this race is to all of us and why, read more here.  The race benefits the Get Busy Livin' Foundation which was created to honor the memory of Dylan Meier, a classmate of Jeremy's, who died during a hiking accident in 2010.  This was the 5th running of the race and we have run it every single year.  Every year I look forward to the race and put my heart into running it.  But almost every year I've had something holding me back from running a fast time.  The first year I had been running with Ty to help him get into running and my training was 2 miles here and there at 12 minute pace, so I wasn't in shape to run what I would consider a good time for me.  The 2nd year I was pregnant with Carter and didn't know it yet.  The 3rd year I was 4 months postpartum and still working to get back to my old running shape.  Last year came around and I finally had solid training behind me and no physical limitations, finishing as the top overall female and setting a postpartum PR of 20:59. 

Everybody with our race shirts.

This year when my mom started talking about signing up for the race I knew we had to do it, I couldn't miss this race.  Depending on when Elise was born I knew she could be anywhere from a week old to a month old.  Her timing was wonderful and I stepped up to the starting line just shy of a month postpartum.  Getting back into running after delivery has been much easier this time, but that is a post to come later.  My hopes were that by race day I would be able to run/walk the entire 5k.  Things went so smoothly that I had just built my run up to 3 miles a few days before the race.  Originally I had planned to run the race pushing Carter and Elise in the double stroller, but my mom started having foot and knee pain and offered to sit the race out with the kids.  At first I was hesitant and for some reason really wanted to run with them, but race day rolled around and there was heavy rain so I decided that would be our best bet. 

When I woke up to feed Elise around 7:30 am I saw lightning flashing through the window.  Reading back over previous race recaps it seems that this race tends to always be met with rain.  Last year the race start was postponed a couple of times before eventually getting underway 30-45 minutes late.  Thinking there may be race news I checked the event's facebook page while I nursed Elise and saw the announcement that the race had been postponed until 2 pm.  My first thought was, "Sweet, I can go back to sleep," because Ty had gotten up with Carter about 30 minutes earlier.  Then I realized that put the race smack dab in the middle of Carter's naptime.  We decided to put Carter down for his nap early in hopes that he would wake before we left at 1:30, but he was still sleeping so my mom stayed home with him and Elise and planned to come out to the race once Carter awoke.

Everyone flashing 9's, Dylan's number, at the start  Look closely and you can see Ty down the middle.

Going into the race I knew I could definitely run the entire way.  All of my runs since Elise's birth had been with the double stroller.  I knew my pace ranged anywhere from 9:30-10:30 pace with the Duallie.  I figured without the stroller I may be able to run around 9 minute per mile pace which would put my finishing time just under 30 minutes.  I was sad to part ways with Jeremy, Thomas, dad, and Ty to head toward the back of the start.  They had all run the Aquarium Run 5k the week before while my mom and I were in the one mile fun run.  The fun run started during the 5k so we didn't get to see them finish the 5k.  I was really disappointed because Ty ran a huge PR during the race.  Going from a 25:31 as his fastest time to a 24:48!  I was convinced he would improve his PR by even more at this race so I was sad I would again miss seeing him finish.  He's never finished before me in a race so I've always been lucky enough to watch him finish and cheer him on which I love!

Me crossing the start line.  Of course my Garmin went into sleep mode as the gun went off, that's why I'm messing with it.

We took off at the race start and I felt amazing.  On my runs typically my pelvis feels a little bit achy at the start but slowly gets better as I run until completely going away toward the end of my run.  I felt absolutely no achiness during the race.  At one point I looked down at my Garmin and saw I was running 7:20 pace but figured it was struggling with satellite connection or something due to the weather.  I looked down again later and saw I was still running around 7:30 pace and the distance I had run was accurate with where I should be on the course so I figured I was just feeling really good.  I didn't worry that I had gone out too fast because I felt so comfortable.  My plan had been to just run what felt comfortable and not push too much.  I could see Thomas quite a ways ahead of me and Ty a bit back from him.  I went through my first mile in 7:36 and Ty was far enough ahead of me it was difficult to see him.  I knew his PR race the week before was just under 8 minute pace so I was worried.  He was either going to run a huge PR or hit a wall during the last mile.

During the 2nd mile the race had thinned out quite a bit and I wasn't passing as many people, although I was still doing all the passing and not getting passed by anyone else, so naturally I slowed down a bit.  I saw a few girls in front of me and decided to try to slowly close the gap between us.  My 2nd mile was 8:11 and I went into the last mile ahead of both girls I had been trying to catch.  I was feeling really good so I decided to pick up the pace for the last mile and attempt to run it closer to 8:00.  Going into the last half mile there was a group of 4 runners about 15-20 seconds ahead of me.  I knew that was a large enough gap I probably couldn't catch them, but I made it my goal to close the gap.  By the time my watch beeped for mile 3 I had passed all the runners in the group, one ended up being 4th place in my age group, with a 3rd mile split of 7:41.  As I crossed the finish line I saw 24:33 on the finishing clock.  I had started a ways back so my official time was 24:27 which was an average pace of 7:46.  That put me 3rd out of 30 in my age group and 49th out of 233 finishers.

Heading toward the finish.

During that last section of the race I could see Ty and knew he was a considerable distance ahead of me which meant he had run another PR!  I was so excited to find him to see what his time had been.  It was nice walking away from the finish feeling like I'd worked hard, but not being too tired.  I saw Ty, Jeremy, and Thomas standing together and found out Ty had finished in 24:12!  He improved his time by 36 seconds in just one week!  I think a huge part of that was the confidence knowing he could run that fast.  I am so proud of him and how far he has come with his running.  My dad asked us if we would have believed Ty would be running a low 24 minute 5k back when he first started running.  I told my dad I absolutely would not have.  When I first started running with him it took us weeks to work up to a full mile without walking and even then we ran it in 12 minute pace.  I would have been hard pressed to believe he would some day be running 3.1 miles at an average mile pace of 7:40.  

Ty finishing in record time!!!

Jeremy finished 3rd overall with a time of 19:15.  Thomas came across the finish line next as the 24th finisher in 22:38 and 9th out of 33 in his age group.  Dad was the 28th finisher with a time of 23:00 winning his age group by nearly 2 minutes!  Ty was the 44th finisher and 14/33 in his age group.  That put all of us in the top quarter of the race.  I figured I hadn't placed in my age group and was surprised to find out I was 3rd.  That means every year we've run the race Jeremy and I have both placed either as a top overall male or female finisher or top in our age group.  The announcer during the awards ceremony was one of Jeremy's classmates and referred to us as the "Hurford Dynasty".  It was cute.  As always we really enjoyed the race and had a blast seeing all of our high school classmates.  The race brings in a lot of alumni from our high school each year, especially from Jeremy's class since they graduated with Dylan.  I'm already looking forward to this race next year and having another race similar to last year where I have no physical limitations (pregnancy or postpartum) to hold me back from running a strong race!

Hanging out with Elise after the race.

Dad getting his award with Ty taking a picture in the background.