Firecracker 5k

The night before the Firecracker 5k we were doing fireworks and I stepped on something hot, burning my foot. It started to blister up when my friend, Erin, told me to put Neosporin on it. I was amazed that it stopped hurting and the blister went away. I was a little nervous that my foot rubbing while running would cause it to blister up again, but thankfully I had no problems with it during the race! It had rained over night and was still raining off and on that morning so they moved the race from the golf course to the road nearby. I ran from my parents' house to the race start so Ty drove to find me after realizing the race start was changed so I wouldn't miss the race. I was disappointed at first because I really enjoy the regular course which is 2 loops on the golf course but I also knew that would make it easier for mom who was running with the kids in the stroller. We walked to the starting line and then took off. Right away as I took off I accidentally got my finger caught in my bib which I had on my shorts so it wouldn't cover my shirt made by Elise and one of the safety pins flew out. They had tiny gold safety pins rather than the normal stronger ones. Later in the race another one fell out too and my bib was just hanging on by two pins on one side so it was flapping back and forth.

Ty with the kids before the race.

Everyone in our race shirts with our medals.

I felt like I got off the start pretty slowly and the first mile has been my slowest lately. There were quite a few women ahead of me but I had worked my way up to 2nd female by the half-mile mark and caught up to the girl out in front shortly thereafter. As I pulled up next to her she asked me what my PR was. I told her I am no where near PR shape but I was planning to run around 21 minutes. She said that's what she was going for too so she'd run with me. She hung with me for less than half a mile before falling off pace. I went through the first mile in 6:44. I was pleased since I'd hoped to run the race around 6:45. I found myself wondering if 6:45 pace would be sustainable because the first mile hadn't felt smooth and was a bit of a struggle. We headed out onto a paved running trail and I passed a guy in front of me so there were now only 4 guys ahead of me. I felt like I was maintaining pace but felt much more relaxed than I had the first mile. I passed the guy running ahead of me right before the turn around so there were just 3 guys ahead of me and the one closest to me had a substantial lead. I went through the second mile in 6:40 and focused on maintaining pace the best I could. It was during the last mile that I realized the 2nd mile had been slightly downhill and with the wind at my back. I had been surprised I went through the 2nd mile much faster than I expected to so that would explain it.

Going into the turn around I was running 6:40 pace. When I looked again after making the turn I was running 7:15 pace. It took me quite a while to get back down under 7:00 minute pace after that. The course went back the same way we came but turned off the trail early to head back to the finish area. I had looked at the course map and knew that but was getting tired and was really focusing on pushing the pace so I started to keep cruising along on the trail. Thankfully the volunteer on the course did a great job and stopped me and turned me in the right direction. I joked with him after the race that I would've run a 5 mile instead of a 5k had it not been for him. I was so grateful he had done such a good job! I really didn't feel like I was slowing down and was disappointed to see I was hovering around 6:50 pace. I think the slight uphill combined with running into the wind that last mile slowed it down a bit. I enjoyed seeing an old high school teammate and my high school coach out on the course during the race. My 3rd mile split was 6:50 and although I wasn't pleased with that split I also felt like I had really pushed it and hadn't given up. At that point I took off and tried to sprint to the end as fast as I could. I ran the last 0.15 miles of the race in 6:02 pace so I was pleased with that. I crossed the finish line in 21:08 which put me finishing the 3.15 course in 6:43 pace. I was pleased that I ran a little faster than my goal of 6:45 pace which was what I ran at the 4th of July race last year. I cheered for dad as he finished and then ran back to cheer on mom and Ty. I found Ty with the stroller, he and mom had traded off about half-way through the race. I took the stroller and ran back out on the course to finish with mom. When we found mom Carter started cheering for her. Then as we approached the finish line he asked to get out of the stroller and run to the finish with mom. He did a great job and was so proud. They had a finishing chute with ribbons along the side. Carter thought it was a finishing tape and ran through it, knocking the poles over. He was so embarrassed, he just started crying. I picked him up, explained what had happened to the finish line workers, and consoled him. Had he not been upset, it wouldn't have bothered me at all. I actually thought it was pretty darn cute!

You can see Carter veering toward the ribbons.



Consoling Carter after he ran through the ribbons on the side of the course.

We had to wait around quite a while for results because there had been some mess ups. Then as they were walking over with the bottoms of the bibs hooked on a board to show places, some of the slips blew off and landed in a puddle. The kids didn't mind waiting as they ate bagels with cream cheese and played in the water. I even got Carter's boots out of the car so he could play in some puddles. I finished 4th overall and 1st female, winning my age group. Dad was 1st in his age group with a time of 24:56. Mom placed 2nd in her age group, running a 38:17 while pushing the double stroller for half the race which was very impressive. Ty also ran half the race pushing the double stroller and finished in 28:04, good for 6th place in his age group. Mom, Dad, and Ty had also run a 5k the Saturday before this one with just 2 days between races. With his time from Saturday Ty would have placed in his age group at this race. As always, running a 5k was the perfect way to start our holiday morning! We all really enjoyed ourselves and also enjoyed treating ourselves to McDonald's breakfast afterward! Read about last year's race here, 2015's race here, 2014's recap in a post here, and 2013's race here.



Carter and Elise playing with mom and my medals after the race.

Playing after the race.




Walking back to the car after the race.