Winning Day

At the beginning of November, I ran a race--the Veterans Memorial 5k. It was fairly close to the beginning of my 10k training, but after I had discovered that I could run a bit faster than I thought. I recruited my friend to run the race with me, since he'd never run a 5k before.

This was my first 5k in a long time, so I was pretty excited about it. I decided that since I'd been running so strongly lately, that I would try to run it in about 28 minutes, which I had done before.

Not only did I accomplish my goal--I smashed it to smithereens by finishing in under 27 minutes--I believe a PR (personal record) for me. I knew that the last bit of the race was downhill (the first 2 miles were pretty hilly), so I budgeted my energy and ran the last mile at a good pace. I was so happy and proud with my finishing time, but since I knew that there are lots of women much faster than that--Lance told me about the winner who came in under 20--I didn't dream that I would win anything.

Well, I did. I won my age group (25-29). And not only that, but I came in 11th overall. I'm so happy with the results, and I'm also determined to keep running--and keep running faster. I'm running a 5k on Thanksgiving with my brother, so I'm setting my goal to run between 26-26:30, provided the race course is flat (this one was pretty hilly).

Yay for running!