Run, Run, Run

Saturday was the first "organized" run since the half marathon and my first 5K since Butterflies for Hope at the end of May.  I had been keeping an eye on the weather throughout the week because they were calling for an 75% chance of rain this morning at race time.  It rained through the night but thankfully there was no rain falling for the 8 a.m. start time. The race was an annual race as part of the Dogwood Arts Festival that takes place every spring here in Knoxville.  This particular route took us on a route that I am familiar with- it's one that I ran many times while prepping for the half marathon and where I have been doing some of my running since then.

Source: indulgy.com via Jacque on Pinterest

I ran this route on Monday afternoon in preparation and did the full course in right at 35 minutes.  My recent 5K times have been running anywhere from 35-36 in actual runs and my practice/training runs have been about 37-38.  So, having that practice at 35 was a good thing since I actually do better in actual races.

The gun goes off and we head out- all 450 runners.  I will admit that I walked about a total of a minute as I drank some water through the course.  It was a good course- inclines but not too bad, beautiful views of the river and the dogwoods (although I was thankful for the rain/dampness because it helped ease the sneezing a lot).  I hit the three mile mark and my friend was standing there- she yelled out that I could see the finish and I needed to sprint to the end.  I just glared at her but then gave it all I had and pushed through.  My phone's gps had the time at 34:18 and I knew I had started it right when the gun had gone off- but until the official results were posted I didn't know if I had met my goal of 34:00.  My previous PR had been 34:00 even back in December.  Then I had ITB issues and slowed down.  Since a little before the half my issues have eased up so have tried picking up the pace a little bit.  When the official results were posted I was so excited!  I did it!  I hit 33:54 so I cut 6 seconds off of my time- not a huge amount but I was happy with it!  A friend on FB posted the following and it says it perfectly!

ETA: Just found out that my previous PR was 33:39 which means I did not PR this one- I apparently had looked only at gun time and not chip time.  Bummer :(