First Race of 2013

Ran my first race of 2013 on Saturday. St Patty's Day 5K Dash. This was my very first race back in 2010 when I started running for the first time EVER. This is my 3rd time running it. It has a special place in my heart with it being my first ever race.

 

Here I am before the race began!

 

It was a very cold 22 degrees that morning. I kind of made the mistake of staying in the warm car until a couple minutes before the race started.. I won't do that again. About 2/10th of a mile down the road I had a tough time breathing in the cold air.. I should of known not to do that but oh well.. I definitely learned my lesson... I'm happy though that I didn't give up and just suffered through it until my body got used to it!

 

Here I am w/ hubby behind me (he already finished and came back for me to cheer me on) as I come around to the home stretch

 

I've been running for the past three weeks solely outside to train for this race. Running on the treadmill messes me up as it helps me out and I needed to work my running w/out assistance.. I wanted to run this 5K without stopping. I knew I could run at least 2 miles w/out stopping as that's what I've been doing while training for this.

 

Kids were standing there armed each with a camera snapping photos as I worked towards the finish line

 

I had issues at the 2 mile mark like all the other runs I've had lately where my foot's gone numb. I still can't find the reason causing this (thinking it's my shorter stride) but I had a huge relief when I came up to the last part of the race and it was downhill. I was able to open up my stride wide and fast and my foot came back to life. Because of that I was able to put full motion into the last section and hauled it to the finish line.

 

Almost there with a smile on my face!

 

The timer said 39:33 which is REALLY hard for me to believe. This was not chip timed so the timer is off from the starting mark as I wasn't in front when the gun went off. My clicker I wear while I run said 37:13 which I believe more than the timer they had. With me running it non stop with a 3.1 mile race the 37:13 makes more sense. The last race which was a solid 3 miles was 35:11 and that was run non stop last April for the Icebreaker and last yr when I ran this exact race it was 38:08 and I did stop a couple times..

 

My next race will be the Icebreaker. The entire family will be running it. There is a 1, 3 and 5 mile race to choose from. The boys will be running the 1 mile race.. I was thinking the 5 miler for me but my daughter wants me to run the 3 with her? We will see. I have a bit of time to think about it as the race isn't until the 28th of April..

 

I'm working on running a half marathon in September. 13.1 miles..... Tried for it last yr but my heart, and mind wasn't in it as the Summer went on so I decided to take a break from running all together. I was up to 9 mile runs at that time.. I am very eager to run my first 1/2 marathon so we will see how it goes through the months as it gets closer!