Race Day!!!

Today was race day. My first race EVER. So, how did I do?? Well, let me take you on a little journey of this morning.

My alarm went off at 0530, and my first thought (which seemed to be a running theme throughout the morning) was "Why am I doing this??" Ugh. But I stumbled out of bed, dressed for the race, had a cup of coffee and some fruit, and off to the race we go!

We had checked in on Friday, when we picked up our race t-shirt and bibs for the race. The t-shirts were pretty cool for such a little race. They are blue and not the cheap cotton tees that you see for some races, but rather a dri-tech kind of shirt! SWEET!! So when we arrived at the appointed time of 0615, we received our chips and waited around for the start time. At one point I noticed the ambulance had arrived and was parking. I pointed to Joel and said, "Look, my ride home has arrived." He did not find that nearly as funny as I.

Joel's parents are in town for the holiday weekend, and since their hotel is across the street from the starting line, they were gracious enough to come over, take a few pictures, and stay to cheer us on. I'm sure it reminded Adele of Joel's cross country running days in high school---arrive, watch them start, then sit around for 40 minutes waiting for them to cross the finish line. I would also like to give a big SHOUT OUT to my Father-in-law, Paul. He was awake and at our race early in the morning, even though he could have been catching up on his much needed sleep. So YEAH PAUL! for braving the sauna-like elements of the early Tennessee morning to come cheer us on!


I have never seen such a big crowd for what I originally thought of as a small race. The highest bib number I saw was around 1197. We were 237 and 238. But what got me really excited was seeing the 1 mile Kid's race that started 1 hour after our race. Awww, how cute, and a great way to encourage running and a healthy lifestyle. How cool is that??


Joel and I lined up about 2/3 back of the pack at the starting line. We ran across the starting line "chip pad", and at the same time I started up my ipod and Nike+. And we're off!!

We started the run, and of course I was feeling pretty good about this. I thought maybe I could get through this event! We ran down Maryland Way, and made a left turn up Brentwood Blvd. Not too bad....oh crap, there's a hill....that's a BIG hill. I cold feel the life being sucked from out of me. Again, the thought creeped into my head, "Why am I doing this??"Thankfully, the turn onto Cadillac Drive came just before the hill, so I was saved!

We continued our run down Cadillac Drive, onto Warren Penn Drive, back down Maryland way, and "over the river and through the woods"! Not really, but it was a nice scenic run in what would be described as the business section of my hometown. It was nice to see several water stations along the way and various places also cheerleaders for us runners. YEAH ME! :)

There was a lot of running, some walking, a lot of whining by me, and various bribes of doughnuts after the race (courtesy of Joel and a stop at Publix) but we could FINALLY see the finish line! YEAH!!! For the last 400 yards I picked up the pace, and ran as fast as I possibly could for that moment. We ran over the finishing "chip pad", and there was victory!! Actually, there were volunteers handing out bottles of water, same thing right??


I was just dying and wanted to sit down, Joel's advice was not to because I would cramp up. I'm thinking, "Ok, but if I'm going to die, I think cramping would be the least of my worries." So I drank my warm bottle of water, had a few orange slices, and we called it quits for the day.

As previously stated, I had three goals for this run:

1. Finish without dropped dead- ACHIEVED
2. Finish in under 40 minutes- ACHIEVED
3. Finish in under 35 minutes- ACHIEVED!!

According to my Nike+, I have a new PR for my 5k--33:24!! That is 7:14 faster than when I ran a 5k workout in March!! YEAH ME! It makes me feel better about my mantra "I think I can, I think I can," and turning it into "I know I can, I know I can."




P.S-If you have reached the end of this blog entry, you totally deserve a doughnut!