Back at it

After the Marine Corps Marathon, I decided to take a break from running since I had been training non-stop since last January. Plus, I find it really hard convincing myself to get off the couch and run outside when it’s in the low 40s, dark and raining. I’ve lived in Seattle for over 10 years now and the Florida girl in me still can’t stand being outside in gross, nasty conditions.

My First 5k

I can now say that I’ve officially run a 5k as of this morning. I’ve been a casual runner for a number of years but never bothered with registering for a race. Figured I should learn how to race before the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon rolls around at the end of June. And learn how to do all the important stuff that comes with racing, like tying the timing tip to your shoe laces and dodging strollers and dogs at the start.

I carpooled over to the race with some Eastside friends that I met through Sweaty Betties and then met up with my new fabulous blogger/Twitter friends. That’s us below before the start of the race. Left to right: Ann Marie (not on Twitter but she should be), TriGirl, me and Stacie. I’m wearing the white race shirt over my 3 layers of bright pink and I’m amazed my $1 heart headband didn’t fall off my head during the race.

It seemed like almost as soon as we met up, it was time to start lining up. I can’t remember exactly where we lined up but I think it was between the 10:00 – 11:00 marker. I didn’t have much of a strategy other than to just push it to see how fast I could go without killing myself before the 3.1 miles were up. Starting the race was a little challenging since there wasn’t a lot of space to move and I was weaving around dogs and strollers. One of my biggest pet peeves is being trapped in a mass of people so I looked for every opportunity to break free from the crowd which happened around 0.75 miles into the race. I followed my friend Wendy and we kept pushing each other the entire race.

I had a nice view of a man wearing bright pink tights and lil booty shorts. If I wasn’t so concerned about my time, I would’ve whipped out my phone for a picture. The last mile and a half, Wendy and I were running at a 8:50 pace which is much faster than my usual 9:30 or 9:45 training pace. Ended up finishing in 28:56 at a 9:20 pace which I’m pretty happy with for my very first (and crowded) 5k. And my shins weren’t screaming the entire 3 miles which is a plus.
I was pretty jealous of all the runners who were able to find tutus. Think I need to hunt down a green tutu for the St Paddys Day Dash.

Below: Wendy and I after eating all the free goodies we could find.

Do you have any races this weekend?

P.S. As soon as I have enough race photos, I’m going to create an awesome custom banner for my blog.