As I previously mentioned, I had planned to run a 10k yesterday, but mid week decided to switch to the 5k. I was a little bummed, but I’m so glad I made that decision – I had a blast!
I woke up at 6:30 to have a small breakfast of granola and rice milk (my typical pre-run meal). By 7:30 I was at packet pickup. The race didn’t start until 8:30 but since I wasn’t sure of the parking situation, etc, I wanted to give myself plenty of time. I found a nice curb and relaxed, focused and did some hamstring stretches. I ended up running into a friend of mine (and her super cute baby) so we snapped a picture. Side note – this was my first race in my No Meat Athlete tech shirt 
We watched the 10k folks head off at 8:30 on the dot. It was pretty cool to be able to see the leaders of the pack shoot off the starting line and cheer on the runners. I don’t get that opportunity very often. At 8:40 we were off. I said goodbye to my friend and her mom (it was her moms first 5k ever, and her first race in many many years!) and tried to push myself from the start. I’ve had issues in a few previous races with not pushing myself enough and leaving too much in the tank after crossing the finish.
It was hot, but not too many uphills. I felt good most of the time, took two 1-minute walking breaks to keep my motivation up.
I crossed the finish at 37:30 (garmin time). Considering I haven’t run all week and it was over 80 degrees I’ll take it! After I finished I went back to cheer in my friend and her mom – they did great. It was nice to cheer on the rest of the 5k and the bulk of the 10k runners before heading home.
