I carpooled with another Get Fit buddy (Amy) and we headed out to Blessed Sacrament. What a great turn out for their first year event. There were cars and people everywhere. Kudos to the organizers for setting up things so well today - registration was running smoothly and music was getting everyone pumped!
Amber arrived with my bag and we tied on our chip timers onto our laces, and pinned our bib numbers. We met up with a big group of Get Fitters from Melody's Bootcamp Fitness. Even though we were all very cold, there was a great energy present this morning.
I saw a poster near the registration table sharing that several Navy men and women would be running on their treadmills somewhere in the ocean as they serve the U.S., in support of this run. Runners here were asked to wear their chip so that they could record a finish time. How cool is that!
Run 4 Recovery was set up to support men in The Grateful Life Center (an inpatient rehabilitation center which provides free treatment for men who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Hundreds of lives have been saved by this program).
I'm really glad we previewed the course this week so the hills were not surprises, and we knew that our course today would be shorter in theory because it would be marked and so we would not get lost :)
We had one goal today - to improve Amber's time. I was excited to run alongside Amber today. For some reason I went ahead last 5K but I much preferred running side by side as we do when we train :)
So with the goal of 37 minutes or less, we took off. With gloves, head band (ear warmers) and three layers we soon warmed up, except the joy of cold weather running is that you seem to leak. Eyes were running, snot was flowing and my buddy Amber was spitting like a cowboy ~ the realities folks sorry....
We reached the first mile marker in 10:41and knew we were definitely on track to beat the 37 minute finish time. Some hills to combat in mile two and the scenic run around the lakes slowed us down a bit to a 12:00/mile. Mile three had the beast of a hill that we decided to fast walk up. After that it was a level/downhill run to the finish. I stopped my tracker after we finished but we tracked close to 11:42 on mile three.
We finished just under 36 minutes, almost two minutes faster than last 5K for Amber. Boy was she a happy camper - talk about Runners High plus victory rolled into a fiery ball of energy :) Awesome to see Amber smiling - so proud of her! Proud of us!
I loved the balloons at the finish line (note to self for my 5K next July). After grabbing a banana and water and hugs we cooled down at the finish line cheering everyone in and uploading to FB. This was a great run for a great cause and I will definitely put it on my race calendar for next year.
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Next event running event: Boone County Parks 5K November 17th. We both just registered for the Turkey Day 10K November 22nd ~ Half Marathon you are in sight :)
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