My first 5k on Mother's Day!
I never liked running unless it was after a soccer ball or with one of my horses. But last September I bought a road bike and decided I was going to compete in triathlons, so I'd better get my butt running and swimming as well! My boyfriend and I started really training in February (spinning classes, running, swimming.. but all indoors), and I had a couple injuries that sidetracked me on the running for a while.
Last week, I finally got back out to really run again (I've still been cycling and doing a lot of horseback riding), and managed about 4.5 miles at a sloooow pace with a lot of walking.
After skipping yesterday morning's brick workout with the local tri club due to 25+ mph winds (eww), I decided to go ahead and compete in a Mother's Day 5k hosted by a local hospice group - it's their first year. The run was two loops through a big local cemetery and arboretum, and of course there was a frost advisory last night, so it was nice and chilly this morning!
I ended up finishing the race 2nd in my age group and with a time of 25:33. My fastest 5k in training thus far had been about 27:30, and I was hoping for 25:00, but I'm more than happy with my time! It turned out that I was wearing too much clothing (I got really hot after the first mile and had to really slow down and remove my hat and gloves so I wouldn't overheat) and there wasn't any water available, so those were slight kinks in my overall planning. It turns out that I was rather well-hydrated anyway, but getting too hot had made me a little nauseous and some water probably would have helped.
I am very happy with my run and I'm looking forward to a duathlon in a couple weeks. :) Luckily, it favors the bike leg (2 mile run, 15 mile bike, 2 mile run), so as long as my transitions are good I should do pretty well!
Hope everyone is having a great Mother's Day!
