Iron Girl 5K = COMPLETE

What a race! Not only was it a gorgeous summer day (yeah, it is still summer), but the turnout out was fantastic and the crowd was so much fun! After picking up E & Liz, we got to Greenlake a little later than expected, but found a decent parking spot on the street. The lines for the porta potties were wicked long, and of course the packet pickup lines were non existent...and that also meant that Liz and I had a choice between a Large or XL for our fitted pink shirt. :( Bummer dude.

Since Liz had to use the restroom, I found a spot in the starting line that coincided with an 8 min/mile pace, even though I was planning on going faster. The race ended up being about 10 minutes delayed because the restroom lines were so long! EEK! And since I didn't run with my music or iPhone...I was just fidgeting and moving around just waiting for the start.

The race itself was not too shabby. I found a good person to pace and I tried to stick with her for the most part. She was waaay taller than me and her stride was longer, but I held my pace pretty well. The lake was absolutely stunning and I found myself smiling for most of the time, it was nice! Although, the sun was pretty blinding coming around the 2nd mile mark.

Once I hit the boat rental place, I could hear the sound of the announcer over the loudspeaker and I picked up my pace a bit. I paced my blue topped pacer and lengthened my stride, especially with more people coming close to the finish...I gotta look good! I started sprinting earlier than normal and was passing ladies, one even kind of sighed/grunted in disappointment when I passed her. Sorry girl. I took one look at the timer and saw that it still read 23 minutes and I pushed it hard!!! My 5K time is normally in the early early 25 min range, but my best pace was 7:50 min/mile. The announcer actually said "Here comes Zoe Allen crossing the finish line" and I was super stoked! My name over the loudspeaker! :) It was cool.

I promised Liz that I'd run back and find her, and so I started walking back to the boat rental house and cheered for all the women running. It was a little surprising that not alot of people were cheering, or clapping for that matter. I think my cheering helped some of the ladies, though. They'd smile back at me, and it made my day even better. Liz came into view and I shouted "GOOOO LIZ!!!" and then cut across the parking lot to find her at the finish and cheer some more. She did amazing for her first ever race! I'm so proud of her!

Here's us before:

And after, with our medals:*Please disregard my goofy grin, as I knew that I had PR'd but wasn't sure on my official time. I was just having too much fun!

Here's the swag:

Final Stats:
Mileage - 3.11
Time - 23:40
Overall - 47 out of 1277
Division Place - 7 out of 215 (F25-29)
Pace - 7:37

PR, baby! I got in the top 10 again for my division and the top 50 for the entire race. WOO HOO! I am so happy! :) Also, I'm completely in love with my Running Skirt and I could use a couple more in different colors. Seriously awesome to run in, and very very comfy!

Here's Liz coming into the finish:


And here's me coming into the finish (I'm passing the two people sitting on the ground by the orange cones for a brief second at the beginning):

Onto the next race...Saturday 9/19. Scared, but it should be ok.