CanDo 5K Race Recap - Yeah!

This was the race that I didn't plan on "racing"....but somehow managed a freakin' SWEET 5K PR.  Say WHAT?!?! *happy dance!*

And this is BEFORE the race.

Travis and I dropped off the Goober Girl at her Auntie Karrie's house before the race.  You read that right, Trav was actually coming with me to this small race, unlike the previous 3 years where I always went solo Not only was he going, but he was RUNNING too.  Yeah!  Win!

It was pouring rain.  Miserably pouring rain.  Trav didn't want to give up his jacket after we picked up our bibs, but I coaxed him out of it and jogged the 1/4 mile (or more) back to the car to drop off our stuff.

*Side note: I normally don't do a "warm-up" before a race, so this little pre-race jog might have been a PR maker!*

We huddled together for warmth, and I realized that my shoes were already soaked through with mud.  Eh, whatever, right? ;)  Once the gun went off I was ready to tackle the long, steady uphill for the first 3/4 mile. BAH!  I knew that the downhill right after it was worth the effort.  Unfortunately I lost Trav right away, but that was ok as he was just trying to run the whole thing under 30 minutes.

The rain never let up, and there was no avoiding deep puddles.  But I didn't care and was stomping through them regardless.  Woohoo!  My pace felt good, my breathing felt awesome, and my new CW-X capris made my legs feel like a million bucks.  The only thing that was annoying me was my iPhone in between my two bras (I have been stashing it there instead of holding it lately)...it kept shifting sideways and felt like it was going to fall out from the bottom of my sports bra.  Ugh.  Annoying!  It probably also looked funny shifting my "third boob" around throughout the race.  :)

Once I knew the finish line was around the corner I picked up the pace even more.  I had to cross the street, which was still being used by some cars but guided by a police officer, and I nearly hit a car that wanted to speed on by before the I crossed.  Um, heck no, dude!  I was on my way to a strong finish.  Once I stopped Gus I saw the time: 23:33.  WHA????  That's a 7 second PR from the Iron Girl 5K back in September 2009.  AND, this course was HILLY.  The Iron Girl course is flat and fast around Greenlake in Seattle.  So you know what that means?  I'm going to DOMINATE the Greenlake course at Top Pot and Iron Girl.  RAWR!

*Sorry, that's a lot of capital letters right there*

At this point, I was beaming.  All smiles.  I went back before the finish line and started cheering for all the other runners.  One of the volunteers for the race commented on my "strong finish" and I thanked him.  That was cool.  And then I realized a photographer was next to me...after I saw Trav finish I was about to go meet him when the photographer dude introduced himself as a local small newspaper reporter.  Well, hello. :)

And so, little 'ol me was in the article:

The reporter even had some photos of me cheering on the sidelines:

Photo courtesy of Andy Nystrom's Flickr 

Photo courtesy of Andy Nystrom's Flickr

What a fun day!  Travis came in at 28:XX and was happy with a sub-30.  I'm proud of him!  His asthma is really bad, and so running for long periods of time is rough...but he finished.  This time, instead of stealing my too-big-for-me race shirts he EARNED this one!

Angle totally makes his head look tiny. Ha!

Final Stats: 
Mileage - 3.1
Time - 23:33
Overall - 30 out of 531
Division Place - 4 out of 38 (F25-29)
Sex Place - 8 out of 339
Pace - 7:36