Irish Festival 5K

Beautiful day, good tunes, old friends faces...aghh the running gods were smiling on me today!

I headed out with to Cuyahoga Falls this morning for my 5K race. Legs still aching quite a bit from Wednesday lower body workout. I stopped on the way for some delicious Rockstar but only drank about 8 ounces before the race as I was nervous to have too much of something new before running. I was also wearing my new super light and cute Nike Zoom Air which I was stoked to try.

MT and I did a nice little warm up and then I tried to stretch out my tight legs. As I was stretching I was stoked to see an old high school girlfriend (who incidentally has always been one heck of a runner) and a few other people from my hometown. Always exciting to see some old faces, so we caught up a bit before the start. Since it was a new race, the field was very small...only about 100 people.

MT and I lined up near the front and with the start we were off! Mile one was uphill a bit. I turned up my Ipod and settled in behind bunch of guys. There was one girl in front for the first .5 mile but I passed her after she settled in. Mile one 6:36. Not bad. I was nervous given my lackluster training that I might not be ready for running too hard so I was just going to check out the paces. I planned to not beat myself up over them if something was not where I usually expected of myself.

Mile 2 also was rolling, nothing big but you definitely noticed it. Course was nice through neighborhood streets and I was excited when we went around th block as we started to make our return for the out and back course. Mile 2-7:02.

Mile 3, we were told had a little downhill, again nothing too drastic, but every bit helps. A couple guys passed me and with everyone I would get nervous that some chick would pass me. I definitely was pushing outside of the comfort zone but just wanted to hold the pace. As I came into the finish area I gave it one final kick and finished the last 1.1 miles at 7:02.

Total time 20:40 (6:39 pace) which was good enough for first female!!! The time was only 12 seconds off my PR so I guess I have not really lost much especially just taking into account some course differences. Now I feel much better as I was quite concerned!!!!

I believe my highschool girlfriend took 2nd female and MT took third. It is awesome to see your buds all up at the front!!! So we stood around in the sunshine and grabbed our awards! Aghhh, such a great way to start the day!