I didn't have any plans of doing a race until August 31st, but I got an email that Courage Reins, where Kinsley does therapeutic riding was putting on a 5k race, and I felt obligated to participate as a way to give back to an organization that has given Kinsley so much over the last few weeks since she started riding with them. I didn't have high expectations for this race since it was only half way into my 5k training for the summer, but I wanted to try and close the gap on my 25:30 personal record as much as possible.
I got to the race 20 minutes early, got my bib, took a WM Nutrition Pre-Workout for a boost of caffeine, and then headed to the starting line. I always get such bad anxiety at starting lines and honestly, more often than not it gets so bad that I shed some tears... something I need to work on. The gun went off and I was so anxious that I went out way too hard. After the first quarter mile I looked down at my watch and was running 6:45/mi pace. I tried to back off the pace and ease into a rhythm but it unfortunately didn't happen.
I closed the first mile at 7:58, and tried to hang onto that, but the next mile wound up being 8:30 pace. The third mile was ridiculously hard. I was dying and and falling apart really quickly. (My longest run in training at this point was only 2.25 miles, so I'm sure that had something to do with this.) The only thing I was able to tell myself at this point was, "DON'T WALK, DON'T WALK!" I told myself that again and again, but at one point was definitely trotting/running/jogging with my hands on my hips. Luckily I was able to pull it together for the last little bit and sprint into the finish line for the last quarter mile.
I finished in 26:23, just 54 seconds off the PR. I'm confident that if I just keep up with my current training, I'll be able to get that PR in just a few more weeks! At the awards ceremony, I thought there was a good chance that I placed in my age group, so I stuck around to wait and see. They called third and second place, and it wasn't my name, so I figured, "Easy come easy go..." and then they called my name for first place in the 20-29 group! I was seriously shocked.
The funny thing is, I've ran several smaller races where only age group finishers get medals, and every time that has been the situation, I've been one of the people to walk away with a medal, which is always fun, but says more about how small the race was than my actual abilities.
I'm super excited to put in a few more weeks of good training and to see where that puts me in terms of getting a 25:29 (or faster!).
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