Chapter 2 page 431 - TR 162 Race recap & photos

This morning was a little chaotic, but it all worked out well.  I had a 5K to run, but in addition, I had to coordinate a health fair (lucky for me, they were both in the same small town about 15 minutes from my house).
Here's how I planned out my morning in order to make everything work:

6:30 leave my house - boo to very dense fog . . . mostly burned off once the sun came up

6:45 put out yard signs promoting the health fair

7:30 5K pick up packet

7:45 return to health fair and orientate the staff and get event started

8:10 return to 5K to warm up

8:30 race start

9:15 (hopefully sooner) finish the race and stretch

9:30 return to the health fair to wrap up event

10:00 remove signs and pack up health fair 

Although my health fair event was a tankapaloosa, the 5K was one of the BEST 5Ks I've ever run!!!!  I should have known it would be fantastic with 2 avid runners in charge - but even with that, this race blew away all of my preconceived expectations.

Here are just some examples of the great things about the race:

-Firetruck horn blast for the start (that's pretty dramatic and certainly different)

-AWESOME route (~1.25 miles on a paved walking trail, ~1.75 miles out and back on a paved country road)

-2 water stations that were accessible from both the out and back so that was a total of 4 opportunities for water (I've done 5K's without any water or just 1 station - how awesome was it to have 4 stations  . . . especially since it was 100% humidity)

-THE MOST ORGANIZED RACE CHECK IN (they had pre-registered packets put together in gallon size zippie bags with our names written on it) - hand over the baggie and we're on our way.  Easy Peasy!

-Course was super well marked and fully staffed with volunteers to ensure we didn't get lost.

Here's what I hoped to accomplish during the race: 
-dress in red/white/blue in support our country during this 9/11 anniversary weekend CHECK

Would you expect anything less than red nails to match my red shirt?

-use 2:2 interval . . . no need to overly tax my legs at this stage of the game CHECK

-easy does it mile 1 (thankfully this was the plan because my legs were NOT happy about being asked to perform) CHECK

-mile 2 pick up the pace a little and begin listening to my jamz CHECK

-mile 3 turn off my jamz and use my metronome for the running intervals for speed work (wow - that left me huffing and puffing . . . near maximal effort). CHECK

I was able to execute the plan perfectly!  I felt great about my performance - especially after the first mile when my legs decided to join me for the run :) I finished in an unofficial time of 38:49 which happens to be 12:29 m/m which happens to be the exact pace I need to have in order to get a 2:56 in my half which is only 2 weeks away (please know that my half mary goal is 2:59, but the McMillian calculator says I can get a 2:56 so that's my new dream goal).  Really glad that I decided to do this race!!!!