Freihofer's Run Race Recap 2011

Today was the anniversary of my first 5K! Yup. One year ago today, I was a newbie runner, trembling in my shoes about running my first 5K. Now, just a mere year later, I am definitely no rookie.

Needless to say, I was so excited about the Freihofer's Run today. I was also nervous - because I really wanted a PR (personal record). I woke up around 7 to a gorgeous day. The sun was shining. There was no humidity and it was in the 50's. Perfect, perfect running weather. I ate my bowl of Special K and then tried to decide what to wear. I finally decided on a pink shirt with my black shorts and topped it off with a cute plaid bondi band for my hair.

Felice and Janis met me at the house at 8:20 and we were off to pick up Brian's Aunt Sharon at the Park and Ride. We met her at 8:30 and then we were on our way downtown. Fortunately we were early enough where we didn't hit any traffic and I scored a perfect parking spot so that it would give us an easy and quick exit when it was time to leave.

We hung out and met up with our group (which seems to have grown so much from last year.) It was so great to see so many friends. We hung around, and a few of us even were interviewed on Fox News. The minutes ticked by and finally it was time to line up. This year, our bibs were color coded according to what our estimated finishing time was. I had a yellow bib, which meant I could start closer to the front.

Before I knew it, the horn blew and we were off. This year, there was no cluster. I was able to get up the hill and not be stuck in between people. I think that had something to do with the colored bibs. The system definitely worked better than last year. Needless to say, I was sucking a bit of wind by the time I got to the top of the hill. I glanced at my Garmin and it told me I was running a 7:47 pace. Ummm. Slow down. No wonder I was sucking wind! I held back a little bit and hit mile 1 at the 8:58 minute mark.

I was running hard and wondered if I could keep this up for 2 more miles. I kept going and fought the urge to die collapse in a heap under a nice shady tree. Instead, I kept going wondering why people thought that 5K's were fun. We all must be crazy.

Anyway I finally hit mile 2 and fought the urge to look at my Garmin. Actually, I didn't really use my Garmin too much during the race. I ran by how I felt and I knew the course, so I knew how much distance I had covered. I heard my Garmin "ring" at mile 2.5 and I was so happy that it was almost over, I could have cried.

I kept going. I finally hit the downhill final stretch and let gravity carry me. I could see the clock in the distance and when I crossed under, my time was 27:09.

Official results were as follows:
27:04
I was 746 out of 4142 runners.
I was 87/520 for my age group.
My pace was 8:43.

The best part - was that I PR'd big time! My last PR was at the Clove Run last August and my time was 28:46. And the last time I ran this specific course, was the Race for the Cure in October and my time was 29:27. So this was a big PR for me. I guess those intervals that the Happy Runner told me to do - really worked!

It was a great race.

All my running friends did great. Some highlights - Janis had a PR of 26:29 and The Happy Runner rocked it with her own PR of 22:51. Wowsers. And who said that you can't PR this course?? Pshaw...Utter nonsense!

The only drawback was that we had to leave immediately because Maddie had her dance recital at 1 PM so we had to get home to get ready for it. But- what a great day!

And now, it's on to Boilermaker Training....Oh the horror!