race recap: undy 5000
Thank you for all the well wishes and congrats on Friday! The closing went well and it has been so nice not to have to stress out about 2 houses. Now, we only have the new one to stress out about - and that is sooooo much more fun! We went and picked out our exterior colors this weekend and I am hoping to set up some appointments to pick out flooring and lights. I wish I wasn't so impatient - I want to be in the new house now! Is it September yet?!Anyway, moving on to this weekend. I ran a race this weekend! One that I was totally unprepared for - and while the outcome was just fine, I was not exactly pleased with my time.I've been wanting to do the Undy 5000 for a few years now. My grandpa on my dad's side suffered from colon cancer while I was really young (I barely remember it) and my grandma on my mom's side was diagnosed with colon cancer a few months before she passed away a few years ago. My brother and I had talked about doing the race before, but we just never bit the bullet and registered for it.However, when you watch your father-in-law go through chemo and survive colon cancer, you have a little bit more urge to support colon cancer research. My mother-in-law was talking about doing a race or something in support of my father-in-law's fight against cancer, so I mentioned this race to her. Luckily, we still had time to register and were able to get a family team together.
For the end of March, it was feeling a bit more like winter. I am so ready to wear shorts again during a race and not have to bundle up in layers and gloves! It was about 40 degrees and windy, which made it feel so much colder. MacKenna was not happy to not only be up early, but to be out in the cold. She threw a complete fit when we got there and was refusing to let anyone but me push her. I was finally able to break away from her so I could get a very short warmup in - a way too short warmup, I might add.
My sister- and brother-in-law were walking the 1 mile with my father-in-law and pushing MacKenna, so my mother-in-law, niece, and I left them (with a screaming child) to head to the start. I made my way to the front with some super duper hardcore runners who were in barely any clothes. They had us hold a banner to take a picture to send to the Ellen show and actually started counting down while we were still holding the banner. We quickly threw it over to the side and were off.Does anyone else feel like the first mile of the race is always the longest? This race was no different. Thankfully, most of the first mile was downhill and I was on my own as the lead female (about 5 guys in front of me) for the rest of the race. The race was in Forest Park which meant lots of rolling hills. I have definitely not been training for hills and I could feel each and every hill. And with no one around me and no crowds to help pump me up, I was really struggling the last 2 miles of the race. Plus, I didn't run with a watch (per usual) so I had no idea what my pace was.The last 0.1 was uphill of course, but I had a little bit of energy left to push my pace into the finish. I was pretty unhappy when I saw my finish time, but I couldn't be unhappy with my finishing place...
Official Time - 20:35 (6:38/mile)1st Place Overall Female1st in Age Group
About 40 seconds slower than my last race and one of my slowest races in awhile. I have to remember that in a 5K, I'm not going to beat my time every time, and that it's OK to have an off-race. I didn't feel horrible, but I definitely didn't feel my best during this race. I didn't have great runs all week, so it should be expected that this race wasn't my best. Hopefully, the next one (whenever that is) will be much better!
I had to share this picture. MacKenna kept putting on my headband and holding my race bib to her shirt and said she was going running. Love that little girl!