Road Runner Sports 5K

My sister and I signed up for the free Wednesday evening 5K offered at Road Runner Sports in Westminster. Apparently they had been having these races all season, once a month. Today was their last one of the season so the winner would be the person who came closest to predicting their finish time. And that meant we were on more equal ground with all the other runners. :-) The prize was a pair of shoes. Cool!

The last run I did was last Tuesday. I had such high hopes for last week's training schedule. But, I failed. Actually, I fell down the stairs on Thursday. I am ok, and really I was from the beginning. I did bruise my behind where I landed, and my head, where I must have hit the railing, and also my shoulder and elbow a little too. Hmm. As I write all of that, maybe I was a little more injured than I wanted to admit. Anyway, I didn't run at all, feeling a little injured and feeling a little sorry for myself. Whatever. I just didn't get it done. So, I didn't have very high hopes for being fast tonight. But, my sister has been training. When I asked her what her prediction was going to be she said 37:21. That seemed fast for me at this point so I said I'd give the same time and we could run together. I was really hoping she'd pace me. She was hoping I'd pace her. :-)

This was the very first time we've actually run together. We did a 4th of July run together but I ran faster than she did that day. I was feeling strong and fast back then. (Sigh.) We started out and she wanted to run faster than I did but she slowed to my pace. I've never been a fast starter. Except for the very 1st half I did. I sort of had a feel for my slow pace and have learned what a true conversational pace (for me) is. That's what I was shooting for. So, we ran and talked pretty much the whole way. There were two women behind us. When we stopped for a short walk break, one of them passed us. She said she had been using us as pacers. We laughed and said she could be ours now. We did actually keep pace with her. Even after stopping for a short second break. Towards the last stretch, she slowed to run with us and we learned her predicted time was 37:10. So we all felt very good about running together.

My sister pulled away a little as we approached the finish line. And even though we were second to last, there was still hope that we could win. Haha! I like this race. But, it wasn't to be. We actually ran too fast! Ha! We lost because we ran too fast. I can live with that. 36:06 for my sister and 36:11 for me! Woot! I felt very good about that time. I felt very good that we ran practically the whole time. My sister was super excited too. This was her fastest 5K time by quite a bit.

My left foot did fall asleep at some point. Painfully so. Once we stopped running, it immediately came back. Weird. I'm not sure what that's about. Maybe my laces were too tight? I am pretty sure I'll need new shoes after the Denver Rock and Roll Half. But, I hope they at least get me through that one.

This Saturday we are running again. This one will be chip timed. We are planning to run side-by-side again and plan to best today's time. I'm feeling good about the half again. Maybe I'll walk most of this one, but that's ok. Maybe I won't. We'll just take it as it comes.

After the run, there was a drawing. I won some running socks! Cool! I shared my winnings with my sister since it was a pack of three. :-)

 

Oh, and BTW, this was unofficially my 2nd fastest timed 5K finish.Only unofficially because it wasn't an official or chip timed event. Stay tuned for an update on that front after Saturday's Blue Shoe 5K.

And, we finished the evening at BJ's Brewery thus continuing the post race beer tradition. Very important. :-)