5K Canada day race recap!

I woke up this morning kind of groaning because I didn't sleep much last night.  I kept having these "I'm going to miss my race start" dreams. At one point,in a dream, I was trying frantically to drive to the start line but I was in the middle of a snow storm???  So wow, I think I slept about 3 hours!  Ok well either way, I was up on time, had breakfast with the crew, packed everything up and off we went.  I had a bit of a panic when it was 25 after 8 (race starts at 9) and I didn't know where the restaurant was to pick up the time chip, but I eventually just followed other runners and found the pick up.  I made it with tons of time, sort of, I would have like to do some kind of warm up (other than walking to the start line) but oh well!  I had some water and stood waiting for the start. 

Off I went! the first 800 m is on the boardwalk, I passed my cheering family around the 500 mark and that was cute to hear all my kids screaming for me to win.  I realized that by 1K that I was starting to huff and puff so I needed to do something about my form.  I checked my time and it was just under 7minutes for the first km.  I felt pretty good but decided that I was bouncing too much so I changed my gait a bit.  I forgot to check my time at the 2K mark but by 2.5K I was around 15 minutes, here you turn around and go back.  That's when it occurred to me, I wasn't sucking back wind, my funny new run, one that didn't bounce my belly so much and seemed to be all butt and no upper body, was working.  I started to pass people and it wasn't that hard I just thought speed up your butt (move your legs faster) but don't move up top!  By 3K I was at 17 minutes, I thought to myself, "cool I don't need to walk, I'm ok AND I'll make it around the 30 minute time mark. Huh!"  Ok so from 3K to 4K, I just listened to my ipod music and kept trying to keep my legs going at the same beat as the music, I was getting tired by 4, but the glorious thing about this race is that you can pretty much see the finish line for the last 800m (remember it's the board walk).  So down a little hill and off I was, I think I remember thinking "I feel like the road runner", you know how he spins his legs really fast but his upper body doesn't look like it's doing anything.  And as I was running I kept looking for my fan club, and just as I was about to finish my last 200m, I heard my daughter yelling my name, I waved and finished with a giant smile on my face.  I looked at my watch and realized that it didn't say 30 minutes yet!!!  WOOHOO!  I made it under 30m for the 5K. 

I have to admit I am really proud of myself, I felt good throughout, and next year I have a new goal.  I want to run it under 25 (possibly 24!) and I'm going to run with my husband.  My fast footed little butt swinging waddle worked well for me, but I think when this babe is out of the hotel I'll research some better running technique and hope to smash my time.  Oh and I placed 10th in my age group, but that's not what I cared about. My time was 29.41!  Which is only 1 minute slower than last years time! 

So overall I'm very happy!  I'm also secretly hoping that next year I place second so that I can win a diner for two at Paradisso restaurant because I would love to take my husband out for once!

Me in purple, my tag was on the other side of my belly!