How it all went down...

The day of the long awaited 5K finally came. It was an early morning for us, too. We had to ship out Jake and Coop to friends' homes here in town at 7:30am (who would take the boys to their respective soccer games at 9am) and so we could drive into Forest Grove with enough time to hand off Karcyn and Calvin to another friend while she was at HER son's soccer game. Phew! There was a lot of service and sacrificing done yesterday just for the Houghs and we're so grateful. We couldn't have done it without these awesome friends!

Can you say, 'Brrrr'? It was cold out, even at 8:30 in the morning. I knew it was "perfect" running weather and truthfully I'd rather be cold than hot when running, but it was enough to make me shiver more often than not.

The officiators had the walkers start 15 minutes before the runners and Jared and I (along with many others) were just hanging out waiting our turn. My friend, Steph, caught up with us at the starting line. While we waited, we detected a medicinal scent on the breeze and Jared mumbled, "I smell Ben-Gay." Okay, honestly people, if you are that serious about running that you need to slather yourself in Ben-Gay, go run a marathon! Leave the po-dunk 5Ks to us newbies.

We were all in our starting stance, fingers perched right above the start button on our watches to track our time as we anticipated the buzzer that would be our signal to go.

My biggest concern with this whole race was how to pace myself. I kept giving myself a mental speech to not worry about anyone but me. I'm just trying to improve MY time. But in a group of people, you sometimes run faster because they're running faster and though that can have it's advantages, I was worried about coming out too strong and totally tanking at the end.

The buzzer, more like a horn actually, finally sounded and we were off!






Stephanie totally took off like a gazelle in front of me. She has quite the stride. She even lost her key that was tied to her shoelace and had to go back and retrieve it. I almost caught up to her at that point, but she was off before I could reach her. And I didn't see her again. Impressive.


I forced myself just to listen to my music and tried to run the pace I normally do when I run alone. The night before, Jared and I had mapped off the route on runningmap.com and found our first mile and second mile markers so we could track our progress.

So you know it's a bad sign when you're getting passed by people who were jogging with their dogs...and people pushing jogging strollers with children in them.... and old gray haired folks wearing knee braces--on both knees...and girls who were having conversations while they ran. Good grief. I can't breathe when I run, let alone speak! I was beginning to think I was going to be the last runner again, but then I remembered, with a little guilt, that Jared hadn't passed me yet so I was ahead of at least one other person. Poor guy hadn't run in 10 days, though. He's been having shin issues. I'm just impressed he came out and ran anyway.

Imagine my surprise when I went to tack my first mile on my watch and the time displayed showed 9:23!! Holy schnikey! The fastest mile I've ever run, which also happened to be my first mile, was at 10 minutes and I thought that was good. I told myself I needed to back off and take it easy. I thought I was. Though, I have to admit, it felt great to pass people, even if they were walkers.

I started to get twinges of an oncoming side cramp about 1 1/2 miles into it. That's what I got for coming out too strong. But I couldn't think about stopping. Run through the pain. Fortunately it subsided. I started passing more walkers and that still felt good...at least I would beat some of them to the finish line. I reached my second mile and found the time displayed for that lap was 9:48! Holy cow. Really?? So then I thought, Wow, I might finish this around 30 minutes. And I kept on trucking, with what I thought was a little more bounce in my step.

I think the course is actually a little over 3.1 miles. Regardless, I tried to put myself in high gear that last block, but I was pooped. Again, serves me right for coming out too fast in the beginning. I need blinders for next time.

I crossed the finish line at 32:48.


That last mile and .1 or .2 took me 13 minutes and 44 seconds. Ugh. Baaad. I totally tanked at the end just like I predicted. But...averaged out with my other two miles, I still shaved off 4 minutes from my time 2 years ago. Hooray!! And I wasn't dead last! Neither was Jared, bless his heart. He finished at 33:35 with shin pains. Still better than his time two years ago, too.


I set three personal records yesterday...best first mile, best second mile and best 5K times. In February, I'll start training for my first 10K in June. That should be interesting. Maybe I'll be able to shave a couple more minutes off my 5K time when we do it again next year by training for the 10K. Three miles will seem like nuthin' compared to six!

Oh and great news!! My friend Stephanie won 2nd place for our age division. I'm so proud of her!


(And a big thank you to Steph's hubby, Jacob, for being our race photographer).