Women's Distance Festival 5K

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do. - Henry Ford

Friday afternoon: I went over to a local running store to look at and discuss running shoes. I learned that I do not over-pronate and therefore could/should wear a neutral cushioned shoe rather than a stability shoe.

After running around the store in many different pairs, I settled on Nike Women's Vomero +3 which have a totally different feel to them than the Asics 2120s I have been wearing. Although I was nervous about buying something different, I hoped they might help my aches and pains.

Saturday afternoon: I gave the new shoes a little test run and decided that I would wear them at the 5K. I also bought a new jog bra from Target. It's quite cute. I'm hoping to wear it on the swim at the upcoming triathlons and then throw a loose sleeveless shirt over it for the bike and run. I figured I'd give that a trial run at the 5K as well.

Yes, two new and un-testested items at a race.

Sunday morning: Woke up to unusually cloudy skies and a cool morning. What a delight! Arrived at the race location plenty early. Met up with a friend from church who was running her very first 5K as well as Cindy and a friend of hers.

The course was flat, my Garmin says we had only 50 ft vertical gain from the lowest to highest point. It was also mostly pavement, with just a short stretch in the dirt. The shoes and jog bra both performed well. Hooray!

Official time: 29:43, something like a 9:34 pace. I'm quite pleased with that.

My friend doing her first 5K ran the whole way and finished in someting like 33:30. Yay! She even admitted that it was fun. She asked me if we should stay for the awards. I explained that since I wasn't expecting to win anything and needed to get home to get ready for church, I wasn't going to stick around.

So I went home, made sure Son was awake, texted Daughter about when I would pick her and friends up for church, & uploaded my Garmin stats. Before I made it to the shower, my cell phone rang. It was Cindy, calling to let me know that I had actually placed in my age group - 3rd F40-44. What?!?!?! You've gotta' be kidding me!! She had kindly picked up my award and was holding it for me. As for Cindy, well, you'll just have to check her blog to find out how she did. ;)

[Update, official results are up! There were 13 women in our age group. I beat the woman in #4 spot by 2 seconds. Although I didn't know it at the time, I guess sprinting at the end paid off]

So I dashed out the door to meet her over at the Bosque trail. She was preparing to run another 13miles, crazy woman. The award is a cute charm bracelet with the "medal" being an engraved charm. We goofed around a little bit taking pictures with our phones, then I rushed home, showered, picked up a car load of teenage girls, and made it to church on time. Okay, I walked in with wet hair, but I wasn't late.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, folks. Make the most of it!