Firecracker 5K Race Report - 07/04/2011

So my first race report.  Not really sure what to put here so I guess I'll just ramble as usual. :)


Today's 5K began at the Liberty Bell Museum in Melbourne, FL.


I met Shannon (an old high school friend) at 6:15am and we carpooled over to the event.  The 5K was to begin at 7:15, so when we got there we had a few minutes to wander around, pick up her packet, use the facilities, etc, before the race began.

Speaking of facilities, this was the line for the port-o-potties.  Not awesome.

So after that, we headed over to the start line. I tried to take a picture of us....

and then a nice lady nearby offered to take one for us....

Some guy sang the Star Spangled Banner into a megaphone, the Liberty Bell was rung, and the race begin.  We were in the "Healthy Walkers Pace" section so I assumed Shannon would start off walking with me, but nope, she took off!  I then made a rookie mistake and also started jogging after barely having crossed the start line!  I reached the 1-Mile marker at 15:14 so I was excited to be ahead of my usual 17-18 minute pace.  


Unfortunately, Mile 2 was brutal! I had used up way too much energy during the first mile.  Somehow I managed to push myself, even full on RUN for 10 second spurts at a time.  I reached the next mile marker at 31:45... not too bad!  


Mile 3 was my worst mile.  I was exhausted, my legs hurt, I couldn't fully catch my breath, and I walked most of it.   There was another bigger girl that I was kind of on an even pace with most of the time.. she was power walking the whole time with a friend, so I'd jog to get a little ahead of them, and when they caught up to me, I'd jog again.  But on Mile 3, I had nothing left in me.  They passed me and I just couldn't push anymore.  So that was discouraging but I got over it, I was doing the best I could. :)


I had it set in my head that I wanted to be "running" when I crossed the finish line, so when I rounded the last turn and the Finish line was in sight, I upped my speed.  As I got closer and people were cheering and clapping (including Shannon!), I picked up my speed even more and used every last bit of energy I had left.  I saw 50 minutes and some seconds on the time clock, but I didn't have enough energy to even be happy or care at all about that time. lol


When I finished, all I could say was "waterrrr.... I need waterrrr!"  They had ONE water stop during the whole course, a little after Mile 1 marker.  If they had 1 more stop after the Mile 2 marker, or even some Gatorade, I think I would've had a little more oomph left.  I was having a hard time breathing, but I got some water and Gatorade and sat down for a few minutes.

We are exhausted but happy it's over!

Then we went to see what the food options were.... there really WASN'T any options which kind of sucked.  All they had was this banana nut bread - I'm not a fan of nuts, but I needed something in my stomach so I ate it.  BUT they had the most delicious and refreshing orange slices!  I never really knew how delicious they could be until I was worn out and needed something cold and juicy.  Shannon and I ate a ton of orange slices.  Definitely the highlight.  

The nut bread.  We ate the orange slices before I could take a pic. lol

So after eating and relaxing for a few minutes, we checked the official times that were posted.  My time (and new personal record and time to beat) was 50 minutes and 9 seconds!  During my C25K training, the fastest I have been able to finish 3.1 miles was always between 57-58 minutes, so this was definitely a record for me!  


So now, I have a simple goal at the next 5K - finish in less than 50 minutes.  I learned what I did well and what I did not so well, so I'm already looking forward to the next race.  Yay!