Crystal City 5K Friday

 So baking lots of cupcakes (and doing multiple taste tests along the way) is not the best start to the summer bathing suite season.. I have tried balancing out my love of baked goods with running. I mean running twice a week makes up for 4+ cupcakes a week, right? I have also been experimenting with new things to top with cream cheese icing.. right now the winner is gram crackers. And in comes running. If you have read my past running entries there have been some inconsistencies. I signed up for a 10K but a family event took precedence. I went through the first part of training for the run anyways which helped get my millage up but finally I found a short race I knew I could commit to! Crystal City, in Arlington, has 5K Fridays every Friday in April so I signed up for the April 15th run. 

Starting three weeks before the run, I went on three weekly runs which averaged about 3.5 miles per run. My time was averaging about 10:30 a mile... I quite honestly was hoping to run the 5K in under 32 minutes, but I ended up doing much better! I think I caught the racing bug when I finished at 29:09 (the clock in the bottom picture shows a 30 minute time but I was so far back I didn't cross the start line until about 90 seconds in..). 

Note: This was my first official race. Was it a particularly long and strenuous race? No. But did I still treat it like I was running a marathon w/cheerers, signs, and way too many pictures? Yes :)

Jake made me an awesome sign to cheer me on :)

I'm somewhere in the far back...

 

Racers take your mark... Those people in the front were crazy. I think the winner ran the 5K in just over 16 minutes!

And I'm now sprinting towards the finish line...

And done!

I got greeted by Jake (who did not like his post race picture so is not on here :P) and my friend Ann who was visiting for the night! She also took the awesome pictures :) That huge thing on my wrist is my Garmin Forerunner.. I have the ridiculously old version*hint *hint for anyone that wants to buy me pricey x-mas and b-day gifts :)

We also ran into our neighbor Ben who also ran as his first official race. I need an awesome sweat band for my next race... jealousy...

A few take aways from the race:

1.) I really like running in races. Everyone is so nice, it's fun and motivational to run with a HUGE group of people, and you feel so accomplished at the end when all of your hard work training paid off. It also helps you to stick to your running schedule so you will be ready come race day.

2.) Since you are running in a crowd, the first mile I felt like I was running in zig zags trying to get around people while not tripping. The sides of the trails are your friends....

3.) I ended up running this race faster then any of the times I've ever run outside or on the treadmill. Running in a huge group really does make a difference to keep your motivation up and knowing that Jake and Ann would be waiting at mile 2 and at the finish line to cheer me on made me want to run faster to see them :)

4.) I'm going to sign up for more races!