Zoo Run Run 5k 09/25/10

Today was the day I achieved a goal I have had for a year. If you remember last year my friend Amanda asked me to do the Tower of Terror 13k race with her and her husband. I had trained for it, but then when we went to register the race was already full. So of course, we didn't end up doing it. Well a couple of weeks ago I saw that our local zoo was having a 5k run and I decided I was going to enter it. I told Kevin about it and he mentioned something about "do I need to be there?" I told him "YES, someone needed to take pictures!" Well he decided that if he had to be there he was going to enter it. I said okay but of course that left us with no one to take pictures! lol Dang it! lol

So two weeks ago I started training, not good timing, but that was all the time we had!!! lol I did a little running on the treadmill here and there at the Y to build up to it. My goal was to finish in under 1 hour. On Monday, I tested the 5k out on the treadmill at the Y and it took me 49:45. Then on Wednesday I figured it might be a good idea to get a race in on the road so our block is exactly 1k. I was able to do it in about 8 mins per 1k. My race plan was to run 3 mins and walk 1, run 3, walk 1. (We'll come back to this later. lol) On Wednesday, on the road, I actually did it faster than the treadmill surprisingly. I finished in about 48 mins. I don't know the exact time because I had to use my cell phone as my "watch". I have since bought a watch with a stop watch on it. So I was hoping I could finish the race in under 48 mins, but really my goal was still the 1 hour because I just didn't know how I would do.

We took Tye to Kevin's parent's house this morning. We took this quick photo there and then headed off to the zoo for the race.

When we got there I actually saw a couple of people I work with. We talked for a bit and I told them this was my first race and they gave me some encouragement. They said there were going to be some more people from our work who were going to be doing the race also.

Here is Kevin waiting for the race to start. He is happy now, don't know how he was feeling part way through!! lol

Off we went. I had told Kevin how to start his stop watch and he couldn't remember so I started his and then started mine when we crossed the line. So my time is off a bit.

Here we are racing with the crowd. The set up for the start wasn't the best...first they just let you line up however, so the walkers were not in the back and you were trying to fight them to get through the crowds. Plus there were stroller racers which were a pain because then you had to watch out that they didn't run you over!!! And they didn't have to start in the back either! Oh boy. But it all worked out...I didn't get run over or pushed down so it's all good in the end. Since we didn't have anyone to take our pictures, here are the few of us racing! lol

For the most part Kevin and were pretty well matched and stayed together. I kept trying to lose him, but he kept sneaking back up on me! lol His walk is a lot faster than my walk, but I can run longer than he can. So when I was walking he would walk and catch up with me. ARGH!!! lol In the end I wasted him (okay not really, but I did leave him behind! lol), when they said we only had .1 miles left I said I would not stop running until I crossed the finishline. I could see the timeclock when I got close and it was saying 46 mins and I was determined to finish before it hit 47 mins (and really before it hit 46:50). And I did just that, except I think it didn't register my time until I hit the second mat and not the first, which is what I thought it went by so I quit running at the first mat and not the second. So my official time was 46:54. Kevin doesn't know what his time was...he said it was 47 something. lol When we checked the printouts his name/time wasn't on there yet. We were too tired to wait for his results to be printed out! lol (So we will find it on the website once it is uploaded and let you know! lol) Update: Kevin's official time was 47:32. :-) Which was 732 overall.

Oh and just as I was crossing the finish line I heard someone cheering and saying "gooooo Michele!" I looked over and saw one of our friends, a guy that used to work in my department, but moved to the IT area. It was nice to have someone cheering me on at the end.

After I got my shoe tag off, I hurried back to try to get a picture of Kevin as he finshed. He had already crossed the line, but just barely (see those two blue mats, yeah the second one was the timer! lol)

Here we are after the race. Dang I look too happy! lol Maybe I was just happy it was over! lol No, this was about 10 mins after the race was over, so I guess I was doing okay at that point.

Here are my official results. I was 698 overall and 83rd in my age group. Not too bad for my first race and not a ton of training! lol Kevin and I joke that there were only 750 people racing! lol I don't know how many people actually finished, I know there was a group of about 3-4 people that crossed the line as we were leaving which was around 9:10 so they would have been 1 hour and 10 mins. (Click on the picture to see the official info.)

And we learned some other things that if we want to do it next time, no messing around before going to get the food/drinks at the after party. All the granola bars, pizza, and energy fruit shakes were gone, even the bananas were gone. We ended up getting some of those apple dippers from McDonalds, a bottle of "Smart Water" and a juicy juice can (Kevin got orange. I got berry.). That stunk! Especially when we saw people coming out with whole boxes of pizza and granola bars. ARGH! lol Lesson learned, if you want food you go immediately after you are done (and snag some for whoever you are with! ROFL)

We are very proud of ourselves and I am ready for the next one. Not sure about Kevin! lol