The Little Things
October 18, 2016

Well, after 8 long months of not toeing a starting line, this past weekend I FINALLY got to race a 5k! Being injured has felt pretty hard at moments, but that beautiful half an hour I spent running held to ease a whole lot of that emotion.

The night before my race I had a really chill and low key night. I ate dinner and spent the evening reading, watching One Tree Hill, and sitting in the glow of a candle.

candle-and-reading

So peaceful, isn’t it?

On race morning I was awake on my own at 6:40 am, excited and ready to go. I hardly remembered what a race morning was supposed to be like, and actually ended up forgetting my garmin at home (and didn’t realize it until I was at the race!).

The drive over to the race was pretty relaxed, and I think I just ended up listening to a podcast while enjoying the sunrise. Timehop also reminded me that morning that 5 years ago that very day was my very first race, which was on the exact same course!

5k-race-pic-1

The race fee was super cheap (10 dollars- no medal, no bib, no shirt- I loved that option!), and with only about 100 people running, it was a really smooth sign up. i warmed up briefly and chatted with a few friends before the gun went off.

I have only run a 5k distance once since March (on my birthday!) and my pace on my 1.5-2.5 mile runs has been between 12 and 13 minutes most weeks, so I had no idea what I should expect.

I hit mile 1 in just about 10 minutes, and really realized how off my pacing had been. It was just so exciting to be back on a race course after so many months. By about mile 1.75 mile legs felt tired and heavy, and I was not feeling excited with my decision to go out as fast as I had.

However, I thought about my post about living with POTS that I wrote last week, and thought about my journey of racing the last 5 years, and tapped into a strength I got from that.

I kept up a pretty good pace, listening to music from a playlist I made for the monumental half marathon in 2014 . I had started with a podcast but just couldn’t listen to the talking while I raced, and craved some good beats to run to!

Here are my splits:

I crossed the finish line right at 33:00.

5k-race-pic-2

Overall I’m super pleased with this race. It felt good to be running, and I felt pretty strong, despite having bombed the first mile. I only came in thirty seconds slower than the same race last year, when I was in awesome shape, so I can’t complain at all.

Again, I just feel so thankful to be able to run.

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