Hooo-ray for Race Day! Runshunga 5K

Last weekend I ventured back to my hometown to run a 5K with some friends. Here we are before the race...
So great to see my best dude friend Russ who is 20 pounds from his goal weight, after weighing 400 pounds when he started his journey to get fit. Just freaking amazing. He has the sweetest little wife who also has dropped like pretty much a whole person. She wasn't able to come this weekend :( boo hoo, we missed you jaimeiam.

Last year, this race was his very first race & he ran it in 45 min. This past weekend, he kicked that 5Ks ass with a 24:07. Just WoW! You can check out Russ's blog on the right side of my page (Thunder Road Racing). Need some inspiration? You'll find it there.

Ok so back to race day. The 5K is a challenging distance for me - it's fast, no time to relax & get a rhythm going. I didn't really know what to expect of myself for this race because I haven't really been focused on running since the Lincoln 1/2, & especially not focused on the 5K distance.

I knew I could at least do 9 min miles, so I was thinking probably a 27 min or so, but honestly would have been happy with anything under 30.

As usual....chatty cathy at the start line with my friends - not even realizing the race was about to start. The gun went off & I was like "oh crap, I guess we're going!". ooops.

Mile 1 check in - going pretty fast - but feeling ok. Course was great, pretty flat except a gradual hill on mile 2. Thank you Mika for changing the route from last year! ;)

We rounded the corner to the finish - probably a 1/2 mile to go - all downhill. What I love about 5Ks - there are usually some kids running. I spotted a little boy, probably about 7-8 years old - walking. I came up on him & said 'dude, you aren't going to let a girl in a skirt beat you are you?'. That kid sprinted to the finish so fast I totally couldn't even catch him. HA. Want to make a boy run fast? Threaten him with getting beat by a girl. So funny.

I came in at 25:57, 8:22 pace. Feeling fast! I thought for sure that time would have been enough to bring home some hardware, but darn it, I got 4th in my age group .... top 3 get the goods. Eh, next time.

Super fun race day. We stayed for the parade afterward, drank some beers (yes, it was only 8:30 am, but hey, when you get up at 5 that's pretty much lunch time right?!)

Out of the group, Phil took home first in his age group, Krista took home 3rd, & Rob ran his first 5K in under 30 min. That was even a Happy Birthday 5K!

It was great to spend some time with my friends who I totally don't get to see often enough. Here we are :)