July 4th not only was a celebration of
Independence Day but it also marked the start of racing season for me. I’ve taken 2.5 months off of races to give
myself a rest. I haven’t done more than
a 6 miler in training since Iron Girl in April. I was excited for the Melon Run. I ran this race last year as my second 5K and
finished strong in 30:10. My only goal
this year was to beat that time.
Leading up to the race my training has been going
so-so. I really doubted I’d make my goal
as my pace hasn’t been faster than a 10 min/mile in a while due to the heat and
inconsistent training. It’s difficult to
get all of my runs in when it’s 90 degrees outside and all of my traveling that
I’ve been doing. I prepared myself to
just be happy to finish and not worry about pace as I knew training hadn’t been
ideal.
The weather race day was perfect. No rain, a bit of sunshine but enough clouds
to keep from dying during the run. A
little over 400 runners showed up for the run, which is an awesome turnout for
a local race. It was my first race as a
Fit2Run Ambassador. It was nice seeing
familiar faces at the race. When I first
started running I often did races alone but that is no longer the case, as I
always seem to find either a Fit2Run Ambassador or team runDisney member to
meet up with race day.
As everyone gathered to the start line I placed myself in
the middle of the pack. I didn’t want to
get trampled and didn’t want to be dodging too much either. That worked out well for me because I don’t
remember having too much difficulty passing people. I thought I was running at a slightly slower
than training pace until I reached the one mile mark and heard my Nike
update. I ran the first mile in 9:03,
which was a significantly faster pace than I’ve been running the past
month. I was pleasantly surprised by my
pace and was even more surprised at how great I felt after the first mile. The plan was to switch to intervals after the
first mile but since I felt so great I kept running and didn’t rely on the
intervals. I stopped to walk for water
but that was about it. I ended up
finishing in 27:31. I met my goal! I beat last year’s time :)
I had a great time and my only complaint is that the race
shirts were only in men sizes. The
x-small is even a bit big for me. I can
wear it but I don’t think I’d run it.
This is a bummer because I liked the design this year. I’m not sure why they didn’t offer women’s
sizes like last year as there were slightly more women runners than male
runners.
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| Last year's shirt |
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| This year's shirt |
After the race I treated myself to some delicious watermelon
and met up with the other Fit2Run Ambassadors.
We cheered on the kids during the 1 mile kid race. I loved this!
One boy finished in 7 minutes.
That’s faster than my fastest mile.
Impressive to say the least.
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| 1 Mile Kid Race |
My next race is a 10K in August. Hopefully it’ll be just as fun!
