first ever 5K race report

i was a bit nervous before my first 5K. i'm sure i talked incessantly to everyone i knew. probably bugged a few of them who were trying to get in the zone. sorry guys! i jogged around the block to warm up. i drank my gatorade. i fiddled with my race number...my first ever. i said hi to everyone i knew. that would be nine people. seven from argonia and two from wellington including DMer bryan j.

finally race time came...and went. the schedule said 7:30 grand depart, but we were held up by some last minute changes. a few runners who had signed up for the 1-mile race decided they'd rather do the 5K. so we waited patiently while they got the registration chaos under control.

finally, about 5 minutes late, the gun went up and we were off. i was afraid that i'd start out too fast, but i kept myself under control and ran my pace. i knew a couple of the guys in my age group and didn't even try to run with them. one of them, my chiropractor, ended up second over all.

on the way out to the turn around, i kept my eyes on the flashing lights on the sherrif's car leading the way. it never got out of sight, but it did keep getting farther and farther away. that's how i knew were the race leaders were.

i ran just behind a pretty young kid for most of the way out. he ran back and forth across the highway even though we'd been told to stay on the north side of the road. he switched back to the correct side only when a car got through the road block and threatened to flatten him.

i just say, i'm pretty sure they kept moving the halfway point farther away ever minute or two. i didn't think i was ever going to get there. i finally did and grabbed a cup of cold water. i got a few swigs in my mouth, sort of, then tossed the cup aside. how do you drink on the run? i'll have to figure that out before my next race.

the final 2.5K was not fun. i kept going, but not because i felt like it. i just would not let myself quit. one guy passed me about a mile out. i asked him what age group he was in as he jogged beside me for a second or two. he was a 30-39er. "go right ahead," i said. no threat to my position. don't know what i would've done if he'd been in my age group.

so i finished. i was a bit disappointed that i didn't hit my 25-minute pre-race goal, but once my heart rate and breathing returned to close to normal, i didn't really care all that much. 25'49" wasn't bad. i finished third in my age group and about 12th or 13th overall in a field of 55 runners.

after i walked off the pain a bit, i returned to the finish line and cheered in my fellow argonians. the 6th grader finished first in her age group. her dad was second in my age group. another woman, one i rode with, finished third in her age group. argonia was well represented. dailymile was too, with my third in age group placing and bryan j's second n age group finish.