St. Pat’s 5K Race Recap

Yesterday I ran the St. Pat’s 5K in Providence. This was race #2 of my goal for at least #14in2014. We couldn’t have asked for more awesome weather for a race in March. It was a high of close to 50 and just pure sunshine!

 

 

You know I can’t resist a Zoolander gif when I have the opportunity to use one. Come on now, people!

Yesterday was very exciting for two reasons: 1) it was first race ever last year, which meant this was my first repeat race and chance to beat my original time and 2) since I walked it last year, and was run/walking this year, I knew I’d have an instant PR.

 

 

My walking time last year – 47:16. This year’s time – 37:08 (apparently I started my Garmin sooner than I needed to since it showed 37:13).

 

 

I love this course because the atmosphere is insane. People come out in droves to line the streets for the parade that starts at noon, right after the race ends. This means there are people all up and down the whole course cheering the runners on. It’s not a bad course, either. Pretty flat, with the exception of a massive uphill when you reach the turn-around through a neighborhood. It’s really just an out and back, with the exception of that neighborhood.

 

I’m in the hat and orange sleeves under my green shirt

 

You can see clearly in my splits where I did the majority of my walking. I was surprised at how fast I started out. It didn’t feel like I was running that fast because there are SO many people that come out to just walk the race so you spend the majority of the first half of the race weaving in and out of the walkers. Plus, I was only 5 minutes in to the race when the winner was coming back down, which meant everyone had to move over to the right to clear the left side of the road for the returning runners.

 

 

While I have to say I wish my endurance was back to where it was before my IT band injury, I’m not that upset with this race. I ran more then I expected to, so that made me happy. My knee was a little sore afterwards, but I will say that I never actually warmed up (ran out of time due to huge portapotty lines) and was too nervous and excited after the race to remember to stretch right away.

Why was I nervous and excited afterwards? Well – I was meeting my first ever fellow blogger! Alaina from The Jogging Concierge is trying to reach her goal of 30 races in 2014 and this was one of the races on her list. We arranged beforehand to try to meet up after the race so she stuck around with her parents to wait until I finished. She’s much quicker than me and finished around 30 minutes. She was just as nice in person as she sounds on her blog and it was a pleasure to meet her. You guys should go check out her blog when you have a sec and wish her luck on her 30 races!

 

 

My friend Julia that I work with was supposed to walk the race with another coworker of ours, but she texted Julia and said she wasn’t coming. Since Julia got caught in the traffic with the highway being closed right where she needed to get off, she ended up getting there really late and decided to just hang with Tara and watch the race instead of walking by herself. Once I crossed the finish line and found them, we met up with Alaina for a few minutes, then we decided to grab some lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.

When we got home, we were able to open the slider door for a little bit to get some fresh air in the house. We also took the cats outside for a few minutes to give them some “outside time” (they’re strictly indoor cats, but we have leashes for them).

I also got a nice little surprise in the mail – I feel official now!

 

 

I can’t wait until I receive the tech shirt I ordered as well and I’m really looking forward to this Saturday when I get to meet some of the group.

I’m off to get my butt in gear for the upcoming week. New strength training starts tomorrow, need to get some meal plans in place and I need to ready my snacks for work for the week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

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