My second 5K of the year was on Saturday! I ran with it with one of the girls from the ice cream shop and her sister came to support. Two of my co-workers also ran the race; we caught up with them later on when we got food.

The race started at 9:00 a.m., so we got there a little before 8:30 a.m. to check in and get our t-shirts. The race was at a little breakfast/ice cream shop about 20 minutes from my house that is the cutest place ever.

I wouldn’t say I necessarily “trained” for this race, but I tried to keep up with running consistently in the last month or so. I went for a run on campus on Tuesday, and it was one of my worst ones in a while. I ran my normal loop backwards, and although I wanted to not stop to walk, I had to because I was basically wheezing. Normally I’m just out of breath, but this time my lungs weren’t having it. I didn’t let myself walk too much and I ran just under three miles in 34:21. Not my best, but I survived. Prior to this, too, I had been having issues with my calves being really sore from running/wearing heeled sandals to work.

We had such a great day for the run; it was sunny and almost 70 degrees. The run went out onto a main road—where the little shop is—and then went into the neighborhoods behind it, and then back onto the main road to finish in the parking lot.

My first mistake was starting out at the front of the pack. Definitely should have been in the middle. That lead me to running the first mile in 9:20. So:

Pro: I can run a 9:20 mile.

Con: It’s not sustainable for me.

I had to stop and walk after the first mile, plus put my hair into a bun from a ponytail. Meg had passed me by this point, and so did a standard poodle who was running with its owner. A DOG RAN FASTER THAN ME.

Then I ran to 1.7 miles before stopping to walk again, because I was wheezing, like I was Tuesday. That’s not super normal for me; I even took an extra puff of my inhaler before the race. There was a water break at two miles, but I didn’t stop. I made myself run again, until I encountered a hill.

I was told this was a fairly flat course with a incline at the end. I was assuming it was a slight incline of a hill, something manageable. Not a hill that was practically vertical. I had to stop and fast-walk up the hill. At this point, I started to panic that I was going to be one of the last ones to finish because I could only see about five or six people behind me.

Once I got up the hill, it was all downhill from there—literally. I ran the rest of the way to the finish line… and earned myself a personal best for races at 33:48.

I walked a combined ~mile of the race, most of a hill, ran a 9:20 mile, and got my best time yet?! Running doesn’t make any sense to me. Maybe the quick start out of the gate plus a little more walking evened out to around my regular finishing time for a 5K? Overall, it felt a little messier than the race I did in March.

I shaved five seconds off my time from that race. I placed 124 out of 184 runners, so there’s confirmation that I wasn’t one of the last to finish. Looking at the race results, I’d assume there were some walkers.

After I caught my breath, we headed inside to get bagels. They get their bagels from a local bagel shop in the area, and they are AMAZING.

Our race came with a t-shirt and an ice cream sundae. Since I was full after eating my bagel, I got my sundae to go: hot fudge on grasshopper—mint ice cream with Oreos. It was nice to not have to make the sundaes ourselves haha.

We headed out a little before 11:00 a.m. I went home, showered, and went to a used book sale at the town library; I’ll have a post about that on Wednesday.