Navy 5-Miler Race Recap

I survived! Woohoo!! A huge part of me feels bad that this was such a slow race and a lot of other negative talk, since so many other blogs I read are runners with a fast pace. I am SOOOO slow!! But, I have to keep telling myself that the only person I am racing against myself is me. While I have been unofficially been run/walking for the past 1 year and a half or so, I am pretty new to the racing scene. Onto the day!

The alarm started ringing at 5AM. I immediately wanted to sleep through the alarm and go back to bed, but no. I got up, grabbed coffee and breakfast, and then got dressed.

 

Breakfast

 

COFFEE

We finally headed down to the metro to make our way into DC. The start was at the Washington Monument and it was beautiful! All my snaps of the monument were blurry, but I did get a nice shot of the Capitol!

 

We made it down there in plenty of time to hear the National Anthem and watch the Half-Marathon start. We attempted to hit the “bathrooms,” but the lines were ridiculous. Foreshadowing. . . Another 20 minutes passed and it was our turn to start. I plugged the headphones in with the goal of doing 3 minutes running and then 1 minute walking. I let my father know to ignore and just keep running and then we were off.

The father just cruised onward and I was on my own. Not too bad at all! I was a little irritated how bad my right leg was feeling barely a mile in. Grr! My shin was hurting and then my hip started aching. (It still does.) I quickly changed my approach to see if that would help. I also had to make a bathroom stop in here. Stupid boys! While we both got out of the long lines before the start, my father was able to run into the Washington Monument and use their bathrooms and be back in like a minute.

I was aiming to run .15 mile and then walk .10. This lasted for about 2 miles, until after I was half way down. At this point, while my hip was still aching, things started to pick up and I knew I was going to finish.

Again, I feel like such a wimp. To most runners, 5 miles is a short run.

Once I hit mile 4, it was on. I knew I was not going to be finishing in under 1:05, but maybe 1:10. I ran most of the last mile and was happy to cross that finish line. The clock had just clicked over 1:10 when I crossed.

Garmin Time – 1:07:58 <I stopped the watch for the bathroom break.

Official Time – 1:08:59

Overall, it was a fun race, but I have A LOT of improvement to do. I am glad I finished, but it could have been better. We stopped at King Street for post race brunch and then slowly made our way back. The french toast and bacon was yummy, but the eggs not so much.

The rest of today has been spent taking a nap and then working on homework. I am looking forward to trying out some new fitness classes this week and also getting back into the swing of training for the Army 10-Miler. Have a great rest of your Sunday!