First ever race report!

I apologize ahead of time if my thoughts are all over the place. I am still "high" from the race! So let me start from last night. I went to bed at 9pm and slept better than I thought I would but I did wake up several times to see how much more time I had to sleep. I hate when i do that. I got up at 5:45 and got dressed and did a long stretch. It felt like Christmas morning!

I had no trouble, thankfully, getting my husband out of bed, he was awesome all morning, even though I know he wished he were back home in bed. It was a very chilly 32*, so we stopped at Dunkin Donuts so he could get a coffee to keep him warm and then we were off to the races!

There were so many people! About 1400 or so was the "official" estimate. A lot of people were doing warm up runs which really discouraged me because I was thinking to myself if I had done a warm up run, I would be too tired already! I stretch again, quickly, and take my place towards the back of the pack since I am pretty slow. Nice conversations back there.

The blow horn thingy went off and it was another 45 seconds until I crossed the start line. i remembered the advice all of you had given me and started off at my normal pace of about 11:30, give or take 15 seconds. My legs were numb and so were my fingers. I wore shorts with a long-sleeved tech shirt, a vest and a snow cap (New England Patriots of course).

Anywhoo...I hit mile 1 at their 12:00 point, my 11:15. Then during mile 2 I find myself occassionally at 12:50-13:00, damn, why did I slow down? Then there was the water station and I walked for a brief 15 seconds so I could drink and I felt bad throwing my cup on the ground but the water lady assured me it was ok. I hate littering! I don't know what it was but that last mile I was easily doing a 9:50-10:30 pace and felt awesome!

I had 2 goals, to finish without walking and finish in under 35:00 minutes. I accomplished both!! I did walk a the water station, but I am not counting that. and "my" Garmin time was 34:15! I will definitely post the "official" time when the Track Shack posts them on the web.

Oh, and this was a costume race, though not may people did that. The theme was "you are what you eat". I passed a bunch of purple grapes but got passed by a hot dog and a bottle of beer. Go figure. I thought the healthier foods would have passed me, not the bad stuff!

Thanks to all for your support and encouragement!

I am officially addicted! Oh and lastly, my longest run was only 2.65 miles, so running 3.1 was not only my first 5k but my longest run to date!

Run & Food

Run: 5k- 34:19
Breakfast: gatorade, Clif bar, banana
Lunch: turkey and cheese sub w/ a little mayo, pita chips
Snack: 94% fat free kettle korn popcorn
Dinner: chicken, baked potato (a little butter & shredded cheese), corn
Dessert: chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered pretzels (hmm....)