The 5K That Wasn't, and Grandma J's Visit

After an 80 mile bike ride last weekend, I decided to focus more on running this past week. I even ran on the treadmill one night while under a tornado warning waiting for the storm to come in (that will make you run faster!). I was safe, watching the news and the radar so I could get off if I needed to. And doing all that running this week made me want to run the local 5k this morning. I wasn't sure how I would feel or how I would do since I did a 58 mile bike ride yesterday, but I thought I'd give it a go.

So this morning, I jogged over to the start for a total of 1.13 miles at 11:03 pace. That was a nice warm up. The weather felt great for a 5k. I lined up right at the front and took off when they said go. Right away I felt like I was huffing and puffing, but it's only 3.1 miles, right? I can hang on. I hit the one mile mark and looked at my mile split - 8:26. Perfect. If I could hang on, I might set a PR (personal record) today. I kept going. At mile 2, the split was 8:49. A little slower, but it was over some hills. I knew the last part of the course was downhill or fairly flat. Could I PR?

I found myself behind another runner that I see around the neighborhood all the time. As we approached the turn toward the finish, I see him do a double take. And I look ahead of him and ALL the runners are going straight and not turning. I then notice a cop car parked like it is blocking the road we are suppose to turn on. What????? So I yell to the guy in front of me, "isn't that our turn". He agrees it is, but everyone else is going on, so we follow the group. I knew the course is going the wrong way and would be long, but I wanted to keep going at the speed I was going to see if I could place. When I got to the Mile 3 marker and hit my split button, it showed 14:10. Yep, that mile was LONG. I crossed the line and saw my final time of 32:15. And the total distance showed 3.75 miles. So I ran more than a 5k this morning.

When I find my average pace for that distance, it shows my average was 8:36. If I put in 8:36 for 3.1 miles, my time would have been 26:40. I probably wouldn't have gotten a PR, but I'll never know. Hopefully next year they can get the course right again. As it was, I came in 5th in my age group so I'm happy.

Then I jogged back home - (1.05 miles at 10:34 pace), took a shower and headed to church.

We had a special visitor coming today and I wanted to make sure I was there to meet her. Cortney was busy setting up for our Creekside Gathering service, so I waited outside for Grandma J to arrive. We enjoyed church together and then went to eat at our favorite little Mexican food restaurant. Yummm!!!! We had a great time at lunch getting to know each other better.

We are home for a brief time before heading back to the church, so I thought I'd post an update. I only got one picture today, so here it is. This is me, Grandma J and Cortney. The others got some more pictures, so if you want to see them, head on over to Grandma J's or Cortney's blog.

Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip with my son's fourth grade class to the Alamo. It should be a fun, but long day. We have to be at the school at 6:30 a.m.