See Julie Run

Time: 19:57
Pace:  6:26
Award: 1st Place Overall Female

Well, one thing was for sure with this race.  The summer had definitely arrived in Myrtle Beach.  Despite the heat, I had a steady goal for this race.  After looking at how well my 5K times had improved since January, I told my boyfriend that if I really wanted to, I could “will” myself to run a sub 20 5K for this race (half jokingly but also half serious).   He told me I was crazy and I begged to differ, but I knew I just had to prove it.

As I’ve said before, I’m a tad bit competitive.  Another important thing about this race was the fact that a girl who’s my age recently joined our running group and she’s good.  I’ll admit, I was a little fired up about the fact that she could beat me.  A friend of mine in the group kept sort of “egging me on” about her possibly crossing that finish line before me and I know it really shouldn’t bother me as long as I do my best and blah blah blah, but well, it sort of did.  Ok, so now onto the race.

I did my usual pre-race routine that morning with a little more water than usual to counter the intense 85-degree heat and warmed up with Cayla (girl who’s my age) and we talked about our goals for the race.  She said she just wanted to finish with me. Ugh. :-\ The gun went off and we took off together-FAST-, and she ran a few steps in front of me. Ugh.
Ugh.

Before I knew it, Mile Marker one was in sight already.  I looked down at my watch to see a 5:55 mile.  Yikes. By far, that was the fastest mile I’ve ever run.  I caught up to Cayla and told her that that was a crazy fast mile and that I was going to step back before I burned out.  She slowed it down with me, but then eventually dropped back pretty far back behind me.  I leeched onto some nice young guy who kept encouraging me that we were “almost there” and after a few killer hills, the finish line was in sight.  Once I turned the corner for the last stretch and I saw that 20min had not yet hit the clock, I gave it everything I had and ended up just 3 seconds shy of 20min and 1st place overall female.  Woo Hoo! All in all, a great day for racing for me with a new PR!

Next race: Military Appreciation Run

Cayla and I with our awards

*Note* I am behind on my blogging but I want to make sure that I get all of my races to date on here so that I can go back and see all of my times and experiences.  Once I play “catch up” I’m going to be better, I promise!

Time: 20:47
Pace: 6:42
Award: 2nd Overall Female

I swore I was just going to go and watch my friends do this race because I was just coming off the 10-miler, but I guess I should have known myself a little better.  I was feeling really good the night before, no fatigue or pain so I decided to get up early and do my usual pre-race routine with breakfast and stretching and head to the race with the intention to run.  I decided that running the 5K was better than running the 10K and I’m glad I did it.

I didn’t really have a goal in mind for this race.  I knew it was in a state park and read online how nice the course was going to be so that’s why I really wanted to do this race.  Turns out, the write-ups weren’t lying.  Though it was a hot South Carolina day, the course was really cool.  It was shaded for the most part, with the exception of running over boardwalks, we ran on paved trails through the park.

My only complaint about this race was the payment to get into the state park.  While it’s understandable that the park service still has to charge for all who enter the park, it should have been incorporated with the race fee.  The line to get into the park was crazy even when I got there, and I got there an hour early.  Some people from my running group didn’t even make it into the park before the start of the race, and needless to say, they weren’t too happy.  Better planning on that next year would be appreciated!

I was very happy with my run overall, I finished very strong and took 2nd place with 20:47, another significant drop from my previous 5K time back in February.  Next race: Blue Crab Festival in Little River 5K.