Finding Drew: 5K on the Runway!

Today I woke up and headed to the local airport to run my fourth ever 5K. My Mother was suppose to come with me as she signed up for the 1K walk, but she didn't end up making it as she unexpectedly had to go out of town.

The weather for the run this morning was wet, wet, wet. Mother nature surely didn't give a rats that I was running! I'm not going to lie, this one was VERY hard for me. I thought I had mentally prepared for rain (and I think I partly did), but I didn't realize how hard running a route that had NO hills would be. Holy Mother people. It kicked my behind in a big way!!!

I always curse hills. NEVER again! I do dislike going up them, but now I'll take a hilly 5K any day. Why...because what goes up, must come down...and I love running downhill! Running on a runway is super hard. It's flat people. Flat as a pancake. Add the fact that you have no where to hide from the the crazy elements you're totally vulnerable. Sure other runners might have thought this run was still a piece of cake, but I did not! This run was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

I ran the first 20min fine and then I think I had a mini mental breakdown. There was so much negativity swimming around in my head. ugh....Not. Good! The same thing happened when I ran the Pride and Remembrance run by myself. I swear I am far better when I run races with buddies than when I run them by myself! I'm not sure if I took off too fast out of the gate, or walking for 8 hours yesterday, or eating shit food lately finally caught up with me, .but by the 20min mark I was toast. As a result, I ended up walking the route a lot more than I was expecting to after that. I really wanted to do 10s and 1s like I did at my last 5K (which worked out great!), but I just couldn't muster up the energy or the will to push on. I walked and jogged off and on the rest of the way to the finish line.

The good news is I finished the race just past the 40 min mark (Still a much better time than my first 5K and that one I ran the entire thing! Yup...I was S.L.O.W). I'm really happy about my time this time, because this means, I am capable of running under 40min in the right conditions, if I stuck to my 10s and 1s and don't have a mental breakdown! lol.... Sure it sucks that didn't happen this time, but whatever. I still got out there in the rain and did my best and that's all that matters!!!! This was a hard race for me, under hard conditions and I was just happy to finish. Next time I'm hoping for a nicer route and better weather so I will be able to finally say I ran a timed 5K under 40.

Here are some pictures I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Not the greatest pic I know. Doesn't My father know to take pictures of fat gals on a down angle???!!!!!
Taken at my parents (as I had to pick up my Mom's pledges) before heading to the race.
Like my new gear?

At the airport
Cool to see some planes!

Getting ready to depart!

Wet, Wet, Wet!!!!!
Silly me didn't bring a hat....hey, I'm learning. Last time I didn't bring gloves, this time I did!
The girl behind me didn't though! ;-)