This past Saturday I ran in the USMCR Freedom 5k. The race is organized by my awesome running friend Kathy and her husband Sgt. Major Dan. It benefits the Hope for the Warriors which you can learn more about
here. Even though I wasn’t running in the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend, I did get to run with several Marines!
Since I just finished my half-marathon on last week, I wasn’t looking to PR this race but just go out there and have fun. Plus, we got a sweet long sleeve dri-fit shirt! It was perfect running weather; cool, cloudy and a little misty at first. Several of the Off n’ Running Streakers were running, along with my hubby Michael, my BIL and his whole crew.
The route is, of course, hilly but what race route isn’t hilly around here? It’s not really too bad and definitely not as bad as the
Race the Bar #3 route (officially my worst 5k ever!). I did this race
last year too so all I was hoping to do was improve my finish time and I did! Chip time was 30:39 and last year it was 31:22. I have been very consistent this year with 5k finish times under 31 minutes but not under 30 minutes. 45 seconds doesn’t sound like much but that’s what I need to see a "29" in a 5k. No matter how I run, negative split or going out too fast, I still finish around the same time. Maybe I just need to push myself a little harder when racing.
Anyways, just about all of the Streakers (but not me) won an award for their age group! I actually came in fourth place, but third place finished well over a minute before me so there wasn’t really a chance. Michael finished fourth overall and first in his age group; my BIL placed third in his age group and my nephew placed second in his age group! Congrats to everybody for an awesome race!
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| Go Streakers!! |
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| Another award for Michael, yay! |
Somehow, I didn’t get one picture of me! I’m such a bad blogger. Funny because I kept taking pictures for everybody else. I must look like a nice person (or a professional photographer) since random people would give me their iPhones to take pictures for them. Yes, I still want an iPhone since apparently it’s the only way to take pictures (as I pull out my real camera that needs a new battery every 10 minutes). It always seems that I don’t get in any pictures when Michael and I are in the same race. I guess he’s too busy to worry about my photo needs!
Update: I found a few pictures of me taken by the race photographer. Yay!
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| Me (in red) with my nephew |
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| At the end...we love uphill finishes! |
I’ve decided to do the final Race the Bar 5k this Saturday. After the disaster in the third race, I dropped to fourth place in the overall championship standings. I wasn’t sure how I would feel after the half and I didn’t know if I really wanted to do it. But since I physically feel fine, I thought I should take a chance and do it. I’m not sure if I will do well enough to move up in the standings but I know there would be no chance of that happening if I didn’t even try. Maybe I could get lucky and nobody in my age group shows up, ha! I know that won’t happen.
