Racin for the Cure

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I had an AMAZING time at the Race for the Cure this past Saturday. Kendra (my running buddy & trainer) and Lorene (her Mother-in-law and long time family friend) were my running companions. The two of them are "pro runners" and have run many races under their belts, so it was so nice to be shown the ropes by them.

We got to the race about an hour early and spent some time standing in lines getting some great giveaways. We got some cute tote bags and even won a pink water bottle. It was so much fun and the energy of the race participants was so cool.

The weather was PERFECT too! It couldn't have been a better first run. I was very very excited and had trouble containing my excitement for the hour prior to our race.

Once we got out to the race line I could barely wait to get started. When the race finally began, Kendra and I kept a pretty nice pace and we were even passing people! My goal for this race was just to have fun and to hopefully beat my previous best time for the 5K which was 33:36. During our training, we always do run/walk intervals so I wasn't sure what the best strategy was going to be for this run. I was pleasantly surprised that with all of the pre race energy I was able to run half of the race without taking a single walk break! We walked for about 30 seconds and then ran the rest of the race. Our finishing time was 28:28!

I was so excited because this is the first time in my life that I've run this far without tons of walking breaks and this was by far my top average mile time. When I began my training in February I was lucky to run for one minute at a time without taking a walking break and I had average mile times of 13 minutes or more. I had such a great time and I just can't even describe how amazing it felt to hit that finish line knowing that I had beat my previous best time by 5 minutes!

Everything about the race was so much fun. I'm hooked for sure! I'm already planning the next race which will be a half marathon in October. Ciege was with me and chearing me on at the finish line. It was so great to have him there with me. He's been running with us on our training runs lately and has really been pushing/motivating me. I don't think that I would be running at all if it weren't for my great support network of friends and family.