Susy's first 5k race

I haven't posted this week because I've been sooooo nervous about running my first 5K race today. I would never have signed up for a race yet, but one of my coworkers was coordinating Run to Remember, a 5K race in honor of her brother-in-law, a police officer killed in the line of duty. (It was also in honor of all other area police officers killed and benefited a survivor's charity.) Anyway, I decided to give it a shot.

I couldn't get the day off of work, but I did get permission to go in late. My boss was also running and was very excited about my first race. (I think this was her third race in three weeks- she's into running.) Anyway, I was nervous about running outside, nervous about the hills, nervous about maybe needing to walk, nervous about finishing dead last. You get the picture...

This morning was incredibly windy, cool and spitting rain. The weather made me even more nervous. I decided my goals were to not walk and to finish in less than 40 minutes. I started at the back of the pack and stayed there. I paced myself well and had no problems until the very end of the race when I had to run uphill for the final quarter mile or so. Boss Lady was cheering me at the finish line (I don't know how fast she finished, but she generally wins her age group.) We talked a couple minutes, talked to our coworker a couple minutes and I left for work. The Boss has Saturdays off so she got to stay.

I was feeling really good. I didn't walk, I wasn't tired and I finished in 31 minutes. I couldn't have hoped to run faster than ten minute miles! I was very happy with the whole experience and very glad I went ahead and ran the race. I'm now completely confident I'll be able to do Zoo Run Run in September. The course is probably easier!

Later in the morning I was cleaning the camel yard when I got a radio call asking my location. A few minutes later, Boss Lady showed up and asked how I was feeling? I replied "great" and she said she was going to make me feel even better. She whipped a medal out of her pocket and told me I won my age group! Ummmm, was I the ONLY 35-39 female? No, all three medals were claimed. Wow. I KNOW my finish time was only impressive to me. Still, I'll take winning my age group in my first race ever! Probably the only time it will EVER happen, LOL!