A second race in the bag

I completed my second 5k race this morning, this one was a solo race, as my partner was unable to attend. I was pretty excited about this one, being the weather was like night and day from last weeks race, and I was feeling pretty relaxed and ready for it.

We got to the race with a few moments for me to warm up, and scan the crowd for a fellow runner and friend, Deb who was planning to shatter her own 5k personal best.

I left Deb at the front of the starting line, and I took my place near the rear of the pack, or the "Less Fast" runners.

Soon we were off and the fast runners took off. From my vantage point I was able to see just how large this group was and it was quite incredible to see how many people were racing.

It wasn't too long in before I was left in the dust by the pack. It was nice though. No one really around me, no one trying to overtake me, just me and the pavement. I just paced myself, and listened to my music as I enjoyed the scenery on the river pathway.

It was probably just after the 2km marker that the lead runners were making their way back to the finish, and boy were they flying by. It wouldn't be until they were handing out the awards that I found out the leader took the 5k with an astounding 16:56ish time. And here I thought last week's winner was fast at just over 20 minutes!!

It was about seven or eight runner passing me the other way when I saw Deb going hard for her run. Gave a little cheer to her and plugged along with my own race. It was encouraging in a way to see everyone passing me the other way. It somehow drove me to keep going and push a little harder.

When I finally reached the turnaround point, I got to see just how many people were still behind me, and just as I had suspected... very few. But I was ok with that. I had kind of figured based on the number of people running, that I would be one of the few beginners, and a slow one at that. Again, I was ok with it. I wasn't there for anyone else but myself. I was running for me and it was just another weekend run, this just happening on the river path.

Soon I finally passed the 4k mark and could see the bridge I had left to cross to make my way to the finish. As I crossed the bridge in the last 500 meters or so, I saw my mother at the foot of the bridge, waiting to see me. She was able to snap off a few action shots of me running along.

Finally heading down the last few meters

I crossed the line.. 5.07km in 41:18

My time would have been just under 41 minutes for a 5k even , and that was fine by me. I wasn't planning on setting any PB's at this point. I'm just running for fun and enjoyment:)

The nice part was winning a door prize at the end... A nice new running hat. Something I was *just* telling my husband this morning that I needed to go find. Good thing too because somewhere along the route I lost my hairband...

It was a nice race, a beautiful morning run and a prize to boot.

Good day:)