St. Patty's Day 5k

After finishing the Disney Princess Half Marathon about three weeks ago, I began to wonder what my next running goal should be.  I knew I wanted to sign up for the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in September, but I had 6 months to wait for that.

I decided that I would work on my pace until I picked back up with the distance training.  So, naturally, I wanted to PR in a shorter distance.  I picked the St. Patrick's Day 5k Run/Walk for the Kids since my school's SGA was helping to put it on.  I also decided that not only did I want to PR, I wanted to run the 3.1 miles in 30 minutes or less.

The race was the day before St. Patrick's Day, so I made sure to get some green race gear to celebrate the occasion.  Thanks, Target, for the awesome socks!

No thanks, cell phone, for the blurry pic

I woke up this morning before the alarm, and I was ready to meet my goal!  I arrived at the start and realized the course was all on the beach.  This made me nervous after my not-so-easy beach run in St. Pete in December.

Beautiful scenery when I arrived

On the plus side, the beach in Daytona is very flat and there is a lot of solid sand.  I knew that I still could meet my goal of a PR under 30:00.  The course was an out-and-back course with the turnaround at the water station.

Start/Finish line drawn in the sand

I started REALLY fast and knew I needed to back off a bit if I was going to last.  I ran the first mile in 8:30, and based off the runs that Joe and I did this week, I was afraid that I would run out of steam.  After the water station at mile 1.6, I walked for about a tenth of a mile then picked it back up.

I started to hit a mental block at about 2.25, so I walked for a minute then ran .25 miles.  I knew I could still finish in under 30 minutes if I did this.  When I go to mile 2.7, I saw the finish.  I decided to pick up the pace and push through, and boy did that pay off!

Official Time: 28:42 matched my Garmin

I averaged 9:09 pace!  Wow!  I was so happy with myself!  And, I wound up running 3.14 miles, which is what I wanted to run on Pi Day (but a run didn't happen).  Yay nerdy math distance!

I stuck around for the awards since the principal of the school (aka my boss) was there and we were having a good conversation.  Little did I know that other than the 1st place overall woman, I was the top finisher in the 19-29 female age group!

What a great way to start my day.  PRing AND finishing top in my age group!  I'm really pleased with myself, and it gives me a lot of confidence about PRing in the half in September.

Who knows...maybe I'll find a 10k to do soon and go for a PR in that :)  Have a great Saturday, y'all!