For some reason when I sent in the pre-registration forms for my winter races, I didn't realize until after I mailed them in that I now have 2 weekends where I'm running races both days - this weekend was the first of those. Run Run Rudolph was yesterday morning and the first race of the Winter Series was this afternoon.
While yesterday wasn't exactly a bad run for me, it wasn't a great one either. Today I felt more rested and more prepared, and was ready to run. I didn't have any big plans or major goals for this race, except for maybe a course PR (last race on this course was the Run with a Cop back in June, which I ran in 31:36).
I set out at what felt like a nice easy pace and just ran. It was a "Forrest Gump" kind of moment - "I just felt like running". Started out farther back today than I did yesterday, so I didn't feel the pressure to be super fast at first, and I could just run my own pace. Looked at the Garmin a few times, and was surprised to see the numbers that I did. I wasn't sure I could keep it up, but I did, even managed negative splits.
About half mile or so from the finish, a random guy running next to me looked over at me and said "let's pass those guys", so I took up the challenge and picked up the pace and passed those guys, and probably the next 4 or 5 people too.
I don't know who he was, but I owe him a big "Thank You!!" Not only did he give me the push to give me a new 5K PR, but he made me see that I can probably run the whole race faster than I have been. I'm starting to think about my running goals for 2012, and I may need to revamp my goal 5k time to be a bit faster than I was planning :o) Three cheers for improvement!!! So excited that I'm making so much progress. And I thought I'd never be a runner!
Garmin Time:
3.14 miles, 29:17, avg. pace: 9:19
Splits:
Mile 1 - 9:39
Mile 2 - 9:28
Mile 3 - 8:58
Mile 0.14 - 8:32
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