Race Report - Biggest Loser 5k

A week ago if you had asked me what my plans were for today I would have told you - Nothing much; some laundry, watching the start of the Tour de France, hanging out at home.  But on Wednesday, I saw a small ad for a 5k at the bottom of a website. Since I was at work, I didn't check out the link and went on to what I was actually searching for (lots of happenings at the  US Supreme Court in the HR world this week), but I did make a mental note to check it out when I got home.  And I did, thought it looked like fun, and registered, just a couple of hours before online registration closed.

So that's how I came to run the Biggest Loser 5k this morning.  I've been running, but not really training, and definitely not training to run a fast 5k. But my thoughts were along the lines of "I'm planning on running at least 3 miles on Saturday anyway, might as well do it with a bunch of other people."  A t-shirt, a medal, and the camaraderie of other runners are worth the race fee any day.

I lined up at the start line and was feeling a bit claustrophobic because the corral was really narrow and crowded.  There were a lot of runners there, but not quite so many that they needed a corral or a wave start, but that's how it was done.  They also had pace groups. Once I saw that, I had the plan to stick close to the 10:30 group, but with the way the corral was angled, I wasn't in the same wave as the guy with the sign.  By the time I got started, they were just far enough away that I couldn't catch them. 

And of course, my trying to catch up with them means I started out too fast and wasn't able to keep up the pace.  Between the fast start and the heat, I ended up having to slow down (and walk some as well).  But all in all, I did pretty well for running a race on a whim.  There was a time, not so long ago, that I couldn't even run 3 blocks, let alone 3 miles.  And to run a 3 mile race without really training for it, that's saying something.  I've come a long way in my running journey.  And it's not over yet.

Race Stats:
Biggest Loser 5k, June 29, 2013
Overall Time: 34:00, 10:46mpm
Splits: Mile 1 - 10:21, Mile 2 - 11:00, Mile 3 - 11:10, Mile 0.16 - 9:22

Enough about me, let's talk about the race. The Biggest Loser people put on a good show.  A nice packet pick-up/expo with some seminars if you're interested and stuff to buy (t-shirts, stickers, stuff like that). And the race itself - motivating atmosphere, balloons, music, contestants from the show participating and keeping you entertained before and after, a decent race shirt, and a cool medal.  It was well organized and well done.  I don't want to sound negative about my town, but I don't think we did the race justice.  I don't remember seeing it advertised or promoted; maybe I missed it, but I don't think it was.  And it should have been.  It was a good time.