5k's, a 10k and PR's ..... Oh My!

Over the past two weekends, Jon and I ran two 5k races and one 10k race.  Both of us achieved PR's and an age group award! 

First, we ran the Whirlirun 5k in Wilson, the morning of May 8th.  It was terribly hot and humid, which made for a tough run...  but the route was a nice loop through downtown Wilson and it was a small group of about 115 runners.  Despite the humidity, Jon pulled a fantastic PR with a time of 23:57.  This was about a 30 second improvement over his previous record.  I finished in 27:15 and managed to get a 1st place age group award.  (clearly, a small field of runners.  haha!)

Next, we ran the Bright Night 5k in Greenville, the night of May 8th.  This would be a new experience for us...  running two races in the same day.  I wondered how I would feel.  The morning race took a lot out of me with the heat, and I felt pretty drained soon after we started.  My legs felt just fine, but my throat was horribly dry and I just felt sluggish overall.  I was expecting to be a couple minutes off of my morning time, and figured around the same for Jon.  He had a finishing time of 26:02 and I came slogging in at 28:58.  I will note, that the lovely timing company did not use a starting mat, so we both lost about 20 seconds.  This irked me, because of all races, I really could have used that 20 seconds tonight!

This past weekend, we were geared up for the Fun Run for Charities 10k race in Rocky Mt.  Last years race was at the end of May and started mid- morning, and the temperatures were just miserable.  The earlier date and start time this year gave us lots of hope for a more comfortable run.  WRONG!  An 8:00am start proved to not be early enough, as it was once again an extremely hot race.  I'm embarrassed to say this, but I actually walked a couple of times during the 4th mile to regulate my breathing.  My goal going in was to break an hour.  At the point I began walking, I knew I'd have no chance of meeting my goal, and got pretty discouraged with myself.  I managed to hit the 5 mile marker and I looked at my watch...  49 minutes and change.  I could possibly still have a chance!!!  I needed to run the last 1.2 under 11 minutes, which meant NO walking and I'd have to keep a decent pace.  So that's exactly what I did...  I knew it would be close, and if I came in just over an hour, I was going to really hate myself for taking those walk breaks earlier.  I pushed on to the end and managed a 59:46 finishing time..  a PR for me.  Very close, but still under an hour.  Hey, I'll take it!! 

Not surprising, Jon smashed his Fun Run time from last year with a 4+ minute improvement.  He finished in 55:47 which was a PR for him as well, having met his goal to break an hour, and he brought home a 3rd place age group award!  WTG Jon!  I'm so proud of your running accomplishments here lately.

We rounded out the day with a RMEC cookout at the home of Tracy Proctor.  I over-indulged on all kinds of bad (good) things that I wasn't supposed to eat, but had a great time.  A big thanks to Tracy for hosting such a great gathering.  It was nice to see everyone together, outside of a race.