The Children's Way 5K

Me and my co-workers, Missy and Mia

(ignore the poor quality iphone photo)

Yesterday morning Stephen and I ran The Children's Way 5K benefiting the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Jacksonville.  There were quite a few runners for this race, as I had expected.  Many families came out to walk the entire course to give back to the Ronald McDonald house.  I finished the race in 32:06 mins.  I really wanted to finish it in thirty minutes, but I knew that was going to be a hard goal to obtain.  I was satisfied with my time, and hope to finish my next race in 30 minutes! 

It is an adjustment getting used to running in a large group of people.  The first mile you are dodging and weaving aound those that are slower than you.  We picked a place in the middle of the crowd knowing that we would probably average around a ten minute mile.  We started out a little faster than we normally run, at a 8:30 mi/min pace.  I felt good and thought why not go with it.  As we approached the one mile mark I was ready to slow down and scaled my pace back to 10:30 mi/min.  I made Stephen stop and walk with me somewhere right before mile two.  He obliged and we continued to run and walk the rest of the race.  I kept getting a cramp right under my left arm.  I thought it was a strange place for a cramp.  We will see if this happens again. 

Afterwards my right achilles tendon started killing me.  I know I don't stretch enough, but I am going to now!  I have been resting and icing it today and it feels much better.  I am also (strongly) considering going to the local running store and letting them properly fit me for shoes.  I know I overpronate on my right side and this can really give you problems.  (and I don't have time for problems!)

I will be running another 5K in October, followed by a 10K mid November.  I am looking forward to improving my time!