Another weekend, another spur of the moment 5k. I decided yesterday to run this race, held in conjunction with a half marathon (that was way to hilly for me to consider), and went to a very crowded packet pick up last night. The race changed organizer's this year, from a student group to the alumni association, who nixed the idea of an expo, and decided instead to do a simple packet pickup. I got my tshirt and a "goody bag" with safety pins, a coupon for a local bookstore, and a city visitors guide.
This morning, I parked about 10 minutes away from the start to give myself a warm up distance. After a jog and a quick use of a (remarkable gross!) porta potty, I joined 385 runners at the start line. It was super cold - 38 and windy.
The first 1/2 mile was downhill, following by a super steep uphill and a few rolling inclines. I hit the one mile mark at 10:10. By the next steep climb, I knew a PR was not possible, but set a goal for myself: even knowing the crazy inclines to come, I was determined not to walk a single step. To date, I had only continously ran 4 other 5ks, including the one last weekend. All of those had been flat, fast courses. I hit the water stop at Mile 2 at 21:30. (I don't typically drink during 5ks).
Mile 3 had a few flat stretches on brick pathways around the IU campus, but it opened up onto a steep climb. Everyone around me was walking, but I powered through, and made it to the finish feeling burning quads and a burning sense of accomplishment. My watch showed 34:19. My official results:
228 1427 Savannah Crane Alley 00:34:26 11:06 F 24 53 F-19 to 24
I spent the rest of my morning grocery shopping and working on the hour before heading to work at 2:00. I did some serious revamping of my grocery cart based on the food journaling I've been doing the past two weeks!
Question: Do you have a garmin? What model? What do you like, and what don't you like about the one you have?