Run with patience the race that is set before us

This race is a free race in Sandy for my cousin's son who died a few years back. He was in high school. There is a balloon send off which was really sweet. His younger brother is now back from a mission and dating a girl--so crazy to see my cousin's boy growing up. I was happy to be there with a lot of cousins and relatives to support Brandon and his family.

I ran this race on my own and I find it easier to run with someone. The last 5k I did was with my running partner, Brittany. She was faster than me and I kept striving to keep up. This was hard to mentally keep pushing myself. Plus the GPS on my phone is not always giving the current speed accurately so I have to go off of how I feel a lot. 

My first mile was 6:48 pace. Second mile I never heard the time on my phone but I think it was around 7:15. The third mile, my phone said my pace was 7:06 which would have made my third split 7:15.

6:48

7:15

7:15

1:11 for the final .107

My final overall pace was 7:14.

I was disappointed I didn't beat my PR which was 22:11. And I thought I was the first woman, but I didn't stick around the leaderboard long enough to see how two other women got placed ahead of me. No big deal. I really just wanted to beat my time and I didn't. So I didn't quite feel like the winner I wanted to. :)

I enjoyed this race today. Honestly, I was really excited to run it and wok up every hour last night to check the time. My mind was reeling with ideas and many thoughts about the race as well as other things. So it was difficult to fall asleep. Also, my daughter woke up twice to ask for milk. So the second time, at 5:15 am, I just decided to stay up. My alarm was set for 5:30 anyway.

I wanted to get to the race by 6:00 am to give me time to run the course, get warmed up and feel familiar with the whole thing. I almost arrived by 6:15 when I realized I didn't have my number! So I turned around and went home for it. I got there by 6:25 and had time to find a course map and run 1.75 miles at a comfortable 8:30 pace. I was so glad I did that because there were some challenging hills at the beginning. Then I did a few 100 m. distance at pace-- around 7:00 min/mile.

I felt the 7min/mile pace was very hard. I wondered if I'd be able to do it. But I was very glad to have woken up my body, stretched and jogged first. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have run that pace right off the bat in the morning.

I found my friends, Brittany, Heidi, Bruce, and Heidi's family. We all had a few good laughs before walking to the starting line. 

I had been telling Brittany, it would be awesome if we could get under 20 minutes. However, I was realizing I would be lucky to even do 7 min/mile. I told Brittany I would try to stick with her. In our practices, 7 minute miles were easier for her than me. She's doing awesome!

So I did just that. Tried to stick with her. She was doing great! I stayed with her until about 1.25 when I started to fall behind a bit. Still, the first 2 miles I was on target with a 6:58 pace on each. The third mile became very hard. I was praying for strength and endurance. At about 2.75 I dropped my car key. It slipped out from my arm band. I had to turn around and pick it up. I think I lost a few seconds on that and I would have liked to see what my time would have been without that mistake. Could I have gotten under 22 minutes? 

I finished 3 miles and came to a straight stretch to a finish. I pushed myself harder and then ran out of steam. The finish line wasn't approaching as fast as I'd thought it would. So I slowed a bit. Then I saw the clock, "22:00" and I really wanted to beat my last PR of 22:17. So I kicked it into gear again. Crossed the line at 22:06. My legs were wobbly. I was so glad to be done. That last mile was really hard mentally. Just ran out of motivation and willpower.

I used RockMyRun, an app, to listen to music. It worked out really well. My left arm did get tangled in my earphone cord a few times. But overall, it wasn't as distracting as I feared to wear earphones and wear my phone on my arm band. I've only tried it one other time.

My phone was completely accurate on time and pace. But I was glad to have some sort of reference. I knew my pace was likely faster than it was reporting and in the end it was. That's always a good feeling!

Overall, loved it! Good course. One small hill around mile 2.75 was challenging. And the first mile has two hills (one gradual and one sort of short steep one). So the course is mostly flat.