Race for Hope 5K

Last night I stayed in while Scott ventured to South Philly to go to the Flyers game with one of his buddies from high school.  Since I have the 5K today, I didn’t plan anything crazy, just some window e-shopping, a beer, some snacking, and kitty cuddles.

Still have quite a few of these left.  Mmm!  Those curtains came with the house, btw.

 The jelly is from the Farmers’ Market food swap I did with Anastasia.  It’s sweet and delish!

I decided to set up a new playlist for my iPod and realized I have never posted music I listen to when running/working out on here.  Here’s a sample of the type of songs that get my butt moving.

I consumed a lot of snacky stuff for dinner besides the bagel, but you all know what steamed veggies, or soup, or popcorn, or granola all look like, so I spared you that.  Hah.  I went to bed a little after Scott got back from the 9-2 victory the Flyers had (woo!).

When I woke up, I had to change my pants plan twice as I realized it was not sunny and way colder than I anticipated.  I stuck with my New Balance sneakers, an Under Armour mock neck long sleeve (love Cold Gear), and went with a pair of Lucy yoga pants.  They covered my legs, but were a little too long.  I remedied this by pinning up the backs so I didn’t drag them while running.  Classy.  I managed to get to the race with 30 min to spare before the start and snagged a spot right by the Art Museum. 

I bounced around to try to keep warm and texted Nicole to let her know what I was wearing.  We planned to meet up after the finish since there would likely be too much confusion before the race, and there was.  The announcer said the start was by the green and white balloon arch.  What he should have said was the cluster of green and white balloons near a metal arch.  I found my way there and the crowd did some pre-race stretching and soon we were off!

I definitely do not enjoy cold running as much as early spring running, but I think I can force myself to get used to it somewhat.  I like running outside on occasion and don’t want to spend all of winter in the gym.  I made a point to slow myself down a little the first mile, and as I was approaching a slight hill my fricken BIC band flew off my head.  That’s never happened.  Since I paid $10 for it I doubled back and got it, I was just not willing to donate it to another racer right now, haha.  It spent the rest of the race wrapped around my wrist.

The run went pretty well.  The first mile went pretty fast and the second mile took us over a bridge and onto West River Drive.  I basically re-ran the last 1.1 miles of the ING Half.  Even the lovely little hill to the finish.  I knew I ran mile 3 the slowest, but managed to pick up the pace to cross the finish.  I have no idea what my final chip time was as I cannot find where they might get posted, but if we go by my Garmin, I PRed by one second.  Or, I ran the second fastest 5K.  Either way I was happy with how it went.  My ham has no pain and feels fine hours later.  Here’s the Garmin splits:

Almost negative splits.  Almost.  I think with more running/proper training those times will be a lot tighter.  I got a hold of Nicole and we met up and chatted while her boyfriend and her sister were finishing their walk.

I’m kind of giant hence why I squatted a little.  I am also sporting the lovely post-race, tomato face.  No shame!  It was awesome to meet her and talk about running.  This was her first 5K and I told her she did amazing since my first I was hungover and probably finished well after 40 min.  She’s incredibly sweet and it great we got to hang out a little after the run!  I had to part shortly after as I didn’t want to get a parking ticket (2 hour limit), but I hope to maybe organize a meet-up of some kind with some local Philly bloggers for a low key dinner or happy hour?  If you’re interested shoot me an email!

Driving home on Kelly Drive was an absolute treat as all the trees are beautiful colors now.  I love Philadelphia, cannot say that enough.  I tried to snap a pic, but this does not do Fairmount Park any justice at all.

My after race treat came thanks to the giveaway I won a while ago from CJ.  Great Harvest pancakes, ftw!

Belly full I passed out on the couch for most of the 1:00pm football games.  I’d say it was a pretty successful Sunday so far.    Congrats to all the participants of the run/walk, they raised almost $800K for brain tumor research.  Also, congrats to anyone that ran the NYC marathon today!  When I was sort of hating my lungs during mile 3 I reminded myself others were running way more a mere few hours away.

Happy Sunday!