ABAC Fitness 5K (1/21/11)

I signed up for this race a week before the event and was very nervous...now you might think, "what in the world you were nervous about running the 5k? You just ran a half marathon!!". Yes, you were right, I just ran a half marathon and I was calm...I was nervous because of the hills and running on the dirt road...and running in front of the elite runners!!

On the morning of the race, I got up and ate my usual breakfast before I headed to Tifton (45min from my house). Once I got there, people were already warming up for the race...wow, I'm about to run with a bunch of elite runners!!!  I saw several of my sole sisters and we all lined up at the starting line. My legs started hurting and my heart started beating even faster.  I positioned myself in the middle of the pack, hoping to stay with the pack.  The guy yelled loudly "READY, SET, GO!" and off we ran!

Dawn and I stayed together.  We tried to run as long as we could and took our first walking break after 1/4 mile of running.  We started out in the middle but ended up in the back of the pack, but that didn't matter any more.  I wanted to finish what I started.  So now we started our 1/1 intervals.

Not even a mile into the race, I saw the dirt road.  I saw that it was a bit moist and muddy a bit and got scared again...You see, I have this fear of slipping and dislocating my knee cap as it happened to me so many times in the past.  Running on the dirt road wouldn't be a big of a problem if it was dry, but it wasn't.  But I kept my composure and kept on running.  Soon, we saw the first runner passing us by but we kept going!  We kept our intervals all the way.  At some point, I felt like my right leg was giving up on me and I almost fell to the ground.  I told Dawn to go, but luckily I was able to get back up and kept on running.

After what felt like hours on the dirt road, we finally got back on the road and got my groove back on again.  My legs were fine, didn't feel any pains any more.  At last, I finally saw the finish line!  I saw my friends' kids running beside us cheering us on.  I did it!  Finished the race!  Everyone was cheering us on!  Felt really good knowing that I finished!  My time was 39:27...That was MUCH better time than my first 2 5k race!!

After the 5k race, we all decided to support the kids' first race so we all (sole sisters) ran 1 mile together with the kids.  My time on 1 mile fun run was 12:09...by far, the fasted 1 mile I have ever ran!!

5k race route

1 Mile Fun Run route