Race to Wrigley 5k 2014

Race to Wrigley is getting to be an annual tradition, but since we've had 5 months of winter, we decided to wait until the last day to register so we could see if it was going to be snowing or now.... Happily I couldn't have asked for more perfect running weather! It was cloudy and mid-50's, with the chance of sun or rain (it rained after we got home, and then the sun came out :) ). The drive getting there was easy, but when we arrived at our usual parking lot, it was closed! We went to the lot that was listed in the race website (yes, we should have looked that up beforehand), and it was already full! We ended up finding street pay parking a few blocks away, finally getting to packet pickup about 30 minutes before the race was to start.

I hadn't actually run 3 miles at once since my last race last year, so my only goal was to not "lose" to my sister. (She's training for a Half Ironman!) Plus, I think its nice to run with someone. My brother-in-law had his own PR goal, and he was ahead of us the entire race.

I have this "Are we there yet? How much looooonger?" mentality to my runs; I want to know how I'm doing and how much more I have left. My running app tells me my pace and distance every 1/4 mile, which is wonderful. Kate and I started running, and my first thought was, "This is fun!" My second thought soon followed, "I'm never going to be able to keep up for 3 miles!"

A quarter of a mile in the little voice in my ear says, "Distance 0.25 miles. Pace 9:15 minutes per mile." WHAT?! Wow. Yay us!!!! Similar sounds were heard at 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, and so on. Around 1.5 miles I lost my sister. She was behind me one second and the next she wasn't.

At 2.25 miles the voice told me "Average pace 9:08 miles per minute." A full minute per mile faster than my usual race pace! At this point my heart was beating 1,000 bpm so I decided to walk a little bit. A few minutes of walking and who runs up next to me? My sister! So off I go with her again for the final stretch. I thought it would be pretty cool to cross the finish line together and hopefully get a picture of it.

But then this crazy thing happened.... something I've heard about but never had experienced.... Speeding up at the end! Usually by the last 0.1 miles my legs are lead and it takes all I have left to get to the finish line. But here I was running through the concourse and I knew the end was so deliciously near.... and I had this energy burst and my legs moved faster!

Final time 30:10! New PR!!

Next race is a Virtual 5k to raise money for The One Fund Boston.