PR, baby!

Well, this morning was momentous indeed.

Not only was it Memorial Day, but it was also the first time my husband has ever run a 5K with me. Or a 5K, period. It was incredibly memorable, for sure.

We were up at the crack of dawn, zip tying our chips to our shoe laces and figuring out what to wear on this rather chilly SoCal morning. We got to the race site 1/2 hour before the start of the 1/2 Marathon, and spent the next twenty minutes in line at the port-o-lets. I saw a few of my teammates in line, but never saw our halfers. (I felt like such a lazy girl doing the 5K, but who am I kidding? I've never run more than 7 miles in my life-- why would I start in a race?!)

Before long, we were in line. I told my hubby that I hope he wouldn't be offended, but I was going to run my own race and see him at the finish line. No problem from him! He was trying his MP3 player for the first time while running (hey, everyone else was doing it, and he has it on pretty low so he can hear people talking), so he was happy to just chill out and do his thing, which happens to be some random run/walk combination that he's been messing with for months. Hubby is very tall and covers more ground vertically than horizontally....you'd think the tall lanky body would reveal a fast runner, but he's actually got some form issues going on that keeps him pretty slow. (One day I'll fix it!)

We ended up in the middle of the pack, and that was a little annoying because I had to weave my way through hundreds of people within the first quarter mile. But I suppose it could be worse-- today was a chip start, so until we crossed the mats I wasn't worried about traffic.

The course itself was a lot of fun. We meandered through a retirement community, and all the adorable residents were outside in their driveways waving to us. I wanted to raise my hands up and say "woohoo!" for the first mile -- I just felt phenomenal and was enjoying the race. But then I looked down at my Garmin, and I did the first mile in 8:05. Oh, crap. I'm a 9:30-minute miler here. I've never run that fast before. I once did a 7:30 mile, but that was a track workout and I threw up afterward.

Anyway, I tried to slow down, but I settled into a comfortable pace that was under 9 minutes and I stayed there the whole race. What a shocker! The 2nd mile ended in an incline of ~75 feet and it crept into the 3rd mile, but then it was a 100 ft. downhill for the last 1/2 mile. (It was a point-to-point race, not out and back) Although I hate the downhills for my knees, I am not afraid to kick it into high gear for the race and just pounded that last hill, sprinting into the finish with all I had. When I looked down at my Garmin after finishing the race, I was floored. I broke 26 minutes!!! Now, this is slow for the vast majority of the population, but it was a major breakthrough for me. My last 5K was 28 minutes, and in my last sprint, 29:45. So I was praying I could break 28, but given my lack of training in the past 2 months, wasn't sure I was capable. So dropping over 2 minutes from my PR is huge, and I am still beaming about it.

I even finished with enough time to grab a water bottle, down an orange slice, and then find a spot on the hill to cheer hubby on when he made his way to the finish. He even finished RUNNING....you have no idea how proud I was. He sprinted in and ate that finish line up--- it brought such a huge smile to my face because I know it meant a lot to him and I think now he understands why I do all of this.

We hung out and then cheered my coach on as she came in from the 1/2......even saw the lady that smoked her while wearing Crocs. Oh yes, it was great fun.

So, PRs for two of us today. Popped hubby's 5K cherry, and whetted his appetite for even more. Wonder if I can get him to learn to swim now so we can do a tri together?!