Friday night AC, Drew, Michael, and I headed downtown for the race...here is AC getting pumped up for the race...
It was a night of ups and downs for everyone! We got there super early because I had to nurse her in the car before the race and I wanted to make sure I had enough time to do that and get us both ready for the start. We had plenty of time to spare, so we ended up standing around at the start for about 20 minutes, which AC did not like at all - she was getting super fussy standing around...that baby likes to move! It's a pretty big race with over 2,000 people and I was a little nervous about maneuvering the BOB through the crowds, so I decided the best course of action for us would be to start behind the fast kids, so we lined up on the start line. People could run around us instead of us running around folks and it ended up being a pretty good plan.
AC cried/screamed for the first 500 yards and then she just passed out. So I ended up going a little faster than I thought I would the first mile. I think the nerves, adrenaline, and her crying got me going and I hit mile 1 at 9:29 - much faster than I thought I would!
My thought at that point was wow, that was fast - should I slow down or just keep going? I felt good, so I just kept at it. AC and I cruised to mile 2 in 9:28...we were going to come way below 33:00! My secret goal going into this was to break 30:00, so I stayed steady until AC caused me to have a burst of speed with about .3 left. For those of you who don't know what Harbortown is, it's a neighborhood downtown and during the race people stand in their yards and cheer, hand out things like jello shots, and spray the runners with hoses. AC and I had managed to avoid the hoses for the first 2.8 miles, but we got nailed! I saw the guy and I yelled, baby, baby! And he looked right at me and sprayed. AC started screaming hysterically, so I took off as fast I could to get us finished! We hit mile 3 in 9:22 and ended up crossing the finish line at 29:39 - beating my public and secret goal!
It took about 20 minutes to find Drew and start to leave and AC was just cranky. We finally made it to the car and she screamed the entire way home - 35 minutes! And that is not an exaggeration. Michael and I sat in the back trying to entertain her to no avail. And she was so worked up she woke up twice in the night and she has not done that is a long time.
Two sidenotes...
- I saw three people I went to high school with and they all looked at me and AC and said, is that yours?!?!?
- There were some major problems with this race and the biggest being that the pace car took a wrong turn and all the fast people ran a 2.6 mile course - Drew and Michael are included in that. You should see some of the times posted...it's ridiculous. But AC and I being further back we got all the mileage we paid for!
More pictures...
The family
Me and my training partner
Michael
AC's race face
Our next race is closer to home - the UPS Ultimate 5K and it's early in the morning. I think AC's overall experience during this first race was not the best, so hopefully one closer to home and in the morning will be better!
Happy running!
She was great - nothing like the last 5K, so she had a nice time. But her mom, on the other hand, struggled bigtime! Two words - hot and humid. I felt like I was running in butter! And I'm not exaggerating when I say the heat index has been over 100 for a few weeks now. Here are my mile splits - 9:19, 10:05, and 10:48. I really, really struggled during this race. Drew ran with us the whole time and if not for him I would have probably gone even slower. Summers in the south are yuck with this humidity.
