Sunday, October 25, 2015

Rock n Roll 5K

I participated in the 5k Rock n Roll race this past weekend in DTLA.  It was a last minute decision to run and I really wanted to beat my personal best.  Since parking is so expensive in DTLA and my Dad had access to a parking garage a mile away, I figured I would park there and do a 1 mile warm up run to the starting line.  When I got off the freeway, every. single. street. was blocked and I had no idea how to get to the parking lot otherwise and started to worry I wouldn't make it before the start time, so I pulled into the first street parking spot that I found and got out of the car and ran.  Little did I know I parked on a street where the homeless have made their home.  A little freaked out, I made my way over and all was well.  

I started my iPhone application to track my pace and started my race alongside a girlfriend of mine.  Fired up, I started at a sub 9 mins/mi pace, but little did I know, my friend continued at that pace the ENTIRE duration.  I really wanted to ask her to slow down and then book it at the end, but I wanted her to have a shot at getting a personal best herself, so I sucked it up and tried to keep pace.  At the end, we practically sprinted, wanting to just keel over and curl up into a fetal position, but we made it!  We were ecstatic when we checked the app on our phone to find that we most likely finished the race at a less than 9 mins/mi pace.  Personal best and goal checked off for me!

 Pre-race - the sun isn't even fully out yet!

 Post-race - I did it!

 Jump for joy!  New personal best!

We anxiously waited for the results to be posted to confirm our suspicion.  When they finally posted, I was disappointed because we finished at a 9:01 mins/mi pace.  SERIOUSLY?!  If we had ran 6 seconds faster, we would have made it under 9 mins/mi!!  Even though it felt like torture, we really weren't going as quickly as we had thought.  I can't even imagine going any quicker either!  I guess this means we will need to run another race to try to hit that goal again, but until then, I'll be joyful that I did get a personal best this time around.  My next 5k is in two weeks benefiting veterans, so maybe I'll take another stab at it then!  Um, probably not because I think if I had run any fast, I would have puked!

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