Race With the Balloons // A 5k

Both sides of my family understands the importance of running for me. While on our second leg of the Macke Midwest Tour if I decided on a whim that I needed to go for a run, I could. Someone was always willing to watch Marcus while I was out pounding pavement.

One afternoon my father-in-law was researching a hot air balloon festival which we were hoping to attend (more on the festival later) when he happened upon a 5k that was being held as part of the festivals activities.

Immediately I sprung into action. Where was the race being held? Just a few miles from my in-laws. What time did the race start? 7:00AM (no rising at the crack of dawn!). What was the entry fee? A little pricey, but nothing we couldn't swing. Any perks? The possibility of running while hot air balloons took off and flew above the race course. SIGN. ME. UP. So, late on a Wednesday evening I signed up for a Saturday morning 5k. Giddy as a kid a Christmas.

Race morning came and I was ready. I hadn't slept much in anticipation. Who knew I'd be so excited for a 5k? Halves are my more style, so my nervousness came as a bit of a surprise. When I arrived at the race site I quickly took note that it was one of the smaller organized races I'd participated in.

The weather was perfection for a race. It was cloudy and cool (so cool I had goosebumps before the start) with a decent breeze.

At promptly 7:00AM the race began and we were off. The course was relatively straight and flat, and took us through the Kansas Speedway grounds.

Forgive the grainy iPhone photo. Apparently running and snapping photos doesn't garnish the highest quality pictures.

At one point I even thought attempting a selfie while running was a good idea.

Clearly NOT a good idea.

As I was nearing the third mile marker I began to closely pay attention to my watch. My pace was good, I felt good, things were going really well.

I knew some of the weaving in and out of the crowd to find my pace had tacked on a bit of extra mileage. I was nearing the finish line but my watch showed I had already run 3.1 miles, but the finish line was just a bit further ahead. I hit my lap button to see what my actual 5k distance time would be. And, once I crossed the finish line I hit my stop button.

Unofficial race time: 24:15.48. (New actual 5k time: 23:33.16!!!) Official race time: 24:16. A NEW OFFICIAL PR!!

Left: 3.1 miles actually run.
Right: 3.2 miles to finish line, and unofficial time.

I think I'm going to have to reevaluate and reset my DJV5K goal time which I had originally set at 24:30. Maybe I'll shoot for 24:10…

As soon as I'd cooled down a bit I called for a ride to come pick me up. Sticking around for medals and such hadn't even crossed my mind.

Later on I checked the online results to find this:

Not only had I PR'd, but I'd finished 18th over all (yeah, yeah, I know only 337 runners, but I'll take it!), 6th out of all the female participants, and THIRD in my age group. I'm 99.9% sure I've never placed in any running event, ever - even high school track. I totally missed out on receiving a top three medal. Whoops. Lesson learned.

The only disappointment from the whole experience was that during our race not a single hot air balloon took off, and not a single one was flying over head while we ran. Maybe next year we'll have a little more luck in that department. 

How's your 5k #djv5k training coming along??