I’ll admit that on Friday night I was hobbling around quite ridiculously. I grabbed a pair of compression sleeves at job #2 and wore them through my 4 hour shift. I mentioned that I was running a race on Saturday morning and Kyle commented that I’d probably wake up with my alarm and then decide at the last minute not to go. I have done that, skipping Loop the Lake in April was the last time I did. However, this race was different. This one was a race that I was running with friends. We all met at the Capital and rode to the race together. It kind of reminded me of my high school track meets. Our team was so small that we would actually just take two Suburbans for travelling to our meets. Unless it was a coed meet, then we’d take a bus.

So Saturday morning, I pulled on my compression tights, my race magnet skirt, my Wonder Woman tech shirt with the mantra of sore today, stronger tomorrow and prepared to hobble through a fairly flat 5k with awesome friends.

Megan & Sara were up toward the front of the start, as Megan’s goal was to PR with Sara pacing her to a fast time. Heidi and I were a bit farther back, but still a bit further up than I would normally start. But I went with it and was a bit surprised that when I hit the first mile I was running at 9:17 pace. Definitely not what I was expecting. I just thought to myself, I’ll just keep pushing through my achy calves and see how well I finish. 

Mile 2 I was struggling a bit mentally as I had more runners passing me and I had lost sight of Heidi, as she was the one I was chasing. As my watch beeped at the second mile, I was still under a 10:00 pace, 9:38 pace to be exact. Ok, still moving pretty fast. I might actually PR this race. Or blow up in the last mile. Either way, I’m having fun.

I was in my head a lot during this race. But my calves did loosen up along the way. It’s funny how activity helps break up the soreness in your muscles. Because I thought for sure that running on Saturday was going to be the worst thing for my very tight calves. I wish I had run on Thursday night after my dentist appointment now. I probably wouldn’t have hobbled around so much on Friday.

As the course hopped back on the bike trail and was a straight shot for the finish, I picked runners ahead of me to chase and pass. I was looking for that little kick and to finish strong. At Mile 3 I saw my split and it was faster than my first mile, a 9:14 pace. Now it was time to kick in another notch. I saw the race clock and it was at 28 minutes. I’m going to PR! Can I get there at 29 minutes flat? Heidi just yelled for me. OMG 29 minutes! Tear off the tag. I can’t believe I just ran a PR! Stop your Garmin. Water…

My official finish time was 29:02! 40 seconds faster than my 5k PR at Captain Midnight’s run at the end of August. Megan got her PR as well! And I think Heidi did too. We celebrated by getting lunch at Goldie’s in Prairie City, at Megan’s suggestion. The tenderloin strips were awesome, right along with the pie and ice cream.