Hurricane 5K

Last weekend, my sister Steph and I headed south for a little race and a lot of shopping. Stephy has been working her can off (no pun intended) at the gym and is nearing -40lbs! She wanted to accompany me on my weekend race trip and I begged/talked her into testing her new MAD fitness skills outside on the road. We both ran the Hurricane 5K and we both had a great race.

I was so proud of Steph for doing something hard and so proud of her for doing it well! She had next to no muscle soreness or after effects. Pretty good considering it was a fairly hilly course and that she ususally sticks to the treadmill. Coincidentally, Steph ran into her sister-in-law's friend who, like everyone who knows Stephy, thinks the world of her. They giggled and chatted for a long time.

I haven't run a 5K in a while and it is hard for me to speed my pace from a distance running slow-and-steady mindset. I finished in 29:33 feeling winded but great. Under 30 minutes is a new PR for me! Yipee. To top things off, a cute SKINNY girl told me later that she had her sights on beating me at the end but couldn't catch me. Imagine that! The cherry on that whipped cream was that the woman to place 1st in my age category placed 3rd overall bumping me from 4th to 3rd in my age group--hence the third place medal in the picture. AWESOME!

Completing this race means that I don't have to cross my fingers to get into the St. George Marathon. I get to bypass the lottery by completing the requirement to run 2 races in a list of Runner Series race options. Woohoo.

Addendum: My friend Quincey also ran a small 5K race the same weekend and called me with the news that SHE had placed...3rd in her (our) age group and ran it in...29:37. Spooooky! Congrats, Quince!