March of Dimes 5k Race Report

This by far was my favorite Race Yet!!! When I ran the half marathon, me and my friend "T" ran the first 8 miles together, until she wanted to stop for a minute. I ended up beating her by 6 minutes. When we ran the 10k, I started too fast and had too much clothing on and was dying the whole time. At one point I wanted to quit,but she kept pushing me along. She ended up beating me by a whole minute. There was nothing worse than that feeling of defeat for a few weeks. It left me thinking that I am no good at short distance, I am slow, and how will I ever survive my first 5K!

Fast forward to last night. I was so excited to actually run at NIGHT instead of when the roosters are crowing. There had been some tornado touchdowns here in Savannah, and when I left the hospital and heard the storm sirens I thought "Theres no way we will be doing this run". We headed downtown anyway and the weather conditions seemed stable. There were 1100 runners running this race...which is a lot for a little 5k. Everyone was dressed up in costumes and green and wigs and blinking things. (If you know Savannah, you know we have the second biggest St. Pattys party in the country...so everyone gets crazy about it. This race was no exception). The grand marshall for the st pattys parade was there (which he as a pediatrician..so definitely had some compassion for the march of dimes)..and we were off.


My race plan was to just hang with "T" and let her pace me. She has run some 5K's before...and last time I started way too fast. Then I was hoping to hang long enough and blow by her at the end like a bat out of hell. However I knew I would be risking her picking it up at the end and blowing by me like an even FASTER batt out of hell.

The beg of the race was super congested...and I got annoyed trying to get around all these people. Plus it was sorta drizzly so I felt like I was running on a slip and slide and at any point was ready to show these runners my best belly flop! But at all times...I kept "T" in my sight. I look down at my watch and it says 11 minutes....but I never saw the 1 mile mark. Are we runnin 12 min miles or what????? T informs me that we had passed the one mile mark and I practically ran into it...but somehow I never saw it. That made me feel good because I knew I was further than I thought. I kept the pace nice and steady..and would even try to pick it up here and there. Not matter what...when I would look out of the corner of my eye...I could see "T". Ugh!

Then something happened. I had really been focusing on keeping my breathing normal because at the 10K my heart was racing and I could never catch my breath. Next thing you know...as if a huge flame was lit under my butt...I just slowly started picking up the pace. I look back....no "T". WHAT? WHERE IS SHE? THAT SNEAK!! THe lephrechauns are disguising her....she has to be here somewhere? NOPE!...


I keep running....and running...and running. Thinking about how crappy I felt to get defeated last time...and how crappy it was standing around shoving donuts in my mouth feeling like a loser. I was NOT going to let it happen again..I want to ENJOY my donuts dammit! haha. (weird motivation eh?) With about a half a mile left..I start slowing down slightly..my muscles feel fatigued...and I'm tired. Next thing you know I see the finishline and just start sprinting like a bat out of hell. Apparently I had the "bad" bat....bc mine was faster than "T"s and I ended up beating her by 30 seconds with a final time of..........27:05! Not too shabby for my first 5K...I can't wait to break 25 minutes next year though.

So there ya have it! It was so cool finishing a race at night...awesome music...free beer...lotsof food...great atmosphere. I definitely enjoyed 3 pieces of pizza and had to remind myself that I had NOT just ran a half marathon...and need to slow down the food intake. Also...every picof me at the finishline is HORRIBLE bc I'm sprinting my ass off. ANd they either catch me in mid sprint...or the "I'm going to vomit all over your face" look as soon as I cross. SO I kept telling my friend that I wanted to ask him for a redo (by this time it was just the stragglers at the end). Well he walks over and says "do you girls want to get a picture at the finishline?" HELL YES!!! A chance for a REDO!!!!! I was too embarassed to ask...but I proudly posed for a chance at a good photo. I might just post this one!

SOrry this was so long and drawn out. I was really excited and honestly didn't expect myself to do anything faster than 28:30 ish. So now instead of being hungry from defeat....I am hungry to triumph again. Now that I've ran almost every race once (except the big kahuna....aka 26.2) I can start repeating them to go for PRs!! YAYYYYY!!


Everyone is having severe weather...I couldn't go on my long run today bc the wind is 50mph. I'll save it for tomorrow. Dont need to be knocked out by a tree branch at this point. Up North its blizzarding...so be safe ya'll! XOXO!

p.s. I got 23rd in my age group and 351/1000 overall YAY!