Cinco De Mayo Race Recap

Yesterday was the Cinco De Mayo 5k. I was nervous because I had heard it was hilly.. and boy, I had reason to be nervous. It was hard!! I definitely need to get some hill practice in. 

I woke up feeling nauseous from all of the crap that I've eaten over the past few days. I got there a little after 8 and met up with Kelly. 

Kelly & I before the race

I went and got my bib # and free stuff! We got this really cool long sleeve shirt and a margarita glass.

Soo exhausted. Showing off my free shirt when I got home.

After I picked up the freebies, I ran into my brother in law Mike. This was his first 5k! He was running it with group of his friends.

Mike & I before the race

Mike's friends and coworkers who ran with him!

 
I was on my way to meet up with some of the women from the MRTT running group for a photo op when I ran into Vicki and Suzanne. We posed for a picture and then I headed over to the start to take a picture with the mom's group.

Vicki, Suz & I

MRTT Running Group

The race started at 9:30. I could not believe how many people there were - almost 1600. This was one of the largest races that I had ever done. 

All lined up

and we're off

I ran with Kelly at the beginning. I knew that this would be short lived since she has a faster pace than I do. At around 1/4 mile she started breaking away and I was on my own for a bit until Mike met up with me right before the half mile mark, and we ran together until almost the second mile, where I needed to walk and he went ahead. The course was insanely hilly. The first mile was a steady incline, then you came back down again, only to go up another hill, and another. When we were going up the second hill, somebody yelled out that it was "all downhill from there", which was a complete lie! I think that I got that stuck in my head, because when I rounded the corner and saw more hills, I had kind of checked out mentally. I had to stop and walk for a little while. The last half mile was amazing, it was all down hill and I was going so fast. I think I ran at a pace of 9 min/mile for that entire half mile.. Now if only the whole course was like that!

As I was finishing, I noticed that my SIL Marissa and her husband Justin had come out to see us. I had noticed that my MIL was there as well when the race first started. It was nice that everybody made it out to experience this race with us -- especially since it was Mike's first 5k! He ran the entire time and finished in about 37 minutes, I believe. I finished in around 40 because of my walking breaks. During the race I decided that I need more hill practice. I think it's great that I'm running on a more consistent basis now; however, I'm not progressing any -- which means that I have to change things up a little. I'm going to try and aim for 1-2 runs per week on a hill.

I have a love/hate relationship with this picture of me finishing. I hate it because it shows just how much weight I've gained back, and now need to lose... again, but it was a strong finish picture. Typically I look like I'm going to pass out when I finish, and I like the look of determination on my face. 
 

Post race was a little frustrating. It was put on by Millennium Running. I have run many of their events and am always satisfied with how well organized they are. This was an inaugural race though, so despite my frustrations, I think that I will try it again next year. With our race entry, we received a beer ticket and a margarita ticket. Typically I don't drink and give my beer tickets to my husband. However, with it being Cinco De Mayo, and the only race I've ever received a margarita ticket at, I decided that I would make an exception and partake in a little post race alcohol. After finishing, the alcohol tent was at capacity. Kelly and I went and stood in a huge line that was not moving at all. My family had wanted to eat lunch. We got our names on the list and had found out that we could use the drink tickets inside. As we were told it was only a 10 minute wait, Kelly and I left the alcohol tent line and went and stood inside. 25 minutes later, we found out that they never put us on the list for the dining room, they thought that we wanted to go into the bar. So they put us on the right list but said it could be 45-50 minutes before we were seated. Kelly had to leave so we ended up going back outside to get in line for the alcohol tent. At this point, the line was even longer than it was when we left, almost doubled in size and was not moving. Kelly left and gave me her margarita ticket. 

At that point, Sean's mom had decided that she had too much homework to be able to stay and she left as well. Sean and I broke off from the rest of the party and because we were now a party of two, we were seated within 10 minutes. I ordered my first margarita, which took about twenty minutes after I ordered it to get to me, and was filled with ice and was filled only about 1/2 way to the top of the cup. Other than this, the margarita was delicious, and the food was really good. We made sure to tip our waitress really well because originally we thought that they would make a ton of money in tips because of how busy the restaurant was; however, we heard that people were using the tables to redeem their drink tickets and eating chips and salsa (which is free) and not ordering any food. She was really attentive to us despite the fact that all of the tables in the restaurant were full. 

The route!

Other than this small snafu, I was happy with the race. Even with the hilly course, I actually enjoyed the course. I think that I will enjoy it more next year, when I train more on the hills! I actually may even try to run this course a few times as practice runs. It was also nice that so many of my runner friends were there as well. I will definitely do this race again next year.

I can't believe how busy of a weekend I had! Friday before work I met up with a few of the ladies from the Mom's Run This Town running group. We ran a local paved trail. It was a good run, but I was frustrated because I had to stop and walk a little bit. I really need to get to a place where I'm more consistent with my running. It was annoying to run 2.53 miles on Thursday then have to stop and walk during a 2.67 mile walk. Hopefully the fact that I've been running more frequently will help me improve. 

 

Friday's run

Saturday I met up with Tonya and her two kids. I had my niece Friday night, so we met up for a two mile walk through the park. The kids even got to play a little on the playground. We had a lot of fun, and I'm excited because she's going to join us on our run on Friday. 

 I'm excited because I'm finally trying a spinning class tonight. I had intended on going this morning, but woke up too late. Thankfully another local YMCA has a class tonight, and I can attend any "Y" in New England