Harbortown 5k and Family Fun 1k

Stacie, Piper and I went downtown to the HarborTown 5k. They had a Family Fun 1k and since Stacie bought Piper some new runnin' clothes she was excited to get dressed up and run. We got dressed at home and were ready to go as soon as we got out of the car.

This is one of only two times that Piper ran. This was running to the starting line.

Here we are waiting at the start line.

Here we are rounding the corner at .5mile.

Our official finish time. Not too bad considering we only ran about 100 feet and the fact that Piper is 3 years old.

After the 1k Stacie and Piper went down to the Greenbelt Park, on the Mississippi River bank to play and relax while I did the 5k. I tried to meet up with my friend Bill but that just didn't happen, too big of a crowd. The 5k started pretty close to 7pm, the official start time, so I was happy about that. I hate it when they're 10 or more minutes late starting. I set my watch intervals to 5min run - 1min walk. I had worked up in my latest runs to 3-1 and I figured being a race and all I would try to push myself. Well the course it almost completely flat except a few little 100 foot bridges throughout the neighborhood. At 5 mins my watch beeped and I kept going. I thought that if I could make it to the first mile and didn't feel like I needed to take a walk break then I would press on and try to finish with out taking a walk break. At the first mile I crossed it at 9:52. Way faster that I was shooting for. Everyone in the crowd was in a good mood and the atmosphere of the spectators contributed to me pushing so hard. I was feeling good and had no leg or foot pains so I continued to push and see if I could maintain the pace. Crossing mile 2 I had done a 9:36 mile at 19:28 total. I was actually thinking at this point I might be able to get an under 30 min 5k again. I hadn't done that in a while so I continued to push. I think I began pushing a little too hard as my shins starting to hurt. That usually happens when I run a bit faster than 've trained.

I finally saw my friend Bill after passing mile 2. I came up along beside him and tapped him on the shoulder. He was listening to his ipod. He looked at me and said, "PB under 30". He was working towards the same goal that I was, however he hasn't ran a 5k under 30 minutes in a long time. I started to pull away from Bill, I think it was the competitive spirit in me to do so. My shins really started to hurt so I had to slow down and take a walk break. Bill came up along beside me and told me to start running again. I couldn't let my friend pass me so I did. I ran along him for a bit and he told me, "You're my carrot. You can't walk now." That was my motivation to push harder. After mile 3 I was at 28:50 total time at a 9:21 mile pace. I really started to sprint then. I rounded the corner and saw the clock, it read 29:40. I was still a few hundred feet from the finish line so I sprinted with all I had to cross under 30 mins according to their clock. Unfortunately I to come to a dead stop 30 feet from the finish line because the finish line was blocked since they made everyone stop and fill out the little index cards with your name on it. I crossed the actual finish time sometime after 31 mins. I didn' really pay attention to it any more. I had stopped my watch at 29:43 since that's the time that I would have crossed the finish line. So....29:43 was my 5k time. Bill was shortly behind me. He finished at 30:12. So close.

It was fun to run in a big group again and have a large spectator crowd. Afterwards, I went to find Stacie and Piper building Fairy Houses of of twigs, glass, rocks and leaves down by the Mississippi River. I got some ice out of the cooler and iced up my left ankle/arch. I also took some Hammer Nutrition Tissue Rejeuvenator to help with any swelling that my have occured. Besides my shins, which are still a bit sore, my legs felt great.

After the race Piper and I changed clothes and we all went out to eat at the Kooky Canuck.

When we got home last night I massaged my leg muscles with 'The Stick'. A wonderful muscle massaging tool. I highly recommend getting one if you exercise a lot and push yourself to the point of having sore muscles. It really helps getting blood flow to the muscles, which aid in the recovery process.