Blood Run 5K

We woke up at 5am to get ready for this race.  It started at 7am so we had to leave pretty early to make it there to check in and all.  When we left it was raining out and a chilly 48 degrees.  It was still raining when we got there, but we were so lucky because 10 minutes before the race the rain stopped.  That made my day.  Not a fan of running in the rain when it is cold out.

The race was a REALLY good one.  The course was pretty flat which I liked!  They also labeled the course really well.  There would be a sign for every .5 miles.  I had to stop to walk twice, but still was able to get a PR!  35:31 My wonderful husband got some shots of me running.  Our camera isn't the greatest, but I think they came out ok.

Right after I crossed the finish line.  I actually finished at 35:31.  I'm the one in pink!

When I reached the finish line I swore I was going to puke!  I really pushed myself hard to get that PR!  Luckily I didn't get sick.  Yay!  After the race, they did a ton of giveaways.  Nate (my husband) won two gift certificates to jump on it for one hour.  Our son will LOVE that!  Oh and we also got a pretty awesome finisher medal.  Super cool in my book!

Me, with my medal for finishing the race.  I actually came in 8th place in women ages 19 -29.  I'm pretty proud of that!

After our race, we rewarded ourselves with this:

McDonalds Egg Mcmuffin!  YUM!  Don't mind my post-run crazy hair!

Payson Region 5K

(This is a post race picture since we forgot our camera.)

It started out being a not so good morning.

1. I found out that my time of the month had started (sorry TMI for any guys out there).
   
2. Soon after I woke up I saw it was raining pretty hard. I'm not a fan of running in the rain when it is in the 30's outside.
   
3. As I was getting ready, I remembered that my forerunner GPS was dead. I wanted to use it so bad for my race.

All of that made me want to crawl back into bed. I didn't though. I just spent some time with the heating pad & took some Advil with breakfast. We left the house around 7:00 am. The race was at 8am.

Anyways, we got to the race location which was at an LDS church. It was a Stake region 5K. We signed in & got our race stuff. It was SOOO cold out that we went to our van to stay warm. Ten minutes before the race started we got out of the van to warm up. Then about 5 minutes before the race started I had to use the bathrooms. I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom in the Church and luckily had plenty of time to do my business and make it back outside again.

Once I got outside I noticed it had stopped raining. What a blessing that was especially since it was already so cold out. I hung out at the back of the race line since I'm slow I didn't want to get trampled...lol! The horn went off...and off I went.

As I was running I found a woman that was running just my pace. I made it a goal to keep up with her. I ran with her for a good while. As we were running, we saw a sign that said " 1 mile run -- turn around." I knew that sign was for the 1 mile runners, but I also thought it meant I had already gone 1 mile...nope now I know it meant .5 miles. LOL!

Usually when I run at home I do 5 minute run/2 minute walk intervals. This time I decided to TRY and run the whole time. I kept giving myself little goals that I had to pass then I'd say to myself I could run a little bit longer. Soon I had passed that woman that I was running with. Toward the end, I decided to try to walk for a minute. It didn't feel right. My muscles had gotten so use to running that was the only thing that felt comfortable. So I kept on running!!!

My goal was to get around 40 minutes since my last 5K was 45 minutes. When I got close I saw my husband yelling at me, "GO Jen"! I turned the corner and saw the race clock was under 40 minutes. Thats when I sprinted FAST! I finished at 38:02! I beat my last time by 7 minutes. I was also proud that I was able to run the whole time.

Overall the race was pretty good. The morning started out bad, but getting a PR made up for it! I also felt great during my race; no cramps or anything else. I'm excited for my next race in June!!!!