Homestead Hearts and Soles 5K

Saturday was the annual Hearts and Soles 5K.  This is Homestead's ONLY local running event, and also the very first race I ever did, back in its inagural year.  Here's a link to my little race report on my personal blog, if you want some perspective.  Its pretty darn shocking to see those pictures of myself, by the way.  The other crazy/shocking thing is I'm only about 10lbs lighter than I was there.  Go figure.

Brad and I at Hearts and Soles 2009 (top) and 2011 (bottom)

 

(And in case you are wondering, Brad skipped out on me this year because he wanted to go play on the water. Why would you want to go boating instead of running??  Go figure.)

Anyway, I digress.   5Ks are not my favorite distance these days.  As a new runner, it is the PERFECT challenge.  I remember being scared to death when I did that first one 4 short years ago.  Worried I wouldn't finish.  Not so these days.  I know that if I REALLY worked on my speed I could get a sub 30 5K.  I just have  no desire to do so now.  And since I KNOW I'm not going to break that next milestone (because I haven't worked for it), I just don't love doing them.   Plus (with the exception of this race), most 5Ks are PACKED, and its hard to really find your groove. So, if there aren't obstacles involved, I just don't do them.   But I try to do this one, because its close, its for a good cause, and it was my first.

This is a SMALL race.  No timing chip.  In the past, they have at least had a clock showing the gun time, but this year they didn't even have that.  You are responsible for your own time.   This year the course was literally five minutes away from my house, at the speedway.  Yeah, I can't pass up something that it takes less than 5 minutes to get to.

The weather this weekend was night and day compared to last weekend's half.  Last weekend we had 40s and 50s and insane wind.  It was COLD.  This weekend its been 80s and humid, with a hot breeze.  My legs were still pretty fatigued from last weekend too.  I knew this wasn't going to be a personal record event.  But that's not really why I did this one.  Besides the fact that is close, I wanted to support some of my local running friends. Both Carmen and Peggy I know from the Y. This was Carmen's (red shirt) first 5K, and she killed it in 25ish minutes.  And Peggy, in the green, is 56 and one of the strongest, most amazing people I've had the pleasure of meeting.  She was chasing my tail the entire way, and she hasn't even been running regularly lately.  Dave, the tall guy making me look like a midget, I know from my produce group.  He quit smoking about a year ago and has done a couple of races since.

(and yes, I have a dorky look on my face in ALL these pictures . . . story of my life!)

 

Special thanks to Peggy and Brenda for the pictures!

I ran for the first 3/4 mile and then started doing 5 minute on/30 second off intervals, because my legs were still fatigued and it was HOT.  I finished in 32:17, which breaks down to a 10:27 pace.  Not bad, considering the heat.  But it wasn't about that for this race--it was just about hanging out with some local friends and cheering each other on.  Part of me can't believe I've been doing this for 4 years now.  And part of me can't believe its only been 4 years.  It's such a huge part of who I am these days.  I still remember when running down the block seemed like an impossible task.