AmazinGrace 5K and a PR

Shew what a long weekend! Just got back to my hometown today (Monday) from Kingsport, Tennessee and I won't be back home until tomorrow. It was a great weekend though. Lots of great family time! Lots of Scrabble was played and junk food eaten with a little running thrown in.

Last year, after my first 5K, my great-aunt invited me to her house to run in the AmazinGrace 5K that her church created. It's benefits the local hospital. This year was the 5th year they have put on this race. To commemorate it, they invited Biggest Loser Season 8 contestant and inspirational speaker, Abby Rike.

My grandmother, Abby Rike, and I

She was a very good speaker. Her story is completely devestating and yet so full of hope. She had to overcome physical weight to help her overcome the emotional weight of losing her whole family in a car accident. If you are interested in her story, here is a link to her book Working It Out.

After getting back to the hotel and letting my niece and cousin swim, it was time to get ready for the race. I made a race day no-no and wore new pants. They ended up being fine, though they did slip a little at first. That's pretty usual with my pants, lol.

Even though it was about to rain, again, my whole family came out to watch me run. I really do have the best and most supportive family a girl could ask for.

 My time last year for this race was 33:58. My goal for this race was to run in 30 or under.This is a small local race and the attendance was down this year, no doubt due to the rain. It's a very flat course, but last year it was blazing hot! I was sweating before the race even began. This year was very different. It was cloudy and rainy the whole day. So I was worried that it was going to be a huge downpour and windy and I wouldn't be able to run the way I wanted. Thankully, it turned out to be great! It drizzled just slightly during the run but the rest of the time the sun was out and it was in the 60's.

The girl in the purple shirt passed me right at the end, dang it! I tried to keep up with her to pass her, but no luck! haha



With such a flat course, I got a PR! It wasn't the under 30 minutes I was hoping for, but I made it in 30 minutes and 4 seconds! Doh, so close! I was still happy with my overall pace of 9:40. I stopped at the two water stations for a sip, though I didn't really need them, and now wish I hadn't or I might have made it under the 30 mark. But I'm totally happy with how I ran and will have something to work on for the next race. I even got 6th in my age group, of 25-29, out of 17. I came in 165 out of 402. It's pretty cool to see my improvement over time on the same course.

(Which, by the way, less than four weeks until my first half-marathon!! EEEEEP!)

One cool thing about this race is that a big group of people from Fleet Feet, who train together in a couch to 5K program all run together and wear the same shirts. They encourage one another on the course and you can see the pride in their eyes for themselves and everyone else who ran with them. That feeling of pride doesn't come with ease, but with hours put in to training and doing something for the first time. I really wish we had something like that in West Virginia. If anyone wants to sponsor me, I'll run the shop for you! ;)

After the race we all went out to Texas Roadhouse where I enjoyed a steak, salad, and a sweet potato and rolls and sweet tea. My family loves me enough to even put up with my smellyness while we ate. Then more Scrabble happened. Did I mention that my family is made up of a lot of teachers and therefore a lot of Scrabble happens when we all get together? Love it!

Today was all traveling back and some of this:

With some of this added in:

More travel tomorrow and lots of sleep tonight! Hope you had a good weekend!