flying pig 5k

One of my New Year's resolutions was to run my first 5k race, and I thought the Flying Pig would be the perfect one because it's a big downtown Cincinnati event (the main attraction being the marathon portion, which happened today along with the half marathon; the 5k and 10k were yesterday).

 Peter took my picture before my first race for posterity...

I've been doing quite a bit of running this year, so I knew I was definitely capable of running this race, but I still was kind of nervous. Peter tried to convince me it was just like going out for any other run, slightly shorter than my normal route even, but I couldn't help but get a bit worked up.

There was a huge mass of people - close to 3,000 - so the first half mile was all about dodging and weaving around slower runners and walkers (with strollers even)... that was a little frustrating. But after that I was able to kind of pace myself with a couple other people - this is what made a race totally different from a regular run for me. Having people to stay on pace with (and then pass at the end!) is a whole new source of motivation.

post-run, in front of ball park (where it started & ended)

I guess that motivation and the race day adrenaline I'd heard about worked for me - my goal time was 27 minutes, and I breezed right by that with a 25:29. A large cheering crowd at the end ("finish swine" as it's called in the Flying Pig) is also a most excellent motivator to finish strong. I think the girl I was trailing most of the race but passed with a couple minutes to go was probably in my age group... so I was excited to see that I ended up 8th out of 231 ladies in my division, which put me at 37th of 1887 females!  I have to say, it was all kind of exhilarating (except for a little while during mile 2 when I started feeling a bit wiped) - this all just might have gotten me hooked enough to sign up for another one.

Peter is on vacation this week, so he ran as well. He's had considerably less time for training than I did, but he still beat his goal time and finished in 22:11, sixth in his division. Very good for someone who doesn't have time to run more than about once a week, I would say. He had fun too, and I really liked having him there for a pre-race pep talk and a post-race hug at the finish line....