Athleta IronGirl 5K ~ Recap

womp womp...that was my alternate post title.

Matty & I left the house this morning at 4:30am, to meet my fellow IronGirls, Shannon & Nickie, in order to carpool over to Clearwater. We arrived at dark o'thirty, scored an AH-MAZING parking spot right by the expo area, and then got geared up in the parking lot. Ding dong over here, your's truly, popped her zip tie that I was supposed to use to attach my chip to my shoe. So for the next 20 minutes we were on a hunt to find IronGirl personnel. Luckily we hit the jackpot & found a nice gal that gave me 2! Score! I used both.



And then we stood in line for 40 minutes in order to use the potty. WOW.

Matty & Shannon's hubby, Dave decided to be spectators today...which totally scored them brownie points. So I was able to get a pre-race photo with my hubs...


and then us girls...


So I'm pretty sure that popping a zip tie prior to a race start, is a bad omen. Kinda like breaking a shoelace. This race was just horrible for me.


pre-race confidence...

ready to get the show on the road!
I had already decided that the 3 of us needed to be as close to the front as possible, to avoid having to dodge the walkers. We were super close...and at first I was worried we were too close & would end up pacing the 6 minute milers. Once the race started though, I realized we were fine in our placement...but there were STILL WALKERS that we had to dodge! That's where I exerted a ton of energy, speeding up, slowing down, and weaving in & out. There were no designated corrals for the 5K (at least that I saw)...so I'm thinking that maybe if there were, this whole problem could have been avoided?

Either way, by mile 2, my bladder decided it needed to potty again. So I ended up walking (bleh), with intermittent sprinting the entire mile. By mile 3, I seriously thought I was going to wet my britches. I was so bummed when I crossed the finish line. My goal was to beat my ESPN 5K time & I ended up finishing in 29:30, womp womp.

Shannon & Nickie however, totally rocked the race!
check out Shannon, aka Speedy Gonzalez, in the blue top & black shorts

I'm super proud of them...Shannon was 26:43 and Nickie finished at 31:54. Nickie completed the Gasparilla 8K back in February, and didn't feel like she could do better than a 12 minute mile ~ she totally blew it out of the water today. Congrats girls!!!

We took a final race picture with our medals...


& my pastey white self stared longingly at the beach...

while the guys reminded us that it was time to LEAVE and get BREAKFAST!
So we made a quick dash through the expo area...


and then ignored all the traffic rules in order to go PIG OUT at a random restaurant we found...

it definitely hit the post-race munchies spot...and I MOST DEFINITELY consumed more calories than I expended.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great job! I'm still working on beating that 30 min mark for my 5k, hopefully this year! Very cool that you receive medals for a 5k, I haven't run a 5k that gave you a medal.

d.a.r. said...

I seriously almost wet my pants at like mile 2 of my 5K on Saturday!! Seriously?? It is only like 30 minutes! You would think I could hold it, haha! I did, but not comfy...at all.

Sorry you were disappointed in your time, but it sounds like you did great regardless!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on finishing! You did great regardless. Sometimes those things just happen during a race. At the good part? It was just #1. People would just think that was sweat if any accidents happened.

I did the half and it was way too hot for it. I was wishing I did the 5k around mile 2.5!

fitRN said...

Love your skirt!! That's my next purchase :) great job girlie!! You rock.

Anonymous said...

I hate bladder related issues when running (I swear I have a nervous bladder). Sorry about the race :( At least you finished!!

I can't believe there were STILL walkers when you close to the front. We didn't run into that problem (for once!) -- but I HATE when people do that. I SERIOUSLY don't get it!