Race Weekend

And I do mean "Race Weekend" not just "Race Day." I'm a running machine and signed up for two races this weekend. The first was the Race for Freedom 5K on Saturday. It raised money for the ICT S.O.S., a non-profit organization that helps human trafficking victims. Yes, human trafficking occurs in Wichita.

 

My best timed 5K to date was 29:30. I felt pretty tired running this race, but kept chugging right along. No wonder I was tired. I ran a personal best of 27:29! That's an 8:50 pace. Training runs I usually run 10:30-11:00 minute miles so this was quite a bit faster.

My second race was on Sunday, and I was really nervous about this one. It was the Meritrust Tiger Trot 15K (9.32 miles) at Tanganyika. My longest training run prior to this race was 8 miles the week before. I made sure I paced myself with this one! I felt really good and was able to pick up the pace a bit about half way through. The last mile was pretty tough though and my legs got tired. No official time yet as results haven't been posted, but my iPod shows 1:36:33. I never remember to turn it off right away, so I probably ran it about 10 seconds faster. No action shots for this race so here's a picture of me with my ferocious little black tiger (otherwise known as domesticus cattus).

Although it was nice to get a PR in the 5K I think I may have just fallen in love with long-distance running. How can you not love something that you do so long that your stomach starts growling near the end, which means you get to eat a lot of food afterwards and not feel guilty about it?!