Runnin' with the Irish 5K Recap

Well I did it... my first 5K of 2013.

Started out the morning with my new go to breakfast. Waffles, PB and fruit. I was out of bananas...

I set out for this race early because I knew that parking was not the easiest and that the race is very popular. They hold the race at the Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterton, IN. I arrived around 8:00 and the place was already packed. I made sure to include some St. Patrick's gear in my race attire. 

They color coded the bibs with expected race finish times in order to line everyone up. The race was really crowded so they ended up starting a few minutes late. Since the race was so crowded they set it up for a chip start and finish. Once I took off from the actual start line I tried dodging as many of the slower runners that I could. It was not very easy. I probably spent at least the first mile passing people. Then the big hill came. I love that they include this hill at the beginning because its tough and I like when a 5K at least pushes you a little bit. After the first lap around the parking lot we headed out by the beach and it was a sandy mess out there. I loved it. Around mile 2 I was feeling good but knew that I didn't have enough in me to push for a PR. I knew I would be about 30 seconds off. After we hit the last loop that goes around the campground I was really trying hard to pick up the pace. I couldn't seem to gain speed until I came out of the campground and I saw the finish line in my sights. I really picked up as much of my pace as I could... and finished. 

Directly after I finished I starting gathering the half marathon trainers that I have been running with. We hit the trails for another 8 miles. It was really hard but they did awesome. Afterwards when I went online to find results I found out Extra Mile/TH Timing now has instant results. I really love these instant results that Extra Mile created this year. They really give you all the information you really want to know. I was really proud when I saw these results. I looked up my results from 2 years ago and it was 26:53 so I shaved a decent amount of time off my time this year. I am really proud of how well I raced considering I have no run a race since December. The race is always well done and they had some really good food afterwards that I saved for after my additional 8 miles.