Circle of Friends 5K Race Report

Friday night after work, Todd & I went to New Albany for the Circle of Friends 5K benefiting Children's Hospital. We were planning on meeting Emily there, who had been volunteering most of the day to set up, to also volunteer with packet pick-up. Unfortunately when we got there, they already had more than enough help so we just hung out with Emily for awhile. There were a bunch of different booths set up with food, face-painting, and a ton of mascots walking around like Brutus the Buckeye and LouSeal the Seal from the Columbus Clippers. The Columbus Zoo was even there with some animals! Since Emily was a volunteer and we were suppose to be, we were able to hang out in the volunteer building (hello air conditioning!) and stock up our goody bag from packet pick-up. Emily was filling our bags full of Cheryl's cookies, bananas, pretzels, protein bars, and free taco coupons from Chipotle.

Emily & I before the race Todd & I before the race in our matching hats from Boston

We lined up for the race a little before 7:00 PM and I was getting a little nervous. Not only was it close to 90 degrees and hot but this was my first 5K in 5 years! I hadn't run one since the summer after I graduated from college. I didn't really have any big expectations except I really wanted to break 24:00 otherwise I'd probably be getting a personal worst for a 5K. I wanted to run somewhere around 7:45 pace. Todd was planning on running with me for the first mile then slow down and run with Emily. The race was also chip timed which was nice because it didn't matter if we started a little bit back from the starting line.

At 7:00 PM, we were off. Todd & I started off at a pretty fast pace and little bit faster than I expected, around 6:45 pace. Todd dropped off a little bit at about 3/4 of a mile but wasn't too far behind me. I went through the first mile in 6:53 and I felt great. The course was through a really nice residential neighborhood and golf course. We looped past people in the race that were behind us and I saw Todd and waved. I went through mile 2 in 7:00 but I knew I couldn't hang onto that pace for the last 1.1 mile. My breathing was under control, but my legs were getting tired. I haven't run this fast in months! My goal the last mile was to not have anybody pass me and try to pick off a few more people. Another girl & I kept passing each other during that final mile and at the 3 mile mark, she took off. I went through mile 3 in 7:31. At this point, I looked down at my garmin and wanted to break 22:00 minutes. I pushed through the last 0.1 mi in 33 seconds and crossed the line in 21:57! I was ecstatic. I honestly didn't think I had that fast of a 5K in me. I averaged 7:04 pace. I was also 2nd in my age group. I waited a couple minutes and Todd crossed the line in 24:44. He was very happy he ran 7:57 pace, which his goal was to run in 8:00 min pace. Em crossed the line about 30 seconds later. We were all hot, sweaty, and tired.

We walked around for awhile afterwards checking out all the food and booths that were set up. I had never been to a smaller local race with so much food afterwards. They had Chipotle burritos, Panera bagels, fruit, granola bars, protein bars, and tons of ice cream, which Todd took full advantage of.

Ice cream #1: Birthday cake ice cream

Ice cream #2: Ice cream cookie sandwich

Ice cream #3: Peanut Buster Bar & Dilly Bar from DQ

The 3 of us before heading out

All our great swag: bags, lip gloss, & antibacterial soap from Bath & Body Works, Vitamin water, bananas, bagels, pretzels, Chipotle burritos, Cheryl's cookies, free taco coupons, tech shirt, and much more

Despite the heat, I had a great night hanging out with Todd & Emily and running a heck of a lot faster than I thought I could. I'm running another 5K at the end of July and I'm already excited to run it. Maybe someday I'll be able to finally break 20 minutes!