Race Recap(s): Moonlight Run 5K & Atl Marathon Relay

I have had one eventful month of running in October! It all started with me finally achieving my goal of completing a 5k in under 30 minutes in the Firefly Run Atl 5k! Next, being proud of the increasing amount of women who come out and join my running group's weekly runs of which I volunteer and lead weekly. It feels so good that while you're accomplishing your goals, you're also inspiring others whether they say it out loud or not. Next, was another night 5k I completed, with a little soreness in my knee, but I PR'd once again with a time of 28:46. I just couldn't believe it! And then, the achievement that almost, but not really trumps them all, yet it's what all of my other accomplishments have led up to... I'm talking about my participation in an actual marathon-related ANYTHING yesterday!

Waiting for the 7am race start in 30something degree weather!

Just yesterday, I completed, along with my four member team, a marathon relay. There were four legs of the race. The first leg ran 5.5 miles, second leg ran 8.4 miles, third leg ran 5.1 miles, and I (the fourth leg) ran 7.2 miles! This was a HUGE thing for me. I'm tearing up just thinking about everything I've done to change my life physically and emotionally and how it all seemed to lead up to yesterday's race.

Definitely felt the need to order this in time for the race

Where do I start? Well, first of all, I had no intentions on running in this race. I had actually signed up to be a Mile 20 volunteer just so that I could at least SEE what it's like to run a marathon (this may be a 2013 goal of mine). But, per the vision of my running mentee, who had the idea of putting together a team of women who are all pretty new to distance running, we were formed...actually about a month before the race. We were all pretty nervous, but had already been working on increasing our mileage, so we knew it could be done. We quickly just thought of a team name and went out and practiced the route.


I practiced my mucho hilly 7.2 miles (which ended up more than 7.2 in actuality), twice. The first time I practiced, that was my first time running 6 miles, let alone the 8 it ended up being because we got the route a little wrong. I realize that's not an excellent way to increase your distance and that I should of increased my mileage slower than that, I think. (I now realize that may be the culprit of my knee soreness). That first practice of the route was excellent, I killed ALL of the hills (GA is very hilly), kept a consistent 9:30 to 10:00 pace throughout, and never had to stop. The second week, I experienced a little knee soreness, still didn't feel the need to stop, felt good after mile 3 anyway. So I thought everything should be great on race day. I thought I'd just eat a little cleaner, keep up my upper body and core exercises throughout the week, and everything should be smooth sailing on race day.


So, race day. I was anxious, of course and ready to get it over with. Adrenaline was definitely pumping. My knee didn't hurt at all, I didn't have any bowels trying to escape, thank God! Everything was actually smooth sailing. The route was a little different from what I practiced in the beginning, because there was an extra hill that um, I wasn't prepared for in the beginning. Nevertheless, I made it to the top and through to mile 5 and THAT'S where the (excuse my french) SH*T started to hit the fan! The last two miles or so of that freakin' race (reminding you, I've practiced this part) was BRUTAL! I mean, I struggled. I stopped and walked a couple times. I was so mad at myself for stopping and walking on race day when I didn't feel the need to stop the TWO times I had done the route the before. I knew my team was waiting on me at the end, and at some points I could care less even about that. There was a lot of self talk involved, a lot of switching songs on my playlist, and encouragement from my fellow running group member who had been using me as a pacer the whole time (little did I know) that somehow got me near the end. Speaking of switching playlist. I'm scrapping the entire thing and starting ANEW!


Once I finally reached the near end, and probably had the look of "F this ISH!" and "why the HELL am I doing this ISH again?" look all over my face, there was my relay team waiting for me. Once I saw them, I got this sudden boost of energy in my legs and sprinted with them towards the finish line. Our team goal was to finish the marathon in 4:30 minutes. Our clock time said 4:32 minutes.

My goodness! What a wonderful feeling to be a FINISHER!

I had a good overall pace, even with the stops during the end (my split for mile 7 was like 11:something, and the rest were 9's and 10's). I felt no pain, like I said. I was just TIRED towards the end. I don't know what I needed to get me through. I hadn't trained with carrying water or whatever. I always made sure I had proper nutrition and hydration prior to the event. Because this was only 7 miles. Or so I thought. I definitely don't know about participating in the Thanksgiving Half Marathon now. Not because I don't think I can do it, but because I may need to give my body a rest. I may just focus on doing my first 10k race in November or December instead, I don't know. Overall, I am pretty proud of my team. At least we finished. Now, to get our correct official time.

Nike dri-fit shirt, Yeah! I love race goodies!

This from the shy girl who never liked to sweat and hated P.E.