Race Recap: ATC Hearts & Soles 5K, My thoughts

According to my half mary training plan, I was supposed to do 5 miles today. I forgot I signed up for this race, so I did 2+ extra yesterday with Back on My Feet Atlanta and then the 3.1 mile race today. Here's some of my crazy thoughts before, during, and after this race that I almost skipped...for real.

BEFORE
"I do not feel like getting up for this race in the morning."
"I might skip it since I didn't pay for it."
"I should text ____ and tell her I don't feel like going."
"Man, I ain't signing up for anymore winter races. Bump that!"
"Alright, let me get up. When I get home, I'm going STRAIGHT back to bed!"

DURING
"I hate the start of a race...all bunched up and stuff....move."
"I hope no one trips and falls."
"I hope I don't trip and fall."
"Lord, please be with me."
"Wtf(feezy), they said this was supposed to be all flat!"
"C'mon tiff"
"Stop latching on to other runners, and speed it up...get out of your comfort zone."
"my playlist is sucking right now"
Not so great mixtape comes on, "oh, SKIP...canNOT listen to that!"
"Ugh, how much further."
"Almost over, yes."
"Oh well, I can't keep up with her"
"I invited _____ who ONLY lives 5 minutes away and that bum didn't even show up. Lazy self." lol

AFTER
"28:12 clock time, maaaan...I could of done under 28, but oh well."
"Thank God!"
"Yay, I might of PR'ed!"

...and I did with an official time of 28:02. Not a huge improvement from my last 5k race in October (in my opinion). I really don't like out-and-back routes, but the race was free for ATC members and in a neighborhood I grew up in. I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to represent. I would of never imagined years ago that I would be running that street one day...ever.

My Splits! I'm really shocked at the first 2 miles, really!

10 miles on schedule tomorrow!

Race Recap: Firefly Run ATL

I'm super late with this post...

The FireFly Run Atlanta was my first night 5k (10/1/11) and it was so much fun! At first I was going to use this as a "fun run", but with a $35 registration cost, I quickly recanted that thought.  I decided this was going to be the perfect race for me to earn a new personal best in the 5k.  Not only had I done the route several times with my running group (before they made the route public), I loved that it was at night and we'd have glow-in-the-dark gadgets, etc.  I love, love, love running in cooler temps.  Matter of fact, that's how I started out.

The most exciting news is that I PR'ed! Yep, I'm finally apart of the sub-30 club, finishing at 29:10.  I had a goal of finishing sub-29, so that 10 seconds is kind of annoying.  I'm blaming that on the hill at the very end though.

In other news, I'm back down to 140lbs (my original -60lb weight goal and what I now consider my "race weight") I have two more races this month. One is another night race I'm doing for the camaraderie and in support of another up and coming runner.  At the end of the month I'm doing a major race (at least for me), the Atlanta Marathon Relay. I'm very excited to be apart of a relay team, and not until last week did I think being apart of a marathon (besides volunteering) would be occurring so soon.  But more details on that in a later post.  

Here's a few pictures from my night race...(I vow to get better with remembering to take pics in the first place lol)