The weather for this race was so lovely! Nice and cool in the morning and there was a bit of fog after sun rise which helped mitigate the energy sucking Florida sunshine. The course was an out and back one direction and then out and back the other direction. The first 5k went down by the river in an area that had some pretty old houses. The second half went out and back over a causeway. Since Florida is so flat, a lot of local races run over the causeway to give us some simulated hills. Luckily, I ran this causeway a lot last summer with a local running group that I'm hoping to do some runs with again this summer. So I felt good with my ability to handle the "hill".
This race was really well organized and even had some fun entertainment. There was a martial arts group there doing sparing drills which was really cool. I didn't think of this before hand but this race is usually right around lunar new year which fits really well with the theme. They also had a dragon dance. It was so cool!
The actual race went really well. Since I was running a 10k and a half the next weekend, I didn't set any specific time goals. I wanted to have fun and feel good while running this race. My legs were feeling so good and with the weather cooperating, I was in a good place to try and PR by the halfway point.
The finish line and 5k split mats were right next to each other and I crossed the 5k mark just before the first place finisher finished. Boy, he was fast! I was focused on running my own race, though, so I kept up my pace out and over the causeway. I lost a bit of time at the water stop near the turn around. Between walking for water and the noise of the traffic, I got off on my intervals and walked a bit too much. But I went up over the causeway strong and flew over down the hill.
As I ran around the corner towards the finish line, Will was there cheering for me. He yelled at me to put on the gas and come in under 1:10. I was still feeling really strong so I let it all out and sprinted towards the finish. It was such an adrenaline rush finishing strong and fast. I even passed several people on my way in. The finish line photographer got a great shot of my focused running face.
My finish time came in right under 1 hour 10 mins at 1:09:42 which I was really happy about. It was a PR of 2:49 and I definitely didn't push myself as hard as I could have. Training for my half marathon really paid off! Right now, the 10k is my favorite distance and I really want to run this race again next year.
And the finisher medal for this race was gorgeous! It's a beautiful green and blue with a huge dragon. Green is my favorite color! It's a nice size too, about the same size as my WDW Half Marathon medal. I've learned that pretty medals really motivate me and this race did not disappoint.
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