I had not heard of this race until probably the first week of February, when DH passed on the registration form he picked up at the local YMCA.  It’s only two weeks before an annual event put on by my daughter’s school, the race that two years ago was my first.  I tried talking myself out of it and failed. 

Condensed History:

I ran a bit while at university, but only at the urging of someone else and in an effort to lose weight.  That didn’t last long.  A few years and two children later, I started again.  Either TMTS or the wrong shoes resulted in a case of PF bad enough that a doctor told me to just stop running. So I did.  A few more years and a move back to the States and I tried starting again.  PF flared-up, Five Fingers purchased, and my first 5K in March 2011 with a time of 40:47.8.

From March 2011 to December 2012, I ran a total of six races.  I always finish near the back, but have yet to come in DFL overall.  Last in my age group (30-39) is pretty common.  My best time – 35:50.9.  None have ever been chip-timed.

Race day:

I didn’t expect to have a decent sleep the night before, as I hadn’t managed one all week.  It turned out okay though.  On waking Saturday morning, the temperature here in South Georgia was about 36°.  I had a cup of tea and killed some time before heading out the door.  Got there in plenty of time, had no trouble parking, and picked up my bib.  There was a little confusion as to where the race started.  Registration was on one side of a little park where the finish chute was set up, but the start was on the other side, near the middle school track.  That’s also where I happened to park, so I sat in a nice warm truck ‘til closer to start time.

I overheard that pre-registration numbered about 45.  There weren’t that many there as far as I could tell.  This was the smallest crowd I’d ever seen.   The benefit was that I could see exactly where the starting point was and get my Garmin going.  My strategy was still to start at the back and see how it went.  My goals were simple: A) finish, preferably without walking,  and B) finish under 35:20, which would be beating my PR by about 30 seconds, and my last race by close to a minute.

Splits (according to Garmin):

Unofficial time: 32:20.0 – 1^st in my Age Group!  Okay, only one in my age group, but who cares?  LOL

ETA:  Official time 32.20.1    overall, 16/21.  I doubt I'll ever see a race that small again.

I didn’t take my iPod with me, and I tried to not look at my watch too much (this was my first race since getting it).  It beeped within a foot or two of each mile marker, which makes a nice change from the Nike+  sensor and iPod set-up I’d been using.  One race with that one only came out at 2.2 miles.

The plan was to run this one easy and get an idea of what I can do on the 16^th.  Don’t Run With Scissors will almost certainly have a much bigger field, with closer to 300 participating.  This is the one I really want to do well in.  I didn’t run this one as easy as I probably should have, though I was able to kick a little at the end, but I think if I can keep it under 33:00 on the 16^th, I’ll be happy.

Thanks for reading!

Great story! Congrats on coming back to running after injury and bad medical advice.

Sounds like you've made really good progress and congrats on you time and finishing 1st in your AG! Of course, you also finished last in your AG.

I greatly admire your determination. You never gave up on running and look... now you have a huge PR! Congratulations! I wish you good luck in your next race! And please let us know how it went, ok? :-)

Those splits look nice!  Great story!

Don't get discouraged should your next event fall short of this effort.  For many of us, PR's are the exception not rule.

PS I had a doctor tell me to stop running too. I didn't listen, glad you didn't either!

Impressive PR!  I've just started using a Garmin as well and I can't believe how inaccurate my other set-up had been after comparing routes.

Huge congrats to you for sticking with running through a challenging start!  So many people just throw in the towel.

As for your race, a three minute PR is fantastic!  I bet the next one will be even easier because there will be more runners there to pace off of.  In the smaller races I think people spread out a lot more and I find it's harder to maintain pace.