My 5k today - race report (Read 525 times)

So this morning I woke up at 5:30 am, woke up my two boys, fed the baby, got dressed, got my husband out of bed. Fed my 3 1/2 year old breakfast. Packed snacks for my 3 1/2 year old. Packed his bike, helmet and the running stroller into the car. Packed my family into the car and drove into Atlantic City for the Shaloma Hadassah 5k and 2 mile walk. We found on-street parking so we didn't have to pay the Hilton $10 for the use of its lot, we just needed a few quarters (whoa hoa). Then we unpacked the boys, put the baby in the running stroller, the big one on his bike and rolled up to the boardwalk with 30 minutes until the start of the run. We met up with my folks who were also running the 5k. My mom agreed to push the baby, while my husband and 3 1/2 did the walk. We should have realized how disorganized this race would be based on the application, but we were surprised that they had not assigned numbers to runners yet. Since only about 150 people came for both the run and the walk though it wasn't too terrible. Then we had time to mill around and think about using the bathroom, which I did in the Hilton -- by the way, I don't think the gamblers I walked past knew it was Sunday yet. The race went off relatively smoothly, they had us line up and then there was some sort of delay, I don't know what it was, but soon enough we were off. Running on the boardwalk is interesting, it's flat, but it's also sort of busy with bikers and smokers, so that can be annoying. I also don't care for the "bounce" quality, but I guess it's good for my knees. After about 1 mile a bread truck was backing across the boardwalk (I guess he didn't know he couldn't drive on the boardwalk or didn't care?). The runner near me and I started yelling "stop, you are going to block the race course" and eventually (when I was about 2 feet away from the truck), he stopped. It was humid. Very humid. But since it was only a 5k I didn't grab water at the turn around. Big mistake. My mouth was parched. I began slowing down. But soon enough the finish was in sight. With about 1/4 of a mile to go the same girl who passed me last week (her husband/boyfriend/who knows who "pushed" her for the last 1/4 of a mile, it pissed me off big time last week and this week) appeared with the "pusher". But this week I was NOT going to let them pass me. And I didn't. I finished with a decent, but not great time of 25:40 (or thereabouts). Second in my age group though. So I won a $5 gift card to WaWa. I gave it to my husband so he can buy coffee one morning. All and all not a bad way to start the day. But next year I'm going to volunteer to help with this race so that the race goes off without any hitches.

Very nice job! I happen to love this:

We met up with my folks who were also running the 5k.