Posted this on the RWBF last night, but it was gobbled by spam and was on page 3 or something ridiculous when I woke up this morning. Thank you for those who were able to brave the spam and read it on there, but for those who have defected, or those who may have been interested in this but got lost in all the posts about online football, here is my RR copy and pasted into this nice spam free forum:

Short version:

Today, 11/22/12, I ran the Morris Township Turkey Trot 5K in Morris, NJ. It was my second 5K. My first 5K was on October 13, 2012, and my chip time was 37:07. I desperately wanted to PR this race, and my second goal was sub 35. I happily achieved my goals with a gun time of 34:51 and a chip time of 33:33!!!!

Long version with race pictures, and a bonus mini RR with pictures from my first 5K back in October since I didn't do a RR on it:

(If you don’t care for background and the mini RR of my 10/13 race, feel free to scroll down to the bold, italicized, underlined “today’s race” section for today’s stuff)

Background: I had been wanting for a long time to start running outside, but couldn't get myself motivated to stick with any sort of program. I would go on occasional jog/power walks in the park for exercise, but very inconsistently. A good friend of mine from college, J, who lives in Baltimore (3 hours away from me) told me this summer she had signed up for her first half marathon in the Baltimore Running Festival on October 13, 2012 and managed to convince me to come down for the race and run the 5K in the festival. So I signed up and that was the push I needed to start trying to run on a regular basis. With a lot of support from J from afar, I loosely followed the Hal Higdon's novice 5K training program.

I ran my first 5K, the Baltimore Running Festival 5K on 10/13/12. I didn't do a race report for it here, because I did not join the BF until after it, so here is a mini-RR for that race:

All I really wanted out of the race was to have fun, and gain experience racing. And my "B Goal" was to do sub-40 minutes. I drove down to Baltimore after work the night before, and stayed with J. Another good friend from college, A, came too to hang out with us and cheer us on during our races. It was nice because J's half started an hour and a half after my 5K, so J and I got to see each other start and finish each other's races. I enjoyed my first race overall. I got experience racing, and learned a few lessons: #1- it is a BAD idea to drink a bottle of water and a 16 oz coffee 45 minutes before the start of the race, and then only pee once 20 minutes before the gun. I probably should have drank less, finished drinking earlier, and gotten back in line to go again right before the start....because about a mile into the race I had to pee bad, and had to make a pit stop at the porta potties at the 1.5 mile aid station. Lesson #2- it is important to warm up before racing. I got calf cramps BAD at around the 1 mile marker and ended up power walking a bit of my second mile until they went away, and had to stop to stretch my calves. So between the calves and the porta potties, mile #2 was pretty slow. I didn't wear a watch and don't have a Garmin or anything so I really don't know my splits, but I finished in 37:07, which I was more than thrilled with. I got my very first race under my belt, had a lot of fun, got to spend time with 2 great friends I don't see often, and left the race inspired to sign up for more and to improve upon that race.

Here is my awesome finish line floater from that race:

A picture of me running through Camden Yards during the 3rd mile:

And a picture of J and I a few hours after I finished my 5K and right after she finished her half:

Today’s race: Ok onto this race. Today, 11/22/12, I ran the Morris Township Turkey Trot 5K in Morris, NJ. I wanted to do a Turkey Trot, so I found the closest one to my parent's house so I could head over for Thanksgiving festivities afterwards. I drove to my parents after work last night and attempted to get a good night sleep before the race. The gun time of the 5K was 8:30. My parent's house is about 40 minutes from the race and I wanted to get there in plenty of time before the start to avoid my 2 major mistakes from my first 5K: pee at least twice, and warm up. So I woke up at 5:45, had coffee (only one cup this time) and water right away so I had plenty of time to "get it out" before the race, ate toast with peanut butter and sliced banana on top, and headed to the course. My dad wanted to drive me there and be there to cheer me on, so that was awesome that he wanted to do that! I was excited to have him there. The forecast was sunny and mild. The high for the day was going to be 55, but it was 25 when we were leaving the house, and when I checked the hourly forecast it was going to be high 30s at gun time. I desperately wanted to wear my Sparkle Skirt, but was scared it was going to be too cold. But I put it on anyway, and put sweatpants underneath to take off and give to my dad right before start, and put on a short-sleeved tech shirt and a long sleeved tech shirt on top of that, then a tech zip up to wear until I warmed up with a plan B of keeping it on for the race if I was really freezing. I also threw some tights in the car to change into in case by race time the Sparkle Skirt was going to be too cold. I also threw on a sequined headband just for extra pizzazz.

Modeling my race day outfit before hitting the road:

My goals for the race were:

A) Run the entire way without having to stop for calf cramps or a potty break (it's a 5K not a marathon afterall!)

B) PR this race, beating the time of my first 5K which would mean under 37:07

C) Sub 35 minutes

I got there in more than enough time to pee plenty lol, and do a bit of power-walking and light jogging before they called everyone to line up. And when I took off the sweatpants and tech zip up I felt warm enough with the skirt and LS shirt over the SS shirt, yay for Sparkle Skirt! Here I am before heading to the start:

I lined up with the 10mm crowd. I know I’m slower than that, but my first 5K I lined up with the 12mm and ended up stuck behind huge groups of walkers taking up most of the road and it was really hard to pass people. This was a pretty big race, over 2000 participants, so the 10mm crowd was pretty far back as it was.

I do not own a Garmin (yet! I am asking for one for Christmas!) but I run with Nike+. I turned the Nike+ app on for the race, but mostly to be able to check in on my time at each mile and not constantly check in on pace, I promised myself I would not keep pressing the button to check my pace because A) the instant pace is wonky and inaccurate on the Nike+ and B) I was taking people on the BF’s advice (thank you) and running on effort not pace. I clicked “start” on my Nike+ as I crossed the start time, and clicked the button for it to read me distance, time and pace at every mile marker.

Mile 1: It was hard to settle into a decent pace just because the race was SO crowded right after the starting line. I didn’t get stuck behind as many walkers this time, but there were just sooo many people. So I got off to a slow start not by choice, but it wasn’t long before I could fall into a somewhat uncomfortable but not dying pace. I was definitely running a bit faster than I would for my regular training runs, but it didn’t feel unsustainable. We ran through a residential development, and some people were watching on their yards and cheering us on. When I passed the first mile marker I clicked the button on my iPod for the Nike+ to read me my info over the headphones. It told me 11 minutes and 3 seconds had elapsed. Not bad at all!!!

Mile 2: We were running on a road through a wooded area. What was left of the fall foliage was very nice and scenic. The first half of this mile felt fine. I was definitely pushing my pace a bit but it still felt sustainable. Then, halfway through my second mile, the calves started to act up. DARRRNNN ITTTTT! I tried to push through hoping they’d loosen up but it hurt a lot. I saw the aid station ahead, so I figured it was perfect timing and I slowed down to a very slow jog and grabbed a cup of water, drank it, realized I was still thirsty, grabbed another, and kept jogging slowly and trying to shake out my calves a bit as I drank. Good thing I didn’t have to pee this time haha because there were NO porta potties at the aid station like my first race…or on the course at all! Right after the aid station we hit the only hill of the course. UGH terrible timing! My calves hurt sooo bad. I slow jogged it up the hill, and when I reached the top and started running on flat ground again, I felt my calves loosen, phew. At least I didn't have to stop to power walk and stretch this time, but I was a little grumpy I had to slow down for a minute or 2. I hit the 2 mile mark and checked in with the Nike+--22 minutes and 8 seconds. Ok….so with the slow start with the large crowd in the first mile, and the slowdown in the second, I ended up running pretty even splits on both miles, and was running faster overall than my first 5K. I did quick math and realize that I would need to have a MAJOR blow up not to PR, and a pretty big blow up not to reach my other goal of 35 minutes, and I didn’t feel a blow up coming on, in fact I felt the best I had the whole race! I was feeling pretty giddy…but time to finish this thing!

Mile 3 + .1: I felt great, not a hint of calf pain, and had energy left in the tank although I had been running what was pretty fast for me for most of the race so far...so and really turned it on for the last 1.1 miles. The remainder of the course was flat and through a residential area and past a baseball field and then a turn to the finish line for the last .1. I was pushing pretty hard, and I could not have sustained my pace for that mile for any longer than it took to finish the race, but I didn’t need to today. I had barely enough for a finish line kick, but when the clock came into view I saw 34x and I knew I HAD to come in under 35 and wasn’t taking no for an answer (even though I knew I had started at least a minute after the gun and that my chip time would definitely be under 35, I still wanted to come in under 35 on the clock since I could see it right in front of me!) I mustered up the last ounce of energy and gave it everything I had. I crossed in 34:51 on the clock. I stopped my Nike+ a few seconds later and it said 33:40, so I knew my chip time would be 33:3X and I was over the moon! I eventually found out my chip time was 33:33! Huge PR, met all my goals (even though I slowed down because of my calves I did not power walk or stop and stretch this time, so I consider that goal met too!)  Here's a pic my dad got of my sprint to the finish:

And here I am finished and thrilled to have Killed all my goals:

And waiting for results to be posted to see my official times:

Great day! And then home for turkey eating!!! Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my first RR!!!!

That's awesome kristin!  You're making a lot of progress quickly!  Congrats on meeting your goals.   I totally love the picture of you pushing it at the end.  This is a real race photo that begs to be framed.   Plus gotta love the sparkly racing skirt! 

I replied on RW too, but I'll again pop in and say congratulations for killing it in your race!  Awesome job!

Thanks everybody! And thanks a whole bunch to those who found this amongst the spam on the BF and also came to comment again on here.

LTH- Haha....thank you.... those are some great rules to remember! I am hoping my new rules of stop drinking 2 hours before my race and pee at least twice at the course whether I think I have to or not will prevent peeing down my leg haha. I like the mantra that I have permission to jog but not permission to walk.

Di I hope you enjoyed the Baltimore race. I think I read your RR on the BF. I'm sorry you didn't get good pics . I was excited about mine that I actually paid like $67 to download them (isn't that ridiculous?!?!) I figured hey, it was my first race and they came out cool so why not. They got another of me too but I looked awful so I did not include it haha

Congrats on the PR - great race! And I love the skirt!

Congrats, and you've got some great pics!