First 5k - The details

Well.. I have to say it wasn't the beautiful morning I was hoping for. Instead of the Sunny and 70 April morning I was expecting, I was greeted with 45 and raining. Not an ideal climate for my first run for sure.

We woke up around 7:30 and had a nice bfast, hoped in the shower and headed to Velocity Fitness in Warminster. I didn't really know what to expect, my only experience with 5ks was the Race for the Cure last year, and that was a madhouse. This, not so much a madhouse as a mess. Not organized at all, cars parked all over the place, bunch of people standing around with "Philly Fit" shirts on just staring off into space and not telling anyone where they were supposed to go. So now I'm cold... and a bit annoyed. We finally found where to park and headed into registration to pick up our tags. I was 34 and as I looked around at the other runners, I noticed there were no triple digit runners. So it seems this was going to be a very small run even without the rain.

we went inside and warmed up for a bit then headed back to the car to get ready for the pre-run warmup, which was actually very nice because it was cold and crappy out and the little bit of calisthenics helped a lot to make it a little less cold.

The runners got set up to begin the race and the air sigh (the horn just made a sound like a silent fart followed by "That was it" shouted by the guy starting the race, rather then the loud horn you might have expected).

The first mile was actually a little rough while I tried to get a good rhythm and get my breathing down. It also didn't help much that we were being lapped by the kids in the wheel chairs and it was essentially a small incline most of the first mile - mile and 1/2. But once i got my rhythm I felt good. I started to warm up and we hit mile 1 at almost 12 minutes dead on, which is my pace as of now. The second mile felt great, I was warmed up, had a good rhythm, breathing was good. and at some point I realized that I hadn't taken a break yet, in all my training runs I needed to take a minimum of 3-4 small stretch, water, walk breaks throughout. So that made me feel even better. Having Jenna there was the motivation I needed to keep going, I would have never kept up my pace without her there.

As we passed the 2nd mile mark a guy there with a watch called out our time, 21 minutes... Holy crap, you mean I just ran my 2nd mile in 9? I quickly realized, thanks to Jenna and her fun GPS watch I got her for her birthday, that we actually were about 1/4 mile shy of 2 miles, so no 9 minute mile for me, but that does mean we were right on track for a second 12 minute mile, which again is my training pace and worked perfectly.

Anyway, to make a long story short (too late, I know) we rounded the corner for the final 100 yards I heard from the end of the road "GO PJ" shouted from Nicole as she held up a big sign. It was actually a pretty awesome feeling being on the other end of the sign for once, I had a little burst of adrenaline seeing the finish line and hearing my name so Jenna and I decided to sprint it in, we sprinted to the finish line and apparently, we needed to go through some chute, which I didn't know so I passed right by it. after turning a nice shade of red I turned around and went back through and they tore my tag and off to panting we went.

I know that the race was mis-measured and we were about 1/2 mile short from running a true 5k, but to me that really doesn't matter. I did better in this race then I had ever done in training. I ran the whole thing without a break of any sort.

So, now I'm sure your wondering what the deal is with the plaque below. Second place? well, after the race we wandered around the vendors and got lots of free dog food and treats (the race was a fund raiser for a local dog shelter), as well as sampled various different potent potables from the dozen or so people pushing their pyramid scheme fitness drinks, one of which made me so sick to my stomach that the rest of the day was not as enjoyable as I might have liked. I heard in the distance "Jenna Franceski" called as one of the award winners for the 25-30 age group. I ran over a told Jenna and we wandered to the award ceremony to see what was going on. Turns out that they had Jenna marked as Age 25 and me marked as Age 0. I think I might have mentioned above that this race was a complete clusterfuck in organization. In any case, after talking to a guy who decided to let us ask a question, then completely ignore us afterwards, we spoke to another guy and it turned out Jenna was 3 out of 4 in her actual age group (which is pretty awesome considering she stuck back with me). I then asked about my age group, because I had only heard 1 name called and there were 3 places for each age group. Well, since I am obvious not 0 years old, I was 1 of 2 guys in the 30-34 men's group. Which makes me SECOND PLACE BABY!!!

So, my first run I got 2nd place out of 2 running a 12 minute mile on a cold and rainy April morning in the worlds most disorganized 5k... Not bad I think. :)

Nicole was good enough to bring her camera so I'll post the pictures once I get them from her.