Race for the Cure 2011

This race was my first race back in the circuit last year. I started the C25K program in order to run this race 1 year ago. My goal for that race was to finish in < 32 min. I ran it just barely under 31. Kristen ran with me to pace me through it. This year, I had bigger dreams! I have already run a sub 30 5K, so I wanted to beat my best 5K time of 28:21.

Andrea and Jasmyn were up for it. 27.59 would have been good enough for us! haha So as they are telling us to line up for the race. I realized I had forgot my phone! How was I going to pace us and keep us at a sub 28 5K without my phone!!? Whelp, best thing I could think of was to line up with the 8 min pace group and try like hell to keep up! If we slow down and fall back, we will land in the 8:30 to 9 pace group which is where we "needed" to be.

We line up, wait for the Star Spangled Banner then the gun, and we were off. I try really hard to keep on pace in the beginning of a race, but I normally fail at that and run faster than I should. This was new course with hills, the old course was the flattest race course out there...but I wanted to PR on hills!? Well, when we took off, I felt good. I didnt feel sluggish because 60000 people were passing me. We were actually running with the group and didnt have to run around a million people either. The new scenery was a nice change so I just went with it. Felt good. when I heard the 1K timer yell out something around the 5 min mark, I knew we were running faster than necessary, but I thought we might slow down a little toward the end...so I just kept my pace. 2K, 10:41...still on pace and faster than needed, but still feeling good...after the 3K mark, I figured that we were on set to run a 26 min 5K. I was scared that my math was wrong or the markers were a little off, so I didnt tell Andrea. 4K, 21:??, I thought to myself, am I really fixing to run this in under 27 min?!! No, that cant be right...About that time, we hit the last hill, < 1K to the finish line and we have short but steep doozy. I told Andrea to duck her head, dont look up, just charge it. We get to the top at a quick pace and she started feeling nauseous. (This has happened before with less than friendly results! haha) She said, if we dont slow down, Im gonna be sick. I told her we could slow down, but stopping wasnt an option. We had it at that point and I wasnt going to give it up, but I wasnt going to leave her either. We had been training for this together all along and worked too hard. We were finishing together!
We crossed the finish line and PR'd our 5K at 27:05!! My math was right and we were on pace for a 26 min 5K. the hill took a toll on us and in the end we pushed thru and finished almost a minute faster than our goal!! woo hoo!
Jasmyn had slowed a little earlier in the race because she was a little under the weather, but still finished in a little over 28 min!

Jonathan ran his very first 5K and finished with a pretty phenomenal 31:45!! Sort of sickening that I worked for 3 months last year to get that kind of time and he just decided to run one day and pulls that out!! wow! I was so proud of him for doing it tho!
Kristen ran 5 months preggo! She and Jonathan ran together for the whole race so her time was a few seconds off from his! Fantastic since she hadnt really run much since May...until this last month. So proud of them for even getting out of bed!!

Of course we all wore fun shirts and celebrated the cause with style.
The girls were all Hakuna Ma TA TA's, with names that were references to boobs. Jonathans shirt said Save Second Base and Liam's shirt said Save the Boobies cause a baby gotta eat!

Here are a few pics:

Kristen is preggo so she was the Milk Makers, Andrea was Double A's, I was Melons and Jasmyn was Jugs (all names went with our initials...except the preggers...obviously)



Kristen, Andrea, Me and Jasmyn. Like our socks?



yes...Liam was making a funny face...

Me and J at post race breakfast (tradition)

I also want to "shout out" (LOL) my company CTCA. We have a team thru work that we registered for and we had CTCA team shirts that were amazing. I didnt wear it because of our special team shirts, but I fully support my CTCA team and LOVED the shirts this year. They said:

Whoever said winning wasnt everything, never had to fight Cancer!

Its so amazing to work for such a great cause every single day. I love what I do and it makes "work" so much easier! I run to support those who have won their battle, and those fought until they could no longer fight. Its probably one of the most amazing runs to ever experience and be a part of. I highly recommend everyone that reads this to just go stand at the finish line of  Race for the Cure in your area. Every single pink shirt/bib that walks or runs across that finish line is a walking miracle. They are defining our future and helping us to find a cure. :)