Hope, Love, and Faith MS 5k Recap

Well, I completed my third 5k of the year today. It’s the Hope, Love, and Faith 5K which benefited the Heil Luthringer Foundation which provieds education for those suffering with Multiple Sclerosis and other diseases. The race was at the Naples Philharmonic which is about an hour drive for us. My plan was to get up extra early so that we could get there with enough time for me to walk a good mile before the race started. I have found that if I don’t do this ‘warm up’ prior to any jogging or running that I get the worst shin splints ever. Unfortunately, I overslept, which threw my plan all the hell. I did get there in time for the race, but just barely. As such I had to go to Plan B and just walk the first 10 minutes or so of the race and hope that was enough to prevent shin splints. Luckily it was.

Something else to mention is that it was COLD this morning. Ok, it was in the 40’s, but for Florida, that is COLD. It was also the first time I’ve ever done any type of exercise in cold weather. I was nervous about how my breathing would be, but I managed OK. It was definitely harder to catch my breath than in the air controlled gym, but it wasn’t as horrible as I was imagining it being either. I will say though that all day my chest/lungs have felt “harsh” as a result. I’m hoping that I don’t get sick.

As I said above, I started off just walking fast and then after about 10 minutes or so I started doing running intervals. I’d walk for a minute and then run for a minute (or two). I bought a new watch a couple of weeks ago, this Nike Fury:

Wow, it was incredibly helpful to have! I’d recommend it (or a similar watch) to anyone. It really helped me to stay on track and I don’t think I’d have finished in the time I did without it.

There was a point in the race where I was almost in tears. My goal today was to finish in less than 50 minutes. I didn’t care if I was last as long as I could get under 50. So I passed mile marker 1 and felt like I was making good time, even though I had to walk the first half mile or so. So I kept on going, and going, and going. I was getting anxious because I’d look at my watch and see that I had been going for 40 minutes yet hadn’t passed the second mile marker yet. I was so scared I wasn’t going to make it in under 50 and really had to keep myself from tearing up over it. So at around 45 minutes or so, I turned a corner and saw mile marker 3 and the finish line not too far in the distance. Whew! There must not have been a marker for mile 2! Hehe! I felt silly then for getting so worked up over it. Anyway, I finished the race in 46:29 as you can see from the picture:

All things considered, I must say this was my favorite race so far. I felt the gamut of all sorts of emotions from being disappointed in myself when I thought I wasn’t going to break my record, to feeling so very proud of myself when I did. I also didn’t let the cold weather or me oversleeping prevent me from doing it. Well, I’ve gotta go get ready for the parade tonight. Hope you’re all having a great weekend so far – mine’s started out pretty damned good!

Click here to see the complete gallery of photos from today’s race. I’ve also updated my Racing page here.

76.6 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
13.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(3) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)