Race Wrap-up

I did it! The 5K was fantastic. I finished in about 37 minutes - a 10:50 ish pace. Not bad for the first time around.

I really had a great time - the actual run was tough, but I really enjoyed the whole event. It was fun to run with other people and Ernest was a terrific wing man. :) I was honored to meet Olivia's mother and father - I'm glad we were able to raise some money in her memory.

It was so cool to have my whole family there (except my brother!). At the end of the race, I was really dragging and it ended on a small incline. My dad was there and helped me run the last leg. Thanks, Dad!

The run was actually 5.5 K - much to my surprise. I always figured races were really accurate, but I guess not. I even thought that maybe my Nike+ monitor was not calibrated properly. This past week I tested it out and it is definitely accurate so I actually ran 3.44 miles - .34 miles more than I expected to run.

So, what next? I had promised myself a week off after the race, but I didn't really take it. I definitely took it easier this past week, but I couldn't just do nothing. I don't want to fall out of the routine I set.

I decided that I want to run another race, so I looked around a bunch and found this one:
Lacamas Lake Half Marathon. They have a 4 mile race, which is just slightly more than I ran last weekend.

I'm trying to figure out how to get my pace higher (run faster). This week, I started doing some strength training workouts in addition to the 2.5-3 mile runs. I'd like to do two strength training workouts + 2-3 runs per week. The days I do strength, I'm going to warm up with a 1 mile run that I run at a faster pace then usual. Hopefully that will help me get a feel for a faster run. We'll see!