Miles for Missions 5K

Man, I cleaned house at my 5K today!! Look at the trophies and the door prizes!!

Alright, so I was the only one in our running group to NOT get a trophy (hey the 30 - 39 year old women are FAST!) and I also didn't get a door prize, but they were kind enough to let me borrow their stuff for my picture :) Of course I'm not complaining because I did get a personal record of 30:32 and that's not too shabby!

So the race was the Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church Miles for Missions 5K benefiting their mission work with Habitat for Humanity, Katrina Relief, and Arkansas Hospice. A few gals from the Hot Legs mentioned it on our listserv this week and I thought it was time to try this distance again. The race started at the church which is in the Hillcrest district of Little Rock which is a great older neighborhood with lots of character and tons of great shops. When I move back to Little Rock, I'm hoping to find an apartment in this area. The race was small, but the church volunteers were very enthusiastic which is always fun.

The course was an out and back traveling most of the way along Kavanaugh Blvd which is the business district. The out part was downhill which meant ... yes, we'll be climbing back up on the way back! My goal was to keep a 9:45 pace and in the beginning I was going more like 8:30 but it was hard to slow down. Of course after the turnaround when I started heading up hill, there was NO problem slowing down!! I did take a few walk breaks when my heart rate got ridiculously high on the uphills and I didn't stress about it, not to mention I've learned that I don't lose a lot on my pace by taking strategic breaks. I had enough left over to sprint the finish but I was frustrated to not break that 30 minute barrier. On the bright side, it was a PR and on a hilly course to boot, and I ended up averaging a 9:51 pace which isn't far off my target.

I'm not sure where I placed in my age group - will add that later, but I was pleased with how well I did. I'll probably never be the fastest, but when I finish that marathon I'm not gonna care about my 5K times anyway :)

edited to add official results:
Women: 16/52
Age Group 30 - 39: 5/10
Overall: 34/87