Aquarium Run

On May 16th, I ran the Aquarium Run. When I woke up at 6:00 AM, I did not feel that this race was going to go well. I was tired. Ashley, Kelly, and Pat met at my apartment, then we carpooled to the race. The morning started out cool. I wore shorts, singlet, and a jacket (which I later ditched). After we all dealt with the issue of getting our timing devices strapped on our shoes, we headed outside to the starting line. As soon as the gun went off, we all went our separate ways. Ashley and I ran with each other for a while. Like I said, I was not feeling too good about running this race so I was not planning on any big finish. I wanted someone's company more than anything. I've yet to run a race with a friend (other than Mark and we didn't fully run). We started at the aquarium in Jenks, crossed the bridge and started on Riverside, headed down to 81st street where we made a right, ran down to Lewis and made a u-turn and ran back down 81st, and made a left back onto Riverside. At this point, Ashley and I were keeping a pretty good pace. We were both confused with the running course, though. We thought we were supposed to run down the trail along the Arkansas river. We were running nowhere near there. We then started to realize that we were going to double back somewhere in Jenks and head back out along the river trail. The thought of this became daunting. We were getting tired of running back and forth along the same path. Sure enough, as soon as we crossed back over the 96th street bridge into Jenks, we made another u-turn near Louie's and headed over the bridge for the 3rd time and then onto the river trail. Shortly after crossing the bridge, I broke away from Ashley. I was bummed to no longer have any company, but Mark and Penny (our boxer) graced us with their presence along the river trail. I was glad to see Mark because I decided to shed my jacket. Ashley was glad too, because she had been trying to shed her outer layers for a while. We then made our way along the trail to the 71st street bridge, made another u-turn, ran back to Jenks crossing the 96th street bridge for the 4th time (not that I'm counting or anything), and ended back at the aquarium. The finish line was a nice sight. I was ready to be done. I hadn't quite hit the wall like I did in OKC, but I'm still always ready for the end. As I made my way to the finish, I realized I was going to come in under 2 hours! I was super excited, kicking on the turbo so I could finish even faster. I came in at 1:58!!! My new PR (personal record)! I then waited around for my other friends to finish. Pat finished way before anyone in 1:36. I found him, and we cheered in Ashley. Then, the three of us waited around for Kelly to finish. We sat for a while and never saw her. We started to get worried and wondered if she'd dropped out. She had been having knee problems. At one point we decided to head indoors to see if there was a shuttle dropping racers off, hoping we would be able to find Kelly. I just happened to go back outside as Kelly made her way to the finish line. I ran and cheered her on then we went inside to find Ashley and Pat. To our disappointment, they ran out of finisher's medals. We waited a bit longer for the awards annoucement--Pat won 3rd in his age group--then we made our way home. I was ready to get home and shower. Then, I took an amazing nap the rest of the day!

Full Moon 5k

So, I've gotten a little backed-up. Time to give an update on past races. On May 9th, Mark and I ran the Full Moon 5k. (Called that b/c the Full Moon bar is the sponsor.) I finally suckered Mark into running a race with me. I told him I'd go easy on him, and actually run at his pace versus running at mine. The day started out a little cool and overcast, but it made for enjoyable running conditions. After Mark and I strapped on our timing chips and met some friends that were running as well, we headed towards the starting line at Veterans Park. Mark was a little nervous considering this was his first race to ever run. I was so proud that he was at least going through with it. The gun sounded, and we were off. We started out heading up a small incline (I didn't notice it, but Mark informed me off the hill especially since I swore there would be no hills), then made our way onto Riverside. It was a pleasant view of Zink Lake. Mark and I ran and walked. I tried holding a conversation, but Mark wasn't in the mood. I told him to give me a hand signal when he needed to stop running and start walking. I'm not going to lie, it killed me to run so slow and especially to walk. Mark kept informing me that this race was not about me, but about US. So, I stayed by his side the whole time. In the last half mile, Mark ran across an old high school friend. They chatted it up to the finish. Each trying to motivate the other to finish before an hour. I informed them that our chances were good of making it in under 45 minutes and even 40 minutes. They both agreed to push it out hard at the end. Once again, there was groaning as we had to cross the hill again towards the finish line. With the last bit of yardage ahead of us, I took off in a dead sprint for the finish, but just before crossing, I turned back because I promised Mark we would cross the finish together. And we did! Our finish time was 38:16. I was so proud of Mark! He could barely walk and wanted to curse me, but later informed me that he was glad he did that race. He actually had fun doing it. I looked about as happy as a mother watching her baby take its first step! He was sore for about a week after the race, but did somewhat agree to running another 5k in the future. I can't wait!