A few weeks ago a fellow UGA grad reached out to me to see if I would be interested in running the Rock ‘N Run 5K and blogging about my experience. She offered me a free bib on behalf of WSOC in Charlotte. Since I have not run a race since May, I happily agreed.

I’ve mentioned this before but I have a love/hate relationship with 5Ks. On one hand, I love that I can actually compete in them versus distance races where I’m more focused on my personal performance and don’t feel any pressure to compete with others. On the other, they are so very freaking hard. My mentality is basically go as hard as I can until I fail. I love the mental and physical toughness the distance requires but it sure doesn’t feel great when you’re in the middle of it.

I was up at 6:15 a.m. to prep for the race. I needed to shower, eat and make my playlist. I actually don’t like to eat a lot before 5Ks because I feel sick during the race if I do but I did eat half of a piece of banana bread with some peanut butter along with a shot of espresso.

Another think I don’t like is arriving too early to a race. I do like to get in a warm up jog before 5Ks because it’s too hard on my body to go from no activity to all out sprint but I hate standing around. Today was perfect. I got there at 7:40 for the 8 a.m. start. I already had my bib so I didn’t have to bother with packet pickup.

I wore my new Mizuno Wave Elixir’s for the race and they were awesome! They’re very lightweight, comfortable and so fun from a design perspective. More details on them in a later post.

Let’s talk about the race. I was really, really hoping to PR. My current 5K PR is 22:44 and I’m disappointed to share that I did not PR today. I finished in 23:24 which made me the 18th female overall and the first in my age group. The race was well organized, there was plenty of parking and it was well-attended. The course was relatively flat, although it wasn’t very scenic.

One thing I loved was that this race supported the development of the up and coming “New North End” corridor in Charlotte and the start and finish were located at the North Carolina Music Factory. The race also supported Classroom Central, which provides school supplies to children living in poverty. During the month of August, WSOC is running their “School Tools” program. They are collecting school supplies (and donations) to be distributed to 22 Charlotte-area counties. Pretty awesome!

I was so close to the PR. When I think about it, I definitely think I could have found that extra 40 seconds somewhere but when you’re in the midst of it and giving it all you have it seems impossible. I will admit that mile one is always easy for me. I can usually knock it out in about 6:50-7:00. It’s mile 2 that kills me. I can rally for mile 3 and mentally push through the pain but I slow down too much on the second mile. I’d like to actually train for a 5K and see if I can run a sub-22.

I grabbed a water and a banana after the race and then bolted out to make it to yoga. I love practicing after races. It feels so good!

The remainder of the day was devoted to cleaning, organizing and purging. This cute one got cleaned too and spent the afternoon at the groomer. She’s fresh and clean now! 🙂

Hope y’all are enjoying the weekend!