Earth Day 5K Race Report

Elena's first ever 5k was on Sunday.   The weather was quite chilly at about 45 degrees with some wind but it was sunny.  We had picked up our packets on Saturday so we had our chips and numbers.  I was surprised by the number of people, well over 500 as I assumed it would half that due to the small feel of the race.

Starbucks was about a block from the start line so we went over there to get some coffee for our spectators, Amber and Joe.  Elena ended up scoping out some of Joe's hot chocolate but mainly wanted just the whip cream.  I put the kibash on her whip cream eating so she wouldn't have tummy trouble during the race.  We stayed inside Starbucks staying warm until about 10 minutes prior to start time.

Elena, Jill and I all lined up way toward the back of the start chute.  Since we had a chip it really didn't matter how long it took for us to get to the start line.  The race started and Elena was totally excited.  After a couple of minutes, we started moving and by the time we hit the start line we were going full speed.

Elena was ready to jet off.  I had to slow her down.  The course was an out-n-back with a big downhill for about 3/4 of mile at the beginning and of course that same downhill hits ya in the face with uphill in most of the last mile.  Elena was off and I was kept slowing her down but we still hit mile 1 at 9 minutes.  She still felt great.  She was getting encouragement from fellow adult competitors who she was passing and keeping up with.

We made it to the halfway point and only water stop.  I decided to get Elena some water and it was her only time that she stopped and walked to drink it.  I was worried she wouldn't want to start running again but she started with no problems.  She actually was clipping along for a bit a good speed after the break. We hit mile 2 with a 10 minute split and then about 200 meters later the hill the started.

The hill was brutal on poor Elena.  She was struggling and at numerous points wanted to stop and walk. I kept encouraging her that we didn't need to stop and she was moving and almost done with the hill.  The hill combined with her first 5k really made mile 3 hard.  She kept running the whole way up and made it past the hill.

Mile 3 was 11:30.  Phew..  Once the hill was done it was only about 400 meters to the finish.  We had talked in training about pushing at the end.  She was excited to keep a nice pace then push it at the end.  I asked her if she wanted to push the pace.  She was quite demoralized by the hill but end up pushing a little bit and we finished in 32 minutes.

She finished 2nd place in her age group(8-10).  She won a $15 gift certificate at the local running store.  My baby's a professional now.   No longer an amateur, she's being paid to run. The girl who won was 25 minutes and 10 years old.  She ran the race by herself.  I don't think Elena is tough enough to run by herself.  She'd be lolligaging along for sure.  She needs to be pushed a little.  We'll keep training and probably do the Race for the Cure for fun.  The DC race has so many people there is really no way to go at anything but just an easy pace.