Kaiser 5K

Last weekend, I raced the Kaiser 5k in Golden Gate Park.  Gracias to my friend, Jenica, for helping me out with parking/driving/coaching.....Of course, she also convinced me to race in buns, which contributed to narnar race photos :)

It was unseasonably warm for February in San Francisco (60s & sunny), and I was happy that I wasn't doing the half marathon.  At the start, I lined up very close to the front and went out pretty hard. For the first mile (7:05 pace), I settled into a good groove and let myself work hard on a couple short hills. There were mainly men running around me, and, of course, I enjoyed passing them! I tried concentrating hard on each individual mile.  In the second mile (6:55 pace), I focused on staying close to people around me and kept driving my legs.  I relished the downhills, too.  A couple times, I looked at Garmalade and really didn't believe my pace :> Frankly, I don't remember the 3rd mile (6:43 pace), but I believe that I kept telling myself that the race was almost over!

I know that once I hit 3.0, I left it all out there (6:29 pace) and knew that I couldn't accelerate even one more tiny bit.

Best news, I have a new 5k PR of 22:26 on a loooong course (Drat! It was almost 3.3 miles long!). I was the 9th woman in a pretty big race.  So, according to my Garmin, I ran at 6:53 pace.  I was SOOO excited after the race to average sub-7 for a 5k :)