GT 5K 2014

Hello, Monday!  Another great weekend has come and gone, this one was filled with lots of fun memories!

Saturday morning, I ran the GT 5K (sponsored by my local church) which supported the Wounded Warrior project.

Last week, I ran this course to help map out the distance – that was SO much fun!

Unfortunately, crazy storms dumped a ton of rain on our area the day before the race and area roads were flooded. One of the roads for our route was completely under water on Friday afternoon. Thankfully, the rains held off and most of the water drained away by race time Saturday morning. 

The humidity was crazy thick on Saturday morning, too – yuck.

I arrived early and found a few friends to chat with. I felt very patriotic! :0) (Don’t be surprised if you see that skirt again next weekend for the July 4th Four Miler!)

The turnout for this year’s race was much smaller than last year - the rains didn’t help much, I’m sure. 

We found Melissa and took another picture – we’ve all been friends for a long time! I’ve known Melissa since she was in 6th grade and Mackenzie since she was in 5th – I also had the privilege of teaching both of these ladies on Wednesday nights! We had lots of fun times!! :0)

My parents also came out to walk the 5K! (I bribed them with breakfast after the race…hah!)

I didn’t take any pictures during the race because I wanted to stay focused. I knew I wouldn’t PR in this race (the humidity was too thick), but I wanted to run my best. I stopped once for about 10 seconds at the halfway point for water and kept going. Signs like the one above kept me encouraged throughout this race, especially while closing in on the last .5 miles…

Usually, I count the people ahead of me they pass at the turnaround point, but I didn’t do that on Saturday (I have no idea why…I think my brain was on overload and I’m pretty sure it thought I was crazy).

As I approached the finish line, I pushed hard (even though I wanted to puke) and passed the guy in front of me. Had I counted those in front of me, I would have noticed that I was the 2nd female in line…yeah that’s right, second female! What?!

(By the way…apparently I didn’t do as good of a job as I originally thought with mapping out this race…whoops!)

Sure enough, my name was called as the 2nd place female! I couldn’t believe it! Something funny – #27 is my number, always has been – for softball and anything else that requires a number. My username, even…it also happens to be the day of the month I was born. When I was handed the certificate with the #27 on it, I knew it was meant to be! :0)

It took a long time to cool off after this race. I was drenched and felt disgusting. Thankfully, my Running Skirts tank dried fast!

I found one of my best friends after the race and we made plans to hang out that afternoon. Dinner and a movie? Don’t have to ask me twice!

I had a great time running the GT 5K despite the crazy weather! The pastor behind the race did an awesome job and made everything come together so well – she made it look easy to plan a race (which I know it’s not)!

After we cooled off, my parents and I had breakfast at a local diner and it was just the ticket!

I spent the rest of the day reading a new (to me) series…more on that later…then spent the evening with friends – we saw Jersey Boys and had dinner at O’Charleys.

Now it’s on to a 4 day work week and a holiday weekend! So much fun!

Has a race outcome ever caught you by surprise?

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