Home of the Brave

Happy Fourth of July! How did I spend my holiday? Running a 5K of course.

I woke up this morning with 1,728 other runners and headed out to Reston Town Center for some patriotic racing. This was the largest 5K I've ever participated in.

Things were kicked off by singing the national anthem. Then the sea of red, white and blue made their way over to the starting line.

So how did I do?

AWESOME!!

I ran it in 43:58. Which I know sounds crazy slow but it's a personal best for myself. I averaged a 14:11 minute pace which is huge for me. Also, I wasn't last which is always a goal. I came in 873 out of 955 women.  Over all I came in 1618th place out of 1728.


That means I beat over 100 people to the finish line!!

This is why I'm still doing this. When you do something you never imagined you'd do, you have this enormous feeling of accomplishment. It really is a physical high. I got that feeling after I ran 4 miles for the first time and I got that feeling again today. I'm still in awe of how epic I am.

 

We were such a large group that we took up 2 lanes of traffic! It was amazing. I even found someone from =PR= Running 101 class that I had sat in on last week. I also saw my coach at the finish line!

They had photographers set up at the finish line and I can't believe I'm about to share this with the world but here it is:

Did I earn it? It sure looks like it to me. No Pain No Gain.

A very festive finish line was waiting for me. You can see by the time clock that I had already crossed and was very proud.

 Now it was time for the celebration party!

There was dancing.

An entire wedding party ran the race!

And there was a very hot and sweaty participant. I may have to wear my well earned race shirt to see some fireworks tonight.