My First 5K!! Brew Haha Halloween Race Recap

A lot has taken place this week!  And, I know a lot of you have been wondering how my first 5K experience went this weekend.  Keep reading to hear about everything.

First of all, this week was what I would consider a taper week.  I knew I wanted to go a little faster this weekend.  I knew I didn't want my legs to be tired so I ran 1.5 miles on Tuesday and 1.2 miles on Thursday.  I pushed the tempo on these runs a little and actually kinda impressed myself on Thursday when I pushed the mile in under 11:30.  I was READY for the weekend.

Friday we headed down to pick up our race packets at the Endurance House in Fishers.  They were nice and organized and we walked out with our bib and shirt.  We walked around the store a little bit and checked out their specialty items.  They had some cool stuff there included running clothes, shoes, and triathlon specific bikes.  Check them out sometime when you get a chance.  We then went to pick up my in-laws from the airport after a quick stop at my mom's house and finally headed for home.


6:30 Saturday morning came pretty early, but I was actually excited.  I purchased some cold weather tights during the week since the forecast for Saturday was pretty chilly.  I had to decide between tights or no tights so I tried a quick trial run in front of the house in both and decided the tights were the way to go.  I am glad that was the decision I made.  I made sure to eat a good but not too large breakfast of an english muffin with some Nutella.  I threw some Gatorade chews on top of that when we got to the race.

After we arrived in Carmel, we sat in the car for a while so we weren't standing out in the cold.  We attached our bibs and headed out around 20 minutes before the race.  It's a good thing we left the car when we did as the line for the porta potty was about 5-10 minutes long.  I got out of the bathroom with 3 minutes left before the start time.  I had to hurry to get my wristband for my free beer at the end of the race and get my phone into my SpiBelt right before the race started.  I made sure to high five Mrs. Re-Dan-imation and then the gun went off.

With my brother-in-law by my side I decided to push the pace.  My Goal pace was 12:00min/mile the entire race.  That's much faster than I have run on a normal day.  After the first mile I was feeling pretty good and my Garmin told me we finished it in 12:06.  The second mile came a little slower at 12:27 as this mile had the only recent hill on the course.  Most seasoned runners wouldn't even call it a hill.  We pushed the 3rd mile and I still felt great.  I mean we were passing people the entire race...which I also didn't expect.  We finished the 3rd mile in a quicker 12:10 and then we really started to push the pace.  We finished the last .15 miles at an average 11:02.  WE FINISHED OUR FIRST 5K IN A TIME OF 38:21!!

We headed out for breakfast and I made the mistake of replacing about twice as many calories as I had burned during the race.  It was good though.  Then, we headed home to relax for a while before heading to Broad Ripple for a Halloween party with some friends.  We had a great night, but I know I slept like a rock when I got home.  I got to sleep in and then I spent the majority of Sunday looking online for ways to display race bibs and medals.  I know, I know.  Already?  Anyway, I want to thank everyone that has cheered me on to this point and I hope you continue to do so.  I especially want to thank Kreg Stockberger for participating with me in what was also his first 5K and my mom, brother and wife for coming out to watch us on such a blustery day.  I am planning to increase my mileage over the next few weeks.  Be on the lookout as I decide what runs to tackle next.  You may want to join in on the fun or get involved in some other way.  Details will be out in the next week or so.

Weight loss wasn't the main goal for me this week, but I still weighed in this morning.  I tipped the scale at 263.1 lbs for a loss of 0.2 lbs.  It's not a gain!  I still maintain that this will continue to get better as I continue to train for longer distances and get better about my calorie intake including eating more of the right calories instead of just calories overall.  Until next week...Food. Feet. Water. Repeat!!