My Second 5k Race!

Yesterday I ran my second 5k race :) It was in West Virginia, so now I’ve officially ran a race in 2 states! My ultimate running goal is to run at least one race in all 50 states. I woke up feeling really terrible with stomach pains and nausea. I was so disappointed because I had a goal pace in mind of 10:15 and I just knew that with the way I was feeling there was no way I’d be able to reach that. But I put on a brave face and went with my roommate and her sister to meet up with their mom at the race site. It was cloudy and cool, but seemed like perfect running weather to me!

I warmed up a little bit and then headed for the starting line. The gun went off and I started jogging. My stomach still hurt the entire race, and even though I tried to push myself to my normal pace my body just wasn’t having it. With the last 2 tenths of a mile to go, I kicked it into the highest gear I could muster and passed 3 runners that had been ahead of me the entire race before crossing the finish line. I ended up with a time of 33:52 (10:55 mile pace). That means I improved on my mile pace by 16 seconds since my last 5k! I know I could do better but I’m proud of myself for beating my 5k time despite how terrible I felt. Imagine what I would have been able to do if I had been feeling 100%!! I’m really looking forward to my next race, which is in 3 weeks (and on my 22nd birthday!) and I’m looking forward to my training runs this week!

Did you have a race or fitness activity this weekend? How’d it go?

Have you ever felt sick during a race? What did you do?

When’s your next race scheduled? What type of race is it?