First Race: The Lucky Dash!

Before the race...trying to stay positive!

Soooo...I ran my first "5k" (3.01 mi) this past Saturday! It was the Lucky Dash in Royal Oak, MI!  I was feeling pretty good about it the day before and not until I was getting to bed did I get a bit nervous. A slightly restless night of sleep later, I woke up ready to go... until I looked out the window and saw about 4 inches of snow on the ground.

Now, I'm not a fan of snow. I run inside during the winter so I don't have to worry about suddenly slipping and injuring myself on some black ice... This was making me nervous. I just kept telling myself that they'll make sure it's plowed and salted because there was a parade happening right after the race.

We got there after some confused driving and parking too far away, I got my bib and t-shirt (light green and super soft! Horray!) and we moved the car closer and camped out in there to stay warm.

Everyone dancing to keep warm!

The race started at 10:45, so we stayed in the car until 10:30. People started to gather at the start and everyone was dancing around to the music to stay warm. It was a fun atmosphere and you could tell everyone was antsy to get moving. 

I've read over and over again to never try new things on race days...and yet for some reason I didn't listen. I had downloaded the Nike+ app to try to track distance. I'm not sure why, exactly, because this was a measured distance... but I still figured I'd try.

The gun went off and I started it. It immediately started to play my playlist (not on shuffle) and every so often it would turn my music down, tell me how far I've gone and tell me how awesome I am... That's great, Nike+ App...but REALLY?! *sigh* I guess I learned my lesson on that one! 

Waiting for the train....

At about .75 mi into the race we had to stop for a train...Which for some reason was fully stopped halfway across the road.

People seemed a bit annoyed...as was I. I had been hoping to run the whole thing straight...no stopping, no walking...but I had to stop and wait for a train to pass by. I took it as an opportunity to turn the stupid app off and turn my playlist on shuffle for the rest of the course. The train moved soon after and everyone cheered and waved as it passed. As soon as the barriers went up the crowd started moving to yells of "GAME ON!!" 

The pack continued on and we started seeing the front runners on their way back. I was starting to feel a little tired, but I wasn't about to stop running now. We passed a local school, where everyone in the parade was lining up and they cheered us on.  There was one water stop at the turn around and everyone seemed to slow down to a crawl, but I wanted to keep moving. Plus, really? It's only a 5k. Passed the school again, this time there was a group playing Celtic music on a flatbed truck. That made me smile. :) 

The way back was actually kind of nice...You could see the big red inflatable finish line down the road so it gave me something to focus on. I felt like I could push a little more than I had been, so I picked up my pace and passed a few people that I had been running with since the train stop. 

Coming in to the finish!

The finish came along faster than I thought and I couldn't help but smile the last .25 mi!

I finished at 31:35 with a pace of 10:32...which is right about what I run on the treadmill! I ended up finishing at 170/318 overall and 28th out of my age group! So including the train stop, I probably did about 28 minutes in reality...so that's not too bad for my first race!

Crossing the finish line!

Happy to be done! ON TO THE NEXT!

I decided I wanted my first race to be a St. Patrick's Day race because years ago (I was probably 11 or 12) my dad talked me into doing a St. Paddy's Day kid's "fun" run, which I think was about a mile. I suffered through that thing so badly and it was ingrained in my mind for years and years that because of my experience at that race, that I would never be a runner and I couldn't run anything more than a mile without walking or stopping. Silly, I know...but that's what I got out of it.    So I'm pretty happy with the result of this one, and I'm excited to see how I do at the next 5k in April! 

For my first race and it being the first annual Lucky Dash, I have to say I liked this race. It was a simple course and everyone was in good spirits, despite the cold weather and the unexpected stop. Maybe I'll do it next year too! 

**Special thanks to Boyfriend (and friend of BF) for going with me and taking pictures!** 

If you race, what was your first? Why did you choose that particular race?

What is your favorite 5k to run?

If you don't run, do you think you might try a 5k sometime?