First 5K: Hotter Friday Night 5K

This past Friday, July 19, I ran my first 5K of the 30x30 Challenge.  It look place by the Oklahoma River near downtown Oklahoma City at 8 p.m.  So it was appropriately named the Hotter Friday Night 5K.  (This was part of a "Sizzlin' Summer Series," so the Hot Friday Night 5K was in June and the Hottest Friday Night 5K is in August.)  Of the series, I think this is the only race I'm going to run, mostly because I have plans to participate in some other 5K races instead.

Anyway, my husband and I originally planned on running this race together, but some other stuff came up, so my friend Pam was more than happy to jump in and take his place.  And I was excited to run another race with her!  (Pam and I were on the same relay team at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon this past April, so it was fun to do another event with her.)  So after picking her up around 7 p.m., we made the quick drive around downtown to get to the park.  And Pam laughed hysterically at this:

That's right; I'm too cheap (and lazy) to update the map on my GPS, so it thinks we're in the middle of nowhere, even though we're on the busiest stretch of I-40 right by downtown Oklahoma City.  Good thing Pam knew for sure where we were going!

In general, the race was good.  Since I was with Pam, who is a much faster and longer distance runner than me, we got a spot close to the starting line.  And when the gun went off, so did Pam!  Within a few seconds, she was out of sight, so I worked on setting a comfortable pace and (literally) taking things one step at a time.  After about the first mile, my awareness of the heat really hightened.  (It was about 95 degrees, which is actually about 10 degrees cooler than it was at the same race last year.  Not that I was crazy enough to run that one!)  As I approached the halfway point, I felt really yucky - that is, until I saw that the clock read 13 minutes and 30 seconds.  That was about two minutes earlier than I expected it to be!  So I tried to keep up my speed, just thinking about my previous time (32 minutes and 20 seconds) that I wanted to beat.  Of course, the second part of the run was more difficult than the first part, but at least the sun was no longer in my eyes and I had a beautiful view of the Oklahoma City skyline. 

And to my surprise, I crossed the finish line with a time of 30 minutes and 42 seconds!

Pam finished about seven minutes before me, which I guess was actually a fairly crummy time for her.  (I'm telling you, people, this girl is FAST!)  But she was very happy for me and my new PR.

I think the second 5K I'm going to run will be on August 10 with my husband and possibly some other friends.  My goal for that one is to get my time below 30 minutes, so wish me luck!