Third Place Baby!!!!

Saturday morning I ran a 5K at the beach next to our house, Topsail Beach. It was a summer kick off run and helps raise money for beautification of the beaches. The 5k's I have previously ran have all been pretty big numbers, and I keep forgetting we live in a really small town now, so the turn out for the race was let's say on the small side. There were probably in total no more than 40 people running. When I saw this I was a little nervous, as I didn't want to be the last one finishing....and there were some younger runners. I kept laughing telling Chris this might be a little embarrassing....but maybe it was what gave me motivation.

Me and the girls on one of the piers before the race started.

The first mile was actually on the beach and then we got off the beach and ran the last part on the road. I have never ran on sand and I can tell you it is a lot harder than it look. It took a lot out of me in that first mile. I honestly felt like my legs were going to just refuse to go any further.



So I said my motivation was not to finish last...well somewhere during this race my motivation became that I didn't want to let a 25 year old beat me out of coming in third place. I started out being the lead for female in the race and stayed in fourth the last half of the race. I was pacing behind a girl the last mile and half of the race. She knew I wasn't far behind because every time I got close to passing her she would see my shadow on the road and would speed up a little to get more distance. So I decided to keep my pace until I could see the finish line and then I would just give it all I have so I could pass her and try to come in third. Shameful I know, but I just didn't want to get beat by a 25 year old.

The last 10th of a mile I started sprinting. The girl in front of me didn't know I was coming up behind her until her friends on the side started yelling "RUN, RUN". So we both were sprinting to the finish line. I literally gave it everything I had and ended up coming in third. My time was 36:35. After I crossed the finish line I felt like I could die. Sprinting like that probably not the best thing to do....but my girls were so proud. They were cheering like crazy at the finish line for me.

Here I am trying to catch my breath and really just want to lay down on the ground for awhile.
My trophy......I would never come in third on a big 5K race but I will take my 3rd place small town win. I was proud that I hung in there and was able to still keep by 12 min pace after slacking on my running for the past few months.