Today Was My 5K!! :)

So, today was the last long Saturday run of the training session, and I have had a good week, so I was hopeful that I could pull off a good run this morning. The last time I tried this, you may remember, I had a bout of shin splints just about halfway through, and I had to walk most of the second half.

On Thursday morning, I was able to run my entire 2.3 mile neighborhood loop with two 1.5 minute walks up what we call "heartbreak hill." The weather was very unsettled, and I ran through a double rainbow on Holly Branch, which was VERY cool!

My new Running Club shirt

It was a great run, so I was pretty pumped about running the Run the Quay 5K course that we've all been training for. It was the last test run on the course before they all run the actual race next weekend. For me, it WAS my 5K, since I probably won't be able to run it next weekend since I'm the race organizer. So, my goal this morning was to run the whole thing, or as much of it as humanly possible. I haven't run 3.2 miles yet in my training, so I knew it would be a stretch for me, and I was worried about the shin splints reoccurring.

I stretched this time, and walked to warm up for about 2 minutes, and when we started off, I ran much slower to start with than last time. Amazingly enough, I only had to walk twice for one minute each time to stretch my hamstrings which had started to tighten up. My shins hinted at issues, but pain never really materialized. I ran up all three major hills, which I had never done before, and I finished the course in 35:58!! I was so excited! It's been an awesome day and I'm so very glad I embarked on this journey two months ago! I still have to find a 5K to get an official time in, but now I know I can do it and it won't kill me! Hmmm..... which one should I do?? :)