My First 5K Race - Recap with Pictures

The Sunset Shuffle, otherwise known as "the ice cream race" began at 7:15 p.m. this past Saturday. I was motivated and signed up for the race on National Running Day. My husband said that he would run with me and we were both excited to attend our first 5K.

When we arrived to the park, the weather was perfect! It was about 78 degrees with a slight breeze and cloudy skies. I saw a bunch of tents lined up as we pulled up to the park and I got so excited! When we went to the registration table, we received our numbers and our shirts. Since we arrived early, we had a little time to go back to the truck and take some pictures.

At 7:00 p.m. the kid's race began. All of the people who were participating in the 5K after the kids race lined up and cheered the kids on. It was so much fun to support them! Everyone was having fun and seemed so happy to be there! After the kids race, which lasted about 10 minutes, all of those who were participating in the 5K started to line up. My husband and I were in the middle of the crowd. Whenever the horn blew, everyone started to jog. It was a slow pace for a couple of minutes as everyone found their place on the trail. We passed some people and some people passed us. We ran for well over 1/4 mile until we hit our first incline. That's when we took a walking break. We alternated between running and jogging for the rest of the trail.

There was a time throughout the 2nd mile when I started to feel discouraged. I knew that I was racing against only myself, but it was hard to see some people lapping others. Whenever my husband brought it to my attention that there were people lapping others, I said "that's because they are runners". Thinking about that now, I don't know what I meant. Does that mean that we aren't runners, just because we weren't going as fast as the others? No way! We were running as much as we could. Rather, we were running as much as I could! My sweet husband stuck by my side the entire time. He could have finished the race much sooner than I, but he wanted to cross that finish line with me.


The sky was beautiful throughout the entire race!

 After a lot of sweat and tears, we were finally to the last 1/4 mile of the race. Since this was a "fun run" 5K, there was a DJ and food waiting across the finish line. As we got closer to the finish line we could hear the song playing through the speakers at the tents; it was "We Are Young" by Fun. My goal was to finish the race within 60 minutes and we knew we were cutting it close. We could barely see the timer as we started to run for the last time. Between the song (which is one of my favorites) and everyone clapping ahead at the finish line, I felt like I was on top of the world. My husband and I were running and he said "59 minutes. It says 59 minutes!" We started to run faster because I WANTED to pass the finish line before the timer hit 60 minutes. As we got closer and I could read the timer more clearly, I shouted to my husband "It says 51! It says 51!!" I started to cry when I realized that I met my goal before even crossing the finish line. Then, I looked to my husband and we started to laugh. I ran through the finish line at 51 minutes and 47 seconds. My husband finished one second behind me. There are no words to explain how accomplished I felt when we finished. We did it! We finished our first 5K race!

After we grabbed a bottle of water, we went back to the truck to grab the camera. After we took pictures, the arch in my foot felt like it was cramping. I sat down in the truck and tried to rub my foot. It was a pain I have never felt before. We had to sit at the truck for a good five minutes before I could walk back to the tents without (noticeably) limping. When we got back to the tents we were looking for the ice cream since this was known as "the ice cream run".

My husband was very disappointed to find that there was no ice cream left for us. Instead, there were pepperoni balls. We both grabbed one and sat in the grass to stretch. Sitting in the grass felt amazing. There was a raffle in which Nick's number got called. He got a sticker and we put it on his truck before we went home.

Our first 5K race was one that we will always remember. I can't wait until our next! I can definitely see why people get hooked to racing. Next time, I want to beat 51 minutes!