Running the Jelly Bean

Today was "race day".  I had decided with my new run schedule of Mon-Tues-Wed+Fri, that since Wednesday was the only day of a scheduled 5K that Wednesday would be the day I would run my 5K for the Jelly Bean Virtual Race.  But this week changed in that instead of running 4 miles on Monday, I only ran 5K, so I also ran 5K yesterday to make up for the missed mile on Monday.  My time for yesterday (31:42) was awesome and I was super proud of that 5K.  I almost used it for my race entry, not that time really matters on this one, winners will be random.  But I planned to race on Wednesday so Wednesday it would be.

Last night I laid out all my clothes to get up and head outside for a morning run on race day.  At 5:00 a.m. it would be dark and cold so I put out the cold weather gear and went to bed.  Then laid awake for awhile thinking about running in the cold, dark morning and how the boogie man might also be out and that I don't have enough reflective clothing, I don't have a Road ID, I don't have a flashing light, and I don't even have any mace!  Visions of badness were dancing in my head!  When my alarm went off this morning, I couldn't do it.  I could not head out to the dark cold armed with nothing to keep me safe.  But I was determined to do the race outside so I decided to postpone until after work--sometimes an unsafe plan.  Luckily  today I had a few things working for me in that we had no event because my son is "benched" with his stitches, and although my husband still had to go and coach the game, I had a neighbor who could help me out with by watching my son.  So as soon as I got home I headed out.

Thank goodness for Forrest!  I was watching my pace and was a little (a lot) amazed with myself because it was consistently under 10 minutes per mile!  Me!  I planned my usual 5K route, it's the one that includes the big icky hill, and even with that my finish time was 30:30!! 

That is my fastest 5K to date!  And I am stoked because it wasn't on the treadmill, it was outside on a hilly route.

Here's my official Jelly Bean entry:

This "race" made me think of a few things (don't we all love bullets?):

• First, I cannot keep that pace for an entire 12K which is the distance of my race coming up.  I need to figure out how to pace myself better and start off slower.  If I get to about 8K and feel awesome, then I can push it, but not right out of the gate. 
• Second, pain is temporary!  Duh, we all know this, but sometimes during my training runs I don't push myself when I really should.  My "long" runs on Fridays have not been that long, and I am running out of Fridays!  I must push myself to complete at least 10K this Friday. 
• Third, I really prefer running in the morning because my bladder is emptier.  I really think I'm gonna have to see a doctor about these issues.  I guess it is common for women to have bladder issues after having big babies, and although I only had one baby, he weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds, 12 ounces!  I never really had problems before I started running, well occasionally if I laughed or sneezed, but it seems the faster I want to run, the more my bladder doesn't want to cooperate.  And maybe it's not the bladder itself, but other parts, parts which will remain unnamed as this is already headed into TMI territory.
• Fourth, there really aren't any vegetables that I love eating.  Wha?  Why am I thinking about vegetables when running? Well, I was trying to plan dinner while I was out there and realized I should add some veggies, and that led me to think about what kinds we have and what kinds I wish we had, and I came up with the fact that I just really don't love any particular veggies.  And that's a little sad.  I mean there's some I will eat, and definitely some I prefer more than others, but if I never had to eat another one, I wouldn't miss them.

So there you have it, my Jelly Bean race recap.  I don't think it's too late to enter and Jess has lined up fabulous prizes.  Head on over and check it out if you're interested (here).  If not, you should still check out her blog because she's an awesome running mommy!

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Today's workout:
5K in 30:30