5K Personal Best...complete with BEER

I have these crazy ass friends who think it's cute to run half marathons a week after a marathon, and they tried (and failed) to get me to sign up for the Shiner Beer Run Half Marathon on December 16. On December 9 I ran the BCS Marathon, and no way in the world would I run a half marathon just a week later, knowing I'd be running 7 or 8 miles with my training group on December 15.

I told them I'd go to the race and cheer them on, but then decided since there was a 5K option I'd go ahead and sign up for that. It wasn't going to be a pretty 5K but it would give me something to do while I waited for them to finish the half. And I'd get the goodies...and the beer...I just couldn't resist.

Greg decided to register for the 5K as well and since my parents would be in town, we didn't have to worry about childcare and could enjoy a day to ourselves. A little road trip, exercise, beer, and bling with no kiddos...sounds good to us!

I ran on Saturday the 15th without incident. It was my first run since the marathon and I felt pretty good, although a bit fatigued still. My goal was to just feel good the next day for the 5K, maybe run a bit under 30 minutes, but definitely not race it. My PR was 24:00 and I had no intention of shooting for that time.

I discovered while getting my running things together that I didn't have my Garmin charger. I must have left it at the hotel room in College Station. Not a big deal...I wasn't racing the 5K so I didn't really care what my pace or time was for the race. I'd just race without it. I did a 10K race once without my Garmin and I loved having that freedom.

The temps were going to be a big warm and humid. As we were driving the 2 hours to Shiner, all it did was pour rain on us, complete with thunder and lightning. The weather models were showing the storm would ease up by race time at 8:30am, but it didn't look pretty at all. I wondered if they'd have to cancel the race, but knew they'd wait until right up until race time to make that decision, or they'd delay it knowing the rain would ease up. By the time we got to the race, it was still raining, but definitely was a lot lighter. We got our packets and chilled out in the car until race time got closer. I couldn't reach my half marathon friends, Adam and Lesley, who were already there. Tricia was a little delayed, but on her way.

Just arrived at the brewery in the drizzle

As soon as the rain stopped, at about 8am, we headed to the start area and finally found everyone. It didn't look like it would start raining again, which was great, but wow it was HUMID. Not quite as warm as marathon race day, but every bit as humid. Adam is from Arizona, and although he's an exceptional runner (1:29 half marathon PR) I was a little worried about how his body would handle the high humidity. Lesley had run the Dallas Marathon the week before and would be using this as a good training run. Tricia decided not to run after all because she was not feeling well, but she was there with her family ready to cheer everyone on.

As we're waiting for the race to start I realized Greg and I didn't even warm up. Usually for a 5K I'll do about a half mile to a mile warm up jog just to get my legs loose. Oops...didn't do that.

The gun went off and I just started running. I knew I was going at a decent pace, but I felt fine. It was only 3 miles and all of a sudden I got a wild hair to just RUN. I could run well for 3 miles surely. No Garmin to tell me just how fast it was, so I used how my body felt to gauge the right pace.

I was perfectly comfortable running whatever pace I was running, so I just got into a rhythm and maintained it. As a man was running by using a running app on his iPhone I heard the app speak the distance, time, and pace...we were right at 8 minute pace. Sounded good to me.

As we neared the turnaround (this was an out and back course), I saw Greg in about 10th place and yelled to him. He looked really really great, probably running about 6:30-6:45 pace. I counted a few women, but it wasn't very many. I knew I had started towards the front of the pack but I still expected to see more women in front of me.

I felt absolutely great at the turnaround and knew I could maintain the pace I was running for another 1.5 miles. I figured maybe I'd be running a 25 minute 5K, which would thrill me for it being only a week after a marathon. I passed a couple women and a whole lot of men, which just made me run faster. And I saw adorable Lesley in her Santa socks...LOVE!

At the 2.5 mile marker, I definitely started feeling the effects of the humidity. Plus, the sun came out and was glaring badly on the wet asphalt. A few more minutes of this and it would be all over, but I still didn't feel all that bad considering. I had more in me, but didn't want to push it.

As I came over the bridge in the last 10th of a mile I heard the announcer calling off the time...we were under 23 minutes. SAY WHAT?? I was running a 23 minute 5K??

I crossed the finish line in 23:16, which was a chip time of 23:09. A PR for me. A week after a marathon.

OOOOOKKKAAAAYYYY.....

The official results placed me in 1st place in my age group (out of 41), 6th overall woman (out of 268), and 34th overall (out of 463 total runners). I've never won my age group in a 5K before.

1st place!

Another 1st place! Hahns rule! 

Greg also PR'd, with a 20:03 and won his age group as well. Basically it was a good day for the Hahns.

We hung out and waited for Adam and Lesley to finish their races. Adam felt like he had a bad race, but he still came in at 1:30 and 14th overall. Lesley had some difficulty but didn't push herself to exhaustion (smart) and had a very solid race. Plus she was way too adorable and really, that's all that counts.

Trisha, me, and Lelsey

Four Shiner beers per runner, some food, and some age group award bling and we were all having a very good time indeed. My doubts over signing up for this race quickly disappeared. I felt pretty damn awesome.

Maybe I should run more 5K's.