Greek Fest 5k

 

This past weekend was the Yiasou Greek Festival 5k that I decided to do at the last minute because it was just up the street from work and started early enough that I could still work after the race.

Uptown was gorgeous before the sun came out.  This is my favorite building.  Since I’m a parent with no night life, I don’t get to see it lit up very often.  This was the best pic I could get while driving.

I parked at the store (Run For Your Life) and walk/jogged a mile up the road to the race start to pick up my timing chip.  It was a really small 5k so there wasn’t a ton going on.  I got there a little earlier than expected and did a lot of this…

I’m not pissed, just chill’n.

The Yiasou Greek Festival, which happens in another week, is hosted by the Greek Orthodox Church, so the race starts and ends in front of the church.

There was priest out running as well.  He was number 1 so I assume he does it every year.

The actual race was an incredible one for me.  I ran it in 28:05:40 which is a new PR for me!!!!  It’s an average of 9 min miles, but since I have a new toy to play with I can tell you my actual splits.  You may be able to tell from this info that I went out a little too fast and lost a lot of steam at the end.

Mile 1- 8:05

Mile 2- 8:58

Mile 3- 9:22

I didn’t have a plan prior to the race except to run hard and see what happens.  Knowing my splits actually makes me really excited.  If I could hold a 9 min pace for the first two miles and then kick it up for the last mile, I might be able to get an even better time!  Oh, the possibilities!  Also, knowing that I can run even 1 mile in 8 minutes and keep an average 9 min pace is very exciting.  It gives me a lot of hope that I can keep an 11 min pace over the course of 26 miles.

After the race, I walk/jogged the mile back to work.  During the race there was a blind guy that I was neck-n-neck with until I lost steam at the end and he blew by me.  He was the first blind runner that I’ve ever seen without a guide runner.  He just used one of those long sticks.  There was a lady with a camera fallowing him the entire way.  After the race he came into the store with more people with cameras.  Apparently they were filming a documentary about him and he shops at our store frequently.  He had come in a few days earlier to by a hydrations belt, but since he didn’t have a camera crew with him then, they cam back to recreate the scene.  I was the clerk who was to help him and pretend that the cameras weren’t there.  I had to sign a waiver and everything. 

It was a very interesting day to say the least.

(This post will not be proof read for missing words, grammatical errors, ect.  It was kind of a long post, and I just don’t feel like reading over all of it again.  What does it say when you don’t want to re-read your own post?)

Tread it up