Fitness Friday #9: Get Pumped for Pets 5k Race

I’ve officially run my first race of the 2015 season!

I participated in the “Get Pumped for Pets” 5k on Kent Narrows.

This was my first race since March 2014. I took almost a year off from races (and from consistent running, really).

I’m back for 2015, and already have at least two more races scheduled (one is the ZOOMA 10k race on May 30), with many more pending.

This was a cold and icy one. It snowed just days before the race (we even had a day off work), and much of the path for this race is under shade trees, on the Cross Island Trail.

I repped ZOOMA with my running tank top (over so many layers). When we left Chestertown, it was 10 degrees.

Even with the threat of an icy course, there were so many runners to support the Animal Rescue Foundation. It was great to see so many people, and even some familiar faces.

Even more, I love having my own private cheering section! Johnny is the best race supporter. Standing in the freezing cold just so I could run?! That’s love.

Even though the course was a little icy, I still flew – my final time was 27:24.

Toward the end, as we came across the first/last wooden bridge on the Cross Island Trail, I came behind a young boy who kept starting and stopping with running. Knowing we had less than a quarter mile to go, I came up next to him and said “let’s go; almost there!” and he seemed grateful for the encouragement.

I ran the rest of the way with him, pushing him to run a little faster (he definitely had the ability to) toward the end. We sprinted together the last tenth of a mile and finished the race together. You can sort of see him to my right here, just under the finish sign:

This was a fun, easy 5k race to help me get back into race training and running! My ‘go-to’ distance seems to be 4 miles. I’ll get up and run 2 miles away from the house, which means I have 2 miles to return home. I like it!

Here’s to more running in 2015.