Three weekends, three races, and finally I’m feeling a little more like myself.

This past Sunday I ran a 5k in Colonie. I chose this race because there were kids races and activities and it looked like a fun fall activity for the family. The weather was gorgeous- a little warm for running purposes but perfect for spectators and kiddos to enjoy the day.

My warm up was a jog to the start line plus a little more, maybe a half mile total. So, when the race started I felt sluggish and slow, but I managed to find a pace that felt ok and stuck with it. My first mile was around 6:30, and I came through the two mile point at 13:06 (so a 6:36, yay math). I was struggling at this point but then realized “hey, you’re not sucking!” I knew I only had a mile left, and though part of me really wanted to stop and walk, the other part of me saw a woman up ahead who I could catch and that kept me going. So with about 1/4 mile left I summoned whatever fast twitch muscle fibers I could and was able to catch her and cross the line in 2nd place. My overall time was 20:30, so I did slow a little in the third mile (I didn’t take splits during the race, but guessing the last mile was around 6:42). Still a trend of getting slower each mile, but not nearly as dramatic as the 5k I ran 2 weeks ago.

Afterwards I met up with my family and got Emmaline ready for her race. She was really into it this time and ran almost the entire 1/4 mile by herself.

Running with Emmaline in the beginning of the kids race.

The last kids race she participated in was about the same distance around a baseball field and she got scared by the mascot so we had to carry her most of the way. (He scared me too).

All done!

So, what’s next? We’re doing a “biketoberfest” next weekend to raise money for ALS research, and taking a break from races for the week. Then the following week is the Mohawk Hudson River Half Marathon! I’m feeling a lot better about being able to complete the distance. Althogh my mileage is low, I did finally get in a longer run last weekend and am hoping to get in one more sometime this week. I recently joined Strava- if you want to follow my training as I attempt to come back from baby #2, here’s the link to my workout from today: workout 🙂