I had a great time. It was a little cool at the beginning but the sun was out so I warmed up pretty quick. I lined up about mid-pack (lots of walkers in this and I wanted to try to get ahead of them). I was kind of surprised at the turnout since this was the first year for this run and it really wasn't heavily promoted. St Louis was also having their St Patrick's day run this morning, so I thought that might take away from the turnout but it didn't seem to.

I went into this race with 2 goals - to not walk and to finish in under 50 minutes. I met one goal. I started out OK, but the hill right around the first mile marker got the better of me. I don't usually have to walk that early in a race so I figured it wasn't going to be a good day. Fortuntately, it was my only problem. Once I got past that, I settled into a nice pace and did well through the rest of the race.

As I was coming in to the finish, I could see the clock and was surprised that it said 48:xx. I had worn my Garmin but never looked at it during the race. At that point I knew I was going to at least make my time goal. I know 50 min probably seems slow to all of people but for someone who normally runs 12-12:30 min/miles, finishing in under 50 mins is a major accomplishment! And I did it!

I definitely need to work on hill training!

Got a couple of girl scout cookies and a fruit smoothie (made from banana, strawberry, and papaya - it was good!), then walked the 1/2 mile back to my car and headed to the gym for my yoga class.