Mile 1: Pretty uneventful. Settled in to my slowpoke pace and watched the pack disappear in front of me. Was able to run the first mile without too much trouble. Walked the aid station b/c I couldn't figure out how to run and drink at the same time. Could barely walk and drink! This is the first race i've done without carrying my water bottle with me. It was nice not to have to deal with it but i missed the little squirty top.
Split: ~11:30

Mile 2: Mile 2 was rough! A lot of it was mental. Mile 1 is ok b/c there's still the adrenaline from the start, and when I hit mile 3 I know it's my last one, but it was just mentally hard to stay focused and not walk through mile 2. I did pretty well for the first half mile but then hit a really long uphill. It wasn't steep but it just kept going. I was definitely feeling it but just kept telling myself as soon as I get to the top I'd be ok. Well I got to the top and the course turned the corner on to an even steeper hill so I said screw it, gave up my goal of running the whole thing and walked up the hill. About 2 min. of walking there. Was able to finish the rest of the mile running though.
Split: ~12:00

On the long hill I happened to make eye contact w/a guy about my pace whose face had a look of pain just like what I felt. I said something to him about how much longer this hill seems when running it. He agreed..we talked briefly and it turns out it was both of our first attempts to run a full 5k. (Which neither of us managed to do...we both ended up walking some). I talked to him after the race and it turns out he lives in my building. How crazy is that??!! Out of the bazillion ppl out there the one guy I end up talking to lives in my building, 2 floors below me! Crazy.

Mile 3: Starting back into the park. I run in this park 3-4 times/week. I know this park! I own this park! At least that's what I was thinking to myself at the start of this mile. Of course I usually run on the nice little dirt trail, not the road. Turns out the hills on the road are much more intense than on the dirt. I should've known that. I should've done a better job of checking out the course beforehand. I've biked this road a lot but haven't really paid attention from a running perspective. I did ok until I again came around a corner and saw a hugely steep hill. There was a volunteer there saying "you're almost there!" and I said "ha that's what they were saying a mile ago!" He said "well you really are this time" so I tried to keep running up the hill. I made it through most of it but ended up walking the top part of it. Felt a little silly when I got to the top because the finish line was literally right there. Just right down a little hill. I ended up with enough energy for a sprint to the finish.

Definitely should've known the course better. i haven't paid much attention to running courses in the past because i've walked so much it hasn't really mattered. Now that I'm running more it's more important. It would've really helped to have known what to expect.

They were giving out bottled water at the end but no food. How do I keep signing up for races that have no food at the end?? Grrr.

Plopped down under a tree to catch my breath and stretch, then went back to the finish line to cheer on the runners still coming in. I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was I not DFL but there were actually still ppl finishing more than 10 minutes behind me! Yay! (Ok there I go again celebrating ppl sucking more than I do...lol) It was fun cheering them on though. Met up with the guy I had met on the course and talked to him for a while. Went to the first aid tent to get band-aids b/c my blisters were killing me.

I was feeling a bit down because I hadn't been able to run the whole thing, which had been my single goal going in. It wasn't until hours later that I realized my time had been a PR by more than 2 full minutes! So I'm definitely improving but still have a long ways to go.

Later went out to lunch w/a friend and ate all sorts of yummy junk...just to be sure I didn't lose any weight from running! ;)


Lack of run training in general and specifically lack of practice on hills.


This event seemed really disorganized, which was sad to me since it's the major fundraiser for the Colorado AIDS Project and this was it's 20th year. I just hate to see it going downhill. It was soooo much better run 3 years ago when I did the walk. It wasn't bad but there were lots of little issues...no one knew quite where the run start was and they moved us a few times, the run start was so far from the stage that we couldn't see or hear any of the opening ceremonies, there was no food at the end (they had really good food last time I did it), the finish area expo was so spread out that it required quite a hike to get between tents...not what i wanted to do after running 3 miles...not to mention half the tents were empty. It just seemed like the date had snuck up on them or something and the organizers just weren't ready. Hopefully this was just a 1-year issue because it is usually a really awesome event.