Red Kettle Run 5K 10/30/10

Normally I would save all my running/fitness posts for my FITNESS BLOG
but this past Saturday was just too good NOT to share! =)
I ran my 3rd 5K this past Saturday. The Red Kettle Run 5K was put on by the local Salvation Army. It was the first year for them to do this race and entry fee was 10 cans of food or $10. Being that it was the first year, I didnt really expect there to be alot of people but WOW! I am thinking at least 500 if not more.
Hubby ran this race with me too, his first race ever. He is pretty athletic and in shape and ran this like it was BARELY a jog while I was huffing and puffing like an overweight hog.
ANYWAY.
He really helped me to push the pace in this race. My 'soft' goal was to beat my first 5K time (Aug28) of 32:19. Second goal was to beat 30:00 and HARD goal was to beat my 5K time from the Race for the Cure on Oct 3 which was 29:00.
Honestly, as I was running, I didnt think I was going fast enough to even break 30 minutes. I was SO sure that I wasnt going to beat my Race for the Cure time until next Spring.
So....we are on the final stretch, but I couldnt see where the finishline was and didnt know how much farther we had. Hubby asked if I wanted to pick up the pace and I said no as I didnt know how much farther we had and I was BARELY sustaining the pace I was going at, at that time.
Well, we rounded a bend and a bunch of trees and I saw the finishline and finish clock about 50 yds ahead which said 27 minutes and some odd seconds. I could NOT believe my eyes!! So I put on the rockets and blasted thru to the finish and finished up in 27:30!!! TWENTY SEVEN MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS!!!! I still can NOT believe that my times have come down so much since my first 5K at the end of August.!!
Anyway, I am so convinced that it was because the hubs really helped to push me along =)
The gal in the picture is my friend Keely who I met on Daily Mile (like a Facebook for fitness, basically) and whom I finally got to meet in person at this race. I hope she and I can meet up at more races in the future.
It's so funny...at about the beginning of September, I was wondering when I would be able to run a 10 minute mile, and here I ran THREE POINT ONE miles at a pace of 8:52 per mile!!!!!
I was on a runner's high that WHOLE day and even now, 2 days later, I am STILL smiling when I think about it =)